World Full Year 2012: Discover the Top 1000 best-selling models!

The Toyota Corolla kept its crown in 2012, but just. Will the 2013 model (concept above) save it again this year?

* NOW UPDATED with the Top 1000 best-selling models! Click on title to see *

Finally it is here! Thanks to the hard work of Austin Rutherford the much anticipated models ranking worldwide for 2012 is now available. And this year I have a surprise for you: improving on the Top 100 models I gave you for the Full Year 2011, I am now introducing an all-new Top 1000 worldwide models ranking for 2012! Yes you read right, Top 1000, well Top 937 actually as there are not enough models in the world to make a Top 1000… Now that’s a big jump! Nowhere else will you find this information.

Its tremendous success in China nearly pushed the Ford Focus to #1 worldwide in 2012…

More detailed sales data for the Toyota Corolla means the Auris, Matrix and Rumion were all shed, so we have a sales figure for the Corolla sedan worldwide spanning 3 generations (IX still on sale in China, X on sale worldwide, and XI on sale in Japan). It was a tight race with the Ford Focus, which has the benefit of hatchback, station wagon and sedan versions spanning two generations. Corolla leads once more with 1,097,132 sales vs. 1,036,683 for the Focus, showing the impact the Chinese market had this year: the Islands row disadvantaged the Corolla sales while the Focus brilliantly took the Passenger Car crown in extremis at the end of the year…

The Hyundai Elantra makes it 3 compact cars on the worldwide podium in 2012…

In an outstanding third place we find the Hyundai Elantra with 829,192 sales spanning 3 generations and helped by the launch of the new gen in China this year. The Toyota Camry ranks 4th at 797,466 units including the Aurion which is in essence the Chinese and Russian Camry, while the Ford F-Series rounds up the Top 5 with 785,028 sales, followed by the Chevrolet Cruze at 784,014 units, however both only relying one one single generation.

The Toyota Camry (Russian version pictured) is #4 in the world this year

The VW Passat is #7, ahead of the Nissan Tiida/Versa/Sunny. Nissan has not been kind to us stat fans by naming their models completely differently in separate regions and not replacing them with their logical successors. It’s a mess: in Australia for example, the new Sylphy and 2nd gen Tiida are both called Pulsar while the Versa sedan is named Almera… So I’ve done my best to keep it simple in the ranking but it’s not perfect.

The Chevrolet Cruze ranks 6th in 2012.

One notch below we find the VW Golf at #9, Ford Fiesta and the VW Polo/Vento. This might look like a low ranking for the Golf but this year the Golf Plus was stripped out, and also remember the Jetta (#18) is in effect its sedan version, with both models adding up to almost 1.3 million sales worldwide.

The Honda CR-V is the best-selling SUV in the world in 2012

Other notable appearances in the Top 20 include the Toyota Hilux at #15 with 637,706 units, the Honda CR-V best-selling SUV in the world thanks to the new gen at #16 and 635,256 sales, the Suzuki Swift boosted by the huge success in India of both its hatchback and sedan (DZire) versions at #19 and 532.462 units and the Wuling Sunshine #1 Chinese vehicle at #20 with 523,724 sales.

If your vehicle made the best-selling car list, consider using it to obtain funding through title loans in Ohio!

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Full Year 2012 Top 1000 Ranking Table below.