Top 10 Best -Selling Cars: October 2009

It seems all eyes are on the U.S. auto industry today as October sales figures roll in. Sales for the month were positive for many automakers, but none were more important than the 4% gain posted by General Motors. This is the company’s first positive figure in 21 months. Not only that, but they did it while carrying four essentially dead brands. Sales increased by 11.6% at GM’s four core brands — Buick, Cadillac, Chevy and GMC.

On the flip side, Chrysler can’t seem to stop the bleeding. Its sales were down 30% from October 2008.

Does the change of fortunes for the brands alter the top 10 list? Not by much. There is some reshuffling, though, with the Chevy Silverado getting a good boost. However, seven of the top 10 are either a Honda or Toyota.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: August 2009

Cash for Clunkers pushed car sales up in August, way up. Automakers like Toyota, Honda and Ford saw sales increase by  10.5%, 14.2% and 17%, respectively, but others like GM, Chrysler and Nissan couldn’t hold off losses of 20.2%, 15% and 2.9%, respectively. The automaker pecking order also changed with Nissan — including Infiniti — and Hyundai/Kia both surpassing Chrysler in terms of total sales. Chrysler is now the seventh-largest automaker in the U.S.

Which cars made the top 10 for August? Well, Cash for Clunkers led to a huge spike in sales of our usual suspects like the Toyota Camry and Honda Civic. Even the Ford F-Series had a strong month. Check out the list below to see if there were any surprises. 

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: July 2009

The first — and possibly only — sales month that includes sales directly derived from the Cash for Clunkers program shook up the top 10 from months past. Oh, sure, the Ford F-Series is still numero uno, but the Focus compact also made the list thanks to the Clunker program.

Other surprises are the Toyota Prius. Yes, it’s all-new, but even with gas prices nearly $1.50 less than they were a year ago, the efficient hybrid had a record month of sales, placing it just inside the Top 10. Perhaps people paid attention to our picks for the best ways to spend your Cash for Clunkers money.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: June 2009

In June, we saw overall car sales rebound slightly from months of economic slowdown. However, June 2008 was when sales started to plummet, which makes the year-over-year difference with June 2009 numbers look more positive. So the fact that Ford saw sales tick down just 10% isn’t as great as it may sound. On the flip side, Honda’s and Toyota’s 30% sales dive isn’t necessarily as bad as it looks due to huge spikes in sales of their popular, fuel-efficient models last June.

Overall, the top 10 list didn’t change much from recent months. The biggest news is that the Dodge Ram is off the list despite being recently redesigned. Even the Honda Odyssey outsold it (though it didn’t make the top 10 either).  

Ford has the most vehicles on the list with three, including the returning champion F-Series trucks. The Fusion sedan is back for another month, and the Escape SUV returns as well.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: May 2009

It seems that low gas prices are fueling truck sales, as the two best-selling vehicles are once again full-size pickups. However, the Dodge Ram, usually a staple of this top 10 list, has fallen off, just barely beaten out by the Ford Escape. Ford had three of the top 10 best-sellers, including a sales record for the Fusion; the redesigned sedan seems to be attracting shoppers.

While sales for nearly every brand were down, GM, Ford and Hyundai stayed competitive, seeing sales losses of 29%, 25.5% and 20% from last May, respectively. That’s competitive when you compare them to Chrysler, Toyota and Honda, which saw mind-boggling falls of 47%, 39.7% and 38%. Of course, Honda and Toyota were setting sales records at this time last year, so their negatives are a bit higher than you'd expect.  

Check out the full top 10 below:

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: April 2009

This month sees a big change to the top 10. As pent-up demand led to slightly less-awful car sales in April, sedans took control of the top 10. The Honda Accord unseated Ford’s F-Series trucks to take the top spot, and the Ford Fusion had its best sales month ever. Even in these tough times for the auto industry, there are glimmers of hope to be had.

March 2009: Top 10 Best-Selling Cars

The usual suspects are back for March’s list of the 10 best-selling cars, trucks and SUVs in America. The most significant mover is the Chevy Malibu, which moved from No. 10 to No. 9. The Honda Accord also moved up past the Toyota Corolla, but it’s often that high on the list. March is typically the month when car sales ramp up for the calendar year.

While overall sales were down for most manufacturers, losses weren’t as bad as they were in February. GM was down 45% in March 2009 versus March 2008, but that’s better than the 52% decline it saw in February 2009 versus February 2008. The same can be said for Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Toyota and Honda. Nissan did see a slightly worse sales decline in March, down 37.7% versus March 2008 compared to a 37.1% dip between February 2008 and 2009 sales.

The top 10 vehicles list is below.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars in February

February was another tough sales month, with almost all manufacturers seeing major slides in sales compared to February 2008. Again, the domestics — GM, Ford and Chrysler — saw sales drop 52.9%, 48.4% and 44%, respectively. Imports like Mitsubishi, Toyota, Nissan and Honda saw sales fall 50.8%, 37.3%, 37.1% and 35.4%, respectively.

The only positives came from Subaru and Kia, which were up just 1% and 0.4%, respectively.

The best-selling cars and trucks remained relatively unchanged from last month, with strong showings by Toyota’s Camry and Nissan’s Altima. The Chevy Malibu also had a very strong month, even managing to crack the top 10. The full list is below.

Best-Selling Cars of January 2009

This month was another tough one for the automotive industry. Most automakers saw huge losses in sales, with a huge chunk of the damage coming from fleet sales. GM, which saw a nearly 80% loss in fleet sales, watched those numbers drop to their lowest level since 1975. Chrysler, GM and Ford saw significant sales losses in January of 55%, 49% and 39%, respectively. Toyota, Honda and Nissan were also down 34%, 30% and 29.7%, respectively.

On a positive note, brands including Subaru, Hyundai and Kia saw sales increase.

So what were regular people buying? The same top sellers they always have. Few new entries broke into the top 10, other than the Chevy Malibu. The Chevy Impala, however, fell out of the top 10 thanks to those low fleet-sales numbers. And again, trucks were big sellers.

The Top 10 Best-Selling Cars of 2008

The final chapter on 2008 has now closed, as automakers reported their final sales figures today. We’ll break out some of the biggest winners and losers of the year in a separate post, but first we wanted to put together the final list of 2008’s best-selling cars, SUVs and trucks.

Even after sky-high gas prices and an economic meltdown, the top performers haven’t really changed. Trucks like the Ford F-Series and Chevy Silverado still outperformed any car on the market. And besides the long-running economy car picks of the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, there weren’t any tiny, fuel-sipping cars on the list.

We also list the top car sales for the month of December, where the biggest move was made by the Chevy Malibu: It’s now the No. 3 midsize sedan on the market behind the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, besting Nissan Altima sales by a whopping 44 units.