Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: December 2012

Cliff, shmiff. Holiday shoppers brushed aside concerns about impending fiscal doom (which Congress averted, sort of) to drive new-car sales to their best December since 2007. Pickups trucks remained atop December's sales pyramid, with Chrysler's Ram trucks moving up a notch. That's typical for the month, especially amid a sustained recovery for the truck-reliant construction industry.

On the car side, Santa left Honda a nice present under the tree. A substantially restyled 2013 Honda Civic sedan hit dealerships in November and sales for the nameplate shot up 61.2% in December; it secured Honda's workhorse compact the title of America's best-selling car for the second month in a row. The Toyota Camry held the spot for the first 10 months of the year.

In fact, Honda sales overall shot up 26.2% over an inventory-strapped December 2011, thanks to strong demand for the Civic and redesigned Accord — two models that regularly account for nearly half of the automaker's sales. Toyota gained 9% while Nissan fell 1.6% as its redesigned Altima dropped 7.7%. The Altima boasts impressive EPA mileage, but drivability and cabin issues left the car in last place in Cars.com's $26,000 Midsize Sedan Showdown.

Most-Read Car Reviews of the Week

The 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek must've been awfully good this year, as the crossover will spend the Christmas holiday atop Cars.com's most-read reviews list for its sixth straight week. Newcomers to the list this week include the 2013 Toyota RAV4, the 2013 Toyota Avalon and the 2013 Cadillac XTS.

Check out what else was popular this week:

• 1. 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek
• 2. 2013 Toyota RAV4
• 3. 2013 Nissan Pathfinder
• 4. 2013 Toyota Avalon
• 5. 2013 Ford Focus ST
• 6. 2013 Ford Escape
• 7. 2013 Nissan Altima
• 8. 2013 Cadillac XTS
• 9. 2013 Ford Fusion
• 10. 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In

Most-Read Car Reviews of the Week

Still unwilling to share the spotlight after five consecutive weeks, the 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek yet again nabs the No. 1 spot among Cars.com's most-read reviews this week. Another familiar face, the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder, enjoys its second straight week in the runner-up position. Meanwhile, it's worth noting that Ford occupies nearly half the list with the 2013 Escape, Focus ST, Fusion and Explorer.

Check out what else was popular this week:

• 1. 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek
• 2. 2013 Nissan Pathfinder
• 3. 2013 Audi A4
• 4. 2013 Ford Escape
• 5. 2013 Ford Focus ST
• 6. 2013 Acura RDX
• 7. 2013 Nissan Altima
• 8. 2013 Ford Fusion
• 9. 2013 Ford Explorer
• 10. 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In

Cars.com Reviews the 2013 Mitsubishi Lancer

The 2013 Mitsubishi Lancer GT has aggressive styling, but its looks are getting dated. It has passing power and sporty handling, but it's a rough, noisy ride. You might snag one at a discount, but you'll pay more at the pump. Cars.com reviewer Joe Bruzek wants to like this compact sedan, but despite its fun-to-drive factor, the Lancer GT is far too unrefined to choose over superior competitors in the class, like the Mazda3 and Ford Focus. Until this sedan gets an overdue refresh, it's strictly for those interested in style over substance on the relative cheap.

2013 Mitsubishi Lancer Review

NHTSA Adds Six Models to Five-Star Award List

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a crop of new crash-test scores for several all-new or recently redesigned vehicles.

Audi's A4 sedan earned five stars across the board, including in front, side and rollover crash tests. Other vehicles earning the safety agency's top overall score are the 2013 Dodge Dart sedan, the 2013 Ford Focus sedan and hatchback, the 2013 Buick Verano sedan, Acura's new 2013 ILX and ILX Hybrid sedan, and Hyundai's redesigned 2013 Santa Fe Sport SUV.

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Cars.com Reviews the 2013 Ford Focus ST

The ST version injects some performance into the 2013 Ford Focus lineup. Not only is it fast, but it's also really fun to drive, building off of the regular Focus' already-nimble handling, says Cars.com reviewer Joe Bruzek. Torque-steer is an issue, but overall, Bruzek says the Focus ST is well-executed and almost as fun as the Scion FR-S.

2013 Ford Focus ST Review

The Cars.com Redesign Index

It can cost up to $1 billion or more to develop a new or redesigned car, so sales success — and not just a little bit of it — matters. Determining which of those new cars hit the mark with consumers is no easy task. In the past three model years, significant redesigns averaged a 33% increase in year-over-year sales in the months after they were launched compared with their predecessors in the same period a year earlier. With numbers like that, most automakers could claim success with a redesign. But some cars rose above that lofty mark while others fell below. Which were the redesigns that car shoppers lined up for?

Cars.com crunched sales figures for 61 redesigns or introductions that replaced outgoing cars over the past four model years. We set a sales floor and grouped cars into three sales tiers — after all, a bit player can easily double its sales with a sharp redesign, but market saturation makes it harder for a popular model to do the same. We compared six months of sales after dealers ramped up inventory with the same time period from the year before. Finally, we also accounted for the growth in the overall auto market, meaning that if the whole market went up 10%, we assume that tide would have carried these redesigns as well.

Consumer Reports' Reliability Survey: Ford, Lincoln Continue to Plummet

Consumer Reports' latest reliability survey has dropped Ford and its Lincoln subsidiary to the bottom tier in the magazine's 2012 Annual Auto Reliability Survey, which predicts reliability for 2013 models. Among 28 brands ranked, Lincoln ranked 26th; Ford placed 27th.

Six out of 10 Fords had below-average reliability, as did half of all Lincolns, the New York-based magazine said. Recent Ford redesigns — like the Explorer SUV, Focus compact and Fiesta subcompact — continue to experience reliability issues, and Ford's much-maligned MyFord/MyLincoln Touch continue to have problems. As the magazine focuses on reliability for new cars, several reliability stalwarts — the Ford Escape, Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ — were excluded because of 2013 redesigns. All three, however, gained Ford's controversial multimedia system in their overhauls.

This comes after Ford pledged renewed efforts to work the bugs out of MyFord Touch and MyLincoln Touch, tweaking the system for faster response times on many 2013 models. Consumer Reports' reliability findings appear to encompass only Ford's first-gen system. Still, we've driven thousands of miles with MyFord Touch 2.0, and it remains as buggy as ever, and Consumer Reports isn't the only publication to document real owners — not just journalists — taking issue.

2013 Ford Focus ST: Car Seat Check

The Focus ST is Ford's take on the sporty hatchback. Its vibrant yellow exterior paint and matching interior trim make it stand out from the compact hatchback pack, as does its tricked-out engine: a 252-horsepower, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder. Many families use the regular Focus to haul kids around; how does the ST's backseat handle two child-safety seats?

For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back TurboBooster seat.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: September 2012

September was another strong month of car sales, making the automotive industry one of the sole bright spots of the economic recovery. With most major carmakers reporting, sales are up 13% year-over-year with 1.118 million vehicles sold, according to Automotive News. 

That gain is healthy, especially considering that the average vehicle transaction price has also increased to $32,243 as compared to August’s $32,181, according to CNW Marketing Research. Total incentives and discounts weren’t appreciably higher as compared with last month, either. In fact, the only major seller to see significant incentive increases for the month was the 2012-13 Ford Focus, which has up to $2,000 cash-back offers currently. The Focus was up an astounding 91.4% year-over-year, which made it the 12th best-selling vehicle for the month.