Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: April 2013

Nissan and Ford led a strong month for the auto industry, with sales up 23.2% at Nissan and 17.9% at Ford thanks to big gains among both carmakers' strongest sellers. Nissan Altima sales gained 35.4% while Ford Escape sales spiked 52% — despite similar year-over-year incentives on both and lower dealership supply for the Escape.

It may seem bizarre that the Altima, then, isn't among the top 10 best-sellers. It's been there for ninth months straight, and in March it was the best-selling car (not truck) in America. But a year ago, sales were dismal — less than 17,000 in April 2012 — so even a healthy spike kept Nissan off April 2013's top 10.

The Toyota Camry and Honda Accord had higher-profile struggles. The Camry's sales drop could signal plateauing demand for Toyota's seventh-generation family sedan, whose year-over-year sales have declined for three straight months. The new Accord, meanwhile, is just 7 months old, and shoppers found significantly lower discounts versus the 2012 Accord a year ago. It's a factor that could affect Accord sales through autumn. Still, Ford didn't seem to have a problem with that. Anyone considering the new Fusion found a similar situation — lower discounts versus year-ago levels — but it didn't stop shoppers from flocking toward the popular sedan, whose sales boomed 23.7%.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: March 2013

With the top seven automakers reporting numbers — which account for the vast majority of new-car sales — March sales have crept up around 3.2% over year-ago levels. Honda, GM and Ford saw the largest gains, but no major automaker saw a double-digit increase.

The top sellers are a reshuffle from February's list; all 10 are back. The Nissan Altima jumped three spots from February, and despite an 8% sales drop, it's the best-selling sedan by just 100 cars in March. Madness? Not really. Look back at March 2012 and the Altima even beat out the Chevrolet Silverado for a podium finish in monthly sales.

Lower year-over-year incentives played against Nissan's redesigned sedan as surging competitors — the Honda Accord and the Ford Fusion — saw larger gains. Ford says the Fusion had its best sales month in the nameplate's 7 1/2-year history, and this happened with fewer incentives than on last year’s outgoing model. The Escape hit its highest monthly total in its 12-plus-year history. Those two cars — and rising Explorer and F-Series sales — overcame falling Focus, Edge and Mustang sales to drive Ford to a 5.7% year-over-year increase.

Honda Accord Still Most Popular Car to Steal

The bad news for Honda Accord owners? It was the most stolen car in 2012. The good news? It was also the most recovered.

LoJack Corp., which manufactures the Lojack Stolen Vehicle Recovery System, today released its fourth annual vehicle-theft recovery report based on statistics from 28 states. The study not only tracks auto-theft trends across the U.S. during the past year, but also serves as a de facto advertisement for the device, which in 2012 helped law-enforcement officials recover nearly $125 million worth of stolen vehicles.

Citing FBI reports, the study notes that a vehicle is stolen every 44 seconds and that the recovery rate is at a 30-year low. Still, vehicles equipped with a LoJack were recovered 94% of the time, the company reported.

"Unlike other location-based systems, LoJack Police Tracking Computers can find vehicles in some of the most secluded locations, including shipping containers that are hidden amongst thousands of others onboard a ship that is about to depart the United States," said Patrick Clancy, vice president of law enforcement for LoJack, in a statement.

Click below for LoJack's top 10 "most stolen and recovered" vehicles for 2012 and here for a list of February's 10 best-selling cars; the Honda Accord ranks high on the list.

Toyota Camry Discounts Remain Amid February Sales Drop

Toyota is staying the course on incentives to keep its popular Camry atop the family-car sales pile. The automaker sold 31,270 Camry sedans in February, marking the nameplate's 16th consecutive month as the No. 1 family sedan. But the lead was narrowing. Camry sales dropped 9.5% versus February 2012 as the Nissan Altima, Honda Accord and Ford Fusion fell within 4,000 sales of Toyota's popular sedan. One or two competitors have come closer at certain points in recent months, but it's rare that so many are hot on the Camry's tail. Indeed, the Camry accounted for 18.4% of all new family-car sales in January 2013; in February, that portion fell to 16.1%.

Toyota appears intent on keeping the sedan's best-selling status — but it will have to fight for it. Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn told reporters at the 2012 New York International Auto Show that he wants the Altima to "take a shot at being No. 1 in the segment."

"We know it’s a competitive segment," spokesman Mike Michels told Bloomberg News on Wednesday. "All three of those makes are very high profile in their marketing, and all three companies want to make an impact with consumers."

NASCAR's New Look

NASCAR has a decidedly different look for 2013, with all-new racecars debuting at the Daytona 500 on Sunday. It's a big change that should excite casual car fans as well as those hard-core enthusiasts who paint their favorite driver's number on their face. For the first time in decades, the redesigned racecars look like real street-driven production versions.

Since 2007, NASCAR's Sprint Cup series — its most elite racing tier — featured cars from Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford and Toyota with the same basic shape and little to distinguish them other than decals used to imitate headlights, grilles and taillights. Fans began to complain about how similar the racecars looked soon after their introduction.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars: January 2013

Automakers should party like it's … 2012. Sales kicked off the new year at the same pace as they ended the last, with figures from the top seven largest automakers up a combined 15.6% versus January 2012. Ford and Toyota led the way with gains of 20% or better, but Nissan and Hyundai-Kia both saw a roughly flat month. None of the six automakers saw a sales decrease, however.

Ford's banner month shifted the top 10 best-sellers. The Focus compact dropped from the list, but the Fusion sedan and Escape SUV reprised their standings; both were absent in December 2012. Despite two recalls following its launch early last fall, the redesigned Fusion shot up 64.5%, and this came with lighter incentives than the outgoing Fusion a year ago. The redesigned Honda Accord — winner of our recent Cars.com $26,000 Midsize Family Sedan Showdown — picked up even better speed, packing on 75.2% to stay 1,525 cars ahead of the Fusion. Keep an eye out: That race could end the year in a photo finish.

J.P. Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman pegged sales right around December's annualized rate, Automotive News reports, meaning January would tie for the second best sales month since February 2008. Shoppers kept buying despite fewer deals. Total dealer and automaker discounts now combine for $5,223, according to CNW Marketing Research. That's down more than $500 versus January 2012, and combined with rising MSRPs, it's driven the average new car to $32,163 in January — up 6.6% versus a year ago.

Recall Alert: 3,235 2009-13 Toyotas

Southeast Toyota Distributors is recalling 3,235 vehicles spanning model-years 2009-13 due to problems with the occupant sensing system, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The affected vehicles were modified by Southeast Toyota Distributors to include accessories such as leather seat covers, seat heaters or head-restraint DVD system. During the installation process, the passenger seat occupant sensing system may not have been tested. This could cause the airbags to not deploy or to deploy inappropriately for the passenger's size, increasing the risk of injury. 

Toyota Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Toyota has settled the first wrongful death lawsuit  over unintended acceleration, involving two people killed in a Toyota Camry, the Associated Press has reported. It was the first of hundreds of lawsuits over fatalities and injuries arising from claims of unintended acceleration. In December 2012, the automaker settled a $1.1 billion class-action lawsuit brought by Toyota owners who claimed their car's value was hurt by the acceleration issue dating back to 2010. 
 
"We sympathize with anyone in an accident involving one of our vehicles" and "we continue to stand fully behind the safety and integrity of Toyota's Electronic Throttle Control System, which multiple independent evaluations have confirmed as safe," Toyota said in a statement.

Why Family Cars Dominated 2012

Jimmy Drew's car shopping list would make you think he was looking for a small SUV. Drew has owned cars from brands as distant as Infiniti and Ford. He trades his ride every couple years, and when the time came to swap out in 2012, he shopped the likes of a Honda CR-V and Acura RDX. But his final choice strayed from SUVs altogether: a 2012 Toyota Camry SE V-6, optioned high with leather seats and a moonroof.

Drew is an unlikely candidate for the Camry, the poster car for burgeoning families. The 66-year-old utilities planner in Del Rey Beach, Fla., wanted the sedan because he has grandkids, and the Camry's 268-horsepower V-6 made easy work of the hourlong drive on Florida's Interstate 95 to see them.

"For the price of the vehicle, and for what you get with it, plus a great interest rate at that time ... I thought it was a hell of a price," Drew says.

Top 10 Best-Selling Cars of 2012

When the dust settles, 2012 will mark the third consecutive year of automotive sales gains, and the best sales year since 2007. (Remember back then? Here's a refresher.) Sales for the top seven automakers increased 12.9%, suggesting new-car sales will end in the mid-14 million range. That would be the third year in a row of sales gains, with totals up some 40% over a recession-ravaged 2008. It's the best sales year since 2007, but it still falls below sales totals through much of the 2000s.

Which cars fared best? The top sellers for 2012 include a lot of regulars, with six of the 10 cars redesigned for 2012 or 2013. The Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Cruze, both on this list a year ago, are gone; both had a relatively flat sales year.

Check out the list below.