I saw an article on the top selling car of all time, and it was a surprise to me! One car that I thought would be on this list is the Toyota Camry, but apparently they've only sold about 10.5 million of them! Still the top selling car in the US for the past 14 years or so, but not good enough for the top ten.
For what it's worth, let's count them down!
10: Chevy Impala. 14 million.
A Chevy in the top ten, imagine that! The Impala is still a pretty cool car, and they've been around a long time, so that's enough to put them in the top ten selling cars of all time. In 1958, the Impala was a version of the Bel Air, and then in 1959 the Impala became it's own model. Hey, it's 58 years old since 1958, how about that!
9: Volkswagen Passat. 15.5 million.
I am kind of guessing that the VW Beetle will definitely be on this list, but I'm not sure I'd have guessed the Passat. The only VWs I've owned were two Rabbits in the 80s, and a VW Fox. 2/3rds of those were good cars, right up to the day I totalled the Fox anyway. The bad Rabbit I had was bought used, and I bought a bad one. The Rabbit I traded it in for was a brand new 83, and that one was great!
8: Ford Model T. 16.5 million.
Whoa, I thought the Model T would be up at the top of the list, but apparently I was way off. Way to go Henry Ford. I've read that Mr. Ford was so happy with the Model T that it took many years of arguing with him to build a new model, the car we know as the Model A.
7: Honda Accord. 17.5 million.
OK, this one I can believe! Honda has a great reputation, builds dependable cars, and still makes the Accord today. If you don't like Japanese cars, well, the Accord has been made in the USA since 1982 in Marysville Ohio, so the global economy kind of blurs the lines of what country a car is "from" these days. The first Accords (in 1976) were little 68 horsepower hatchback cars, so they've come a long way. One of the current models is a hybrid that gets a staggering 49mpg.
6: Honda Civic. 18.5 million.
Two Hondas in a row, two in the top ten so far, not bad Honda!
5: Ford Escort (UK version). 20 million.
This is another model that has been around for a very long time, and that's what it takes to rack up these kinds of numbers. The Escort appeared in Europe in 1968, and didn't sell in the US until 1981. Make wise, that's 2 for Honda and 2 for Ford so far.
4: Volkswagen Beetle. 23.5 million.
Pretty good jump for the Beetle, selling 3.5 million more than the Ford Escort. This also adds VW to the 2-in-the-top-ten list.
3: Volkswagen Golf. 27.5 million.
Good gravy, three VWs in the top ten! No wonder they were the top selling brand in the world recently, uh, right up to that time they had that little issue with illegally tampering with the MPG ratings on their diesel cars. Maybe the people that count these auto sales numbers should subtract a few of the diesel VWs. Here at number three in the count down, the Golf badge also includes the US Rabbits. I had two of these, remember seeing Golfs in Norway in 1976, and wondering why the gave their Rabbits a different name than in the US. From researching this important car question on the internet, the best I could find out is that VW has never mentioned why they used the Golf name in the rest of the world and called it the Rabbit in the US. Back then they had a VW factory in Pennsylvania, but it eventually closed. Then not too long ago VW opened another factory in the US, so welcome back!
2: Ford F-series. 35 million.
I didn't make up the numbers, I just found this info that said top ten CARS, and here we have some TRUCKS. Thirty five million trucks is a LOT of trucks.
1: Toyota Corolla. 37.5 million.
There you have it, 50 years of selling the same model named car, and the Toyota Corolla is the king of the hill! You can read a nice article about the Toyota Corolla from Autoweek magazine at this link: Corolla
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