Top 30 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - March 2012

The Toyota Tundra Was The 50th-Best-Selling
Vehicle In America In March 2012

Seven SUVs and crossovers, four pickup trucks, one minivan, and 18 passenger cars gathered to form this list of the 30 best-selling vehicles in America in March 2012. Only five of the 30 reported falling sales this March. Half of the vehicles on the list are American by name. There are three vehicles on the list which weren't present in February 2012: the Chrysler 200, Ford Edge, and Nissan Versa.

According to Automotive News, passenger cars accounted for 54.8% of all new vehicle sales in March 2012, up 54.1% a year ago and up from 53.8% a month ago. 15.2% of all new vehicles sold in America last month were Fords; 27.1% of all Fords sold were F-Series pickup trucks. Thus, 4.1% of all new vehicles sold in March were F-Series trucks. Together with America's best-selling car - the Toyota Camry - and America's best-selling SUV - the Honda CR-V - the three category leaders accounted for 94 out of every 1000 new vehicles sold in the United States in March 2012.

Every Vehicle Ranked
America's 255 Best-Selling Vehicles In 2012 Q1

The six vehicles with declining year-over-year sales deserve some explanation. Sales of the Toyota Corolla (and its Matrix sibling) fell throughout the first quarter, down 12.6% in January and 26.2% in February. We can't be surprised that Corolla sales would be sliding when the competition in the segment is fierce and when Toyota's Corolla is by no means a new car. Honda Civic sales were wildly strong a year ago, keeping such momentum wasn't going to be easy. The Ford Escape is undergoing a model change. Sometimes sales can peak at points like this, sometimes they can fall hard. Escape sales slid in March but are up 4.7% so far this year. The Honda Accord will live well again, we can assume, but fighting back against an all-new Camry and a deal-prone-end-of-term Altima isn't easy. Sales of the Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen, which is really a Golf wagon, plunged 29% in March, but even Jetta sedan sales slid 8.4%. The wagon accounted for 13.5% of all Jetta sales. Finally, the Nissan Sentra hung on to a spot in the top 30 but is sorely in need of replacement. Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said today that a new Sentra would be on sale in the fall.

There was a Prius Family explanation published yesterday in the 20 best-selling cars post. It's not GoodCarBadCar's decision to lump the V and C together with the regular Prius, but just because we have the breakdown in March doesn't mean we want to make March an anomaly. Consistency reigns, and hopefully Toyota USA consistently releases the breakdown as part of their monthly report. Detailed sales figures for every other vehicle on sale in America can be accessed through the dropdown menu at the top right of this page. Below, check out the top 30 best-selling vehicles In America from March 2012, and below that, have a look at the market share chart showing the hold America's 20 most popular vehicles have on the market.

Rank	Vehicle	March 2012	% Change	Year To Date	YTD % Change
#1	Ford F-Series	58,061	+ 9.0%	143,827	+ 13.6%
#2	Toyota Camry	42,567	+ 35.3%	105,405	+ 37.2%
#3	Nissan Altima	41,050	+ 27.1%	96,360	+ 38.5%
#4	Chevrolet Silverado	36,491	+ 12.1%	95,638	+ 3.4%
#5	Honda CR-V	30,868	+ 40.3%	74,587	+ 29.9%
#6	Toyota Prius Family	28,711	+ 54.3%	60,859	+ 42.3%
#7	Ford Fusion	28,562	+ 3.6%	63,949	- 1.7%
#8	Ford Focus	28,293	+ 64.7%	66,043	+ 78.2%
#9	Toyota Corolla/Matrix	28,289	- 6.4%	68,428	- 10.8%
#10	Honda Civic	28,199	- 9.7%	77,169	+ 18.8%
#11	Dodge Ram	26,960	+ 23.1%	67,464	+ 27.9%
#12	Honda Accord	26,771	- 15.1%	61,132	- 7.6%
#13	Chevrolet Malibu	23,887	+ 53.6%	58,550	+ 20.1%
#14	Hyundai Sonata	23,281	+ 1.7%	55,195	+ 6.4%
#15	Ford Escape	22,679	- 5.4%	58,604	+ 4.7%
#16	Chevrolet Cruze	21,607	+ 19.9%	57,083	+ 13.7%
#17	Chevrolet Equinox	20,064	+ 34.2%	51,577	+ 19.3%
#18	Hyundai Elantra	19,681	+ 2.2%	44,401	+ 7.8%
#19	Chevrolet Impala	19,035	+ 5.4%	50,377	+ 1.7%
#20	Toyota RAV4	17,367	+ 8.0%	39,865	+ 0.1%
#21	Nissan Rogue	16,972	+ 19.7%	40,299	+ 15.1%
#22	Nissan Versa	15,587	+ 40.7%	35,195	+ 16.0%
#23	Kia Optima	15,008	+ 118%	35,380	+ 128%
#24	Volkswagen Jetta	14,966	- 11.8%	38,766	- 5.5%
#25	Chrysler 200	14,914	+ 93.1%	31,638	+ 159%
#26	Jeep Grand Cherokee	14,096	+ 43.3%	37,503	+ 43.6%
#27	Nissan Sentra	14,092	- 21.1%	31,763	- 20.6%
#28	Ford Edge	14,058	+ 13.5%	32,908	+ 4.7%
#29	GMC Sierra	13,849	+ 19.2%	34,672	+ 2.1%
#30	Dodge Grand Caravan	13,700	+ 43.3%	34,462	+ 23.4%

Source: Manufacturers
Red font indicates year-over-year declining sales 
Chrysler 200 sales compare with Chrysler Sebring/200 sales combined.

Click Chart For A Larger View

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Top 255 Best-Selling Vehicles In America - March 2012 YTD