America's 10 Best-Selling Cars In January 2015

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

In January 2015, for the second consecutive month and the fourth time in the last six months, the Toyota Camry was not America’s best-selling passenger car.

But after holding the title in October and November – and the 2014 calendar year – the Camry ceded the crown to a sibling, not a rival, in January.

• Four top sellers post YOY improvements

• Hyundai held out of top 10

• Sixth-ranked Civic posts seventh consecutive decline

Sales of the Toyota Corolla jumped 20% to 27,357 units, 8658 more than the number of sales reported by the next-best-selling small car, Honda’s Civic.

Keep in mind, figures reported by automakers in the year-ago period were, for the most part, somewhat poor as a result of great weather interference. But the January 2015 figures recorded by the Corolla, for example, were strong not just in comparison to January 2014 but previous years, as well.

In the previous five Januarys, Toyota averaged 20,453 Corolla sales. 2015’s first month volume was 34% compared with that average.

RankCarJanuary2015January2014% Change#1 Toyota Corolla27,35725,07114.1%#2 Toyota Camry26,76323,33214.7%#3 Nissan Altima26,40822,51517.3%#4 Honda Accord21,01120,6042.0%#5 Ford Fusion19,69420,717-4.9%#6 Honda Civic18,69921,824-14.3%#7 Chevrolet Cruze18,69316,82811.1%#8 Ford Focus18,47812,00353.9%#9 Nissan Sentra14,3959,12757.7%#10 Chrysler 20014,15710,91229.7%

Indeed, in a month that saw new car sales increase by approximately 8%, the three top-selling cars’ more meaningful increases translated to even greater market share. The Corolla, Camry, and Altima – America’s best-selling trio a year ago as well as last month – generated 14.4% of new car sales activity in January 2014; 15.1% in January 2015.

Among the ten top sellers shown here, eight posted year-over-year improvements. Seven of those eight reported significant increases, from the Nissan Sentra’s 58% (5268-unit) gain to the Altima’s 17% leap to the Ford Focus’s 54% (6475-unit) improvement. Granted, it would have been difficult for the Focus not to improve on January 2014’s disastrous result: it was the first time in 26 months that monthly U.S. Focus volume had fallen below 13,000 units.

In January of last year, three of the top 11 cars were Chevrolets. The Cruze maintained its seventh position, but the Malibu slid from tenth to 13th despite a narrow 0.5% improvement. The Impala, meanwhile, fell from 11th to 17th as sales plunged 23%. Ford Fusion sales are down 7% over the last three months. January was the seventh consecutive month in which U.S. sales of the Honda Civic decreased, year-over-year. The Chrysler 200 ended 2014 as America’s 21st-best-selling car. 2015 looks to be brighter.

Narrowly missing out on January’s top 10? The Hyundai Sonata (up 26% to 12,363 sales), Hyundai Elantra (down 20% to 12,240), and the aforementioned Malibu.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.

Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

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  • Zackman Zackman on Feb 09, 2015

    I was very impressed with the new Corolla last year, and I'm looking forward to checking out the Camry at our auto show in 2 weeks. Toyota must be doing something to make me give them more than a casual glance... hmmm...

  • Tsoden Tsoden on Feb 09, 2015

    I am surprised the Hyundai Elantra did not make the list. Value and space wise, I feel it is still superior than the Corolla. I test drove the Elantra and Corolla back to back, and honestly, I could not justify the higher price tag of the Corolla.

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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