World's Top Ten Car Brands in August 2010

Marcelo de Vasconcellos
by Marcelo de Vasconcellos

Earlier we posted an article about the ten largest markets in the world. According to Brazilian car mag Auto Esporte, the Jato Dynamics auto consultancy group has also compiled the top ten car makers in by August 2010. They have crunched the numbers. Can you guess who is top dog?

Disclaimer: We are talking car BRANDS here. Not manufacturing groups as they are usually tallied in worldwide rankings. This puts companies like GM at a disadvantage that relies on gadzillion of Buicks and Wulings in China to get their numbers. It also should hurt that department store of brands, Volkswagen, but as we shall soon see …

All the top ten brands increased their sales in 2010 (save one). If Sergio Marchionne is to be believed, all makers though are in deep trouble as none will reach the mythical 6 million sales figure (at least individually per brand – here we go again).

Toyota is still on top, but VW passed Ford and is now number two. Chevy, sorry, Chevrolet had a strong showing and thus took fourth place from Honda. Lower down on the table of brands, Fiat’s weak showing (not withstanding its ever growing sales in Brazil), helps consolidate Hyundai as the world’s seventh largest brand.

From an American perspective, I’m sure some of these numbers will be surprising. Nissan (not to mention Renault – Carlos Ghosn must be beaming), for example, had a much stronger worldwide recovery than Honda. Kia might also be causing its relative Hyundai some heartburn. It’s growing much faster than the mothership. Could this mean trouble? Are you surprised?

Car brandsJan-Aug 2010Jan-Aug 2009Change1 – Toyota3,710,3953,223,38415.10%2 – Volkswagen2,836,6682,581,9789.90%3 – Ford2,835,8582,559,95410.80%4 – Chevrolet2,333,0631,871,60824.70%5 – Honda2,107,5261,972,3826.90%6 – Nissan2,044,2011,692,02320.80%7 – Hyundai1,904,5921,661,92714.60%8 – Fiat1,234,4841,289,137-4.20%9 – Renault1,083,826921,18017.70%10- Kia1,035,044819,42826.30%
Marcelo de Vasconcellos
Marcelo de Vasconcellos

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  • Partsisparts Partsisparts on Oct 01, 2010

    Thanks for the pic!

  • Budda-Boom Budda-Boom on Oct 02, 2010

    This is where all those people who respond to GM's Facebook posts with replies like "Kill Chevy. Bring back Pontiac (Olds, Saturn)! need to actually learn something about the industry. Chevrolet is the GM global brand. Smart thinking as Chevy, like Coke and McDonalds, represents Americana 'round the world. So it was a good foundation to build upon (despite GM's squandering of the brand in the USA from 1970 'til a couple years ago). And a look at the "Chevrolet Worldwide" tab at the bottom of Chevy's home page illustrates how well they've done 'round the globe. Now if we can just get that mini-pickup and 550-HP Lumina (Holden platform) here in the US...

  • Varezhka Maybe the volume was not big enough to really matter anyways, but losing a “passenger car” for a mostly “light truck” line-up should help Subaru with their CAFE numbers too.
  • Varezhka For this category my car of choice would be the CX-50. But between the two cars listed I’d select the RAV4 over CR-V. I’ve always preferred NA over small turbos and for hybrids THS’ longer history shows in its refinement.
  • AZFelix I would suggest a variation on the 'fcuk, marry, kill' game using 'track, buy, lease' with three similar automotive selections.
  • Formula m For the gas versions I like the Honda CRV. Haven’t driven the hybrids yet.
  • SCE to AUX All that lift makes for an easy rollover of your $70k truck.
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