Best Selling Cars Around The Globe: Toyota Corolla Now #3 In The World!

Matt Gasnier
by Matt Gasnier

After giving you my monthly World Roundup for November a few days ago, I will now rewind back one month (detailed data by model worldwide takes some time to compile…) to offer you an estimate of the Top 150 best-selling models in the world in October…

Had enough of the world and you just want to know which cars sell best in your own backyard? Easy. You can visit 171 countries and territories in my blog in the comfort of your own lounge. Just like that.

Back to our the world…

If in September the Ford Focus had started to benefit from the Japanese drama in China to pass the Toyota Corolla and historically grab the worldwide pole position, in October things are getting worse for Toyota… You can check out the worldwide Top 150 models ranking hereHandicapped by dramatically low sales in China, the Toyota Corolla now drops to passed by the Hyundai Elantra! The Focus stays on top with 88,096 sales, ahead of the Elantra at 74,386 units – its strongest worldwide month so far in 2012 and benefitting from a very successful launch of the last gen in China – and the Corolla at 73,833 sales… Two more models pass the 70,000-units mark this month: the Jetta and Passat, again on the back of mammoth Chinese sales.
VW Passat

The Ford F-Series (+1), VW Golf (-3) and Chevrolet Cruze (-2) follow, while the VW Polo is back in the Top 10 at #9 (+2) and the Ford Fiesta is stable at

Best-selling cars in the world – October 2012:

You can check out the worldwide Top 150 models ranking here

PosModelOctSep10m 2012Pos1Ford Focus88,0961835,32422Hyundai Elantra74,3865641,19853Toyota Corolla73,8332938,50714VW Jetta70,6333610,38095VW Passat70,0639623,47986Ford F-Series66,4887636,39467VW Golf65,8484648,46938Chevrolet Cruze63,1886634,36079VW Polo/Vento61,55711585,1891110Ford Fiesta53,52210609,95010

You can check out the worldwide Top 150 models ranking here

Outside the Top 10, the Toyota Hilux stays extremely robust in 12th position with just under 50,000 sales, the VW Gol/Voyage surfs on a very dynamic Brazilian market, up 12 spots on September to as does the Fiat Palio/Siena up 19 to The Chevrolet Silverado continues to progress at #17 and should finish the year upwards given the strong incentives GM will offer to get rid of stock of the current model before the 2014 generation launches early next year.

Kia K3

The Hyundai Tucson/ix35 is up again at #19 vs. #32 year-to-date, the Wuling Rongguang smashes its monthly record at 34,220 units and #27 (+17), the Kia Cerato/K3 starts to enjoy the effects of the K3 launch in South Korea and China at #28 (+21), the BMW 3 Series is up a further 4 ranks to #31 vs. #47 year-to-date, the VW Lavida is up 20 to #37 vs. #71 YTD and the Renault Duster, helped by fantastic performances in Russia and India, is up 22 spots to a best-ever

Toyota Aqua

Further down, the Toyota Prius c/Aqua breaks into the worldwide Top 50 for the first time at #43 and 27,720 sales, helped by a historical win in Japan. It now also outsells the Prius for the first time ( The Peugeot 208 is getting closer the Top 50 at while the Hyundai Santa Fe stays solid at #68 vs. #90 year-to-date and the Hyundai i20 takes off at #76 (+23) vs. YTD.

Matt Gasnier
Matt Gasnier

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  • Jimmyy Jimmyy on Dec 31, 2012

    The highly regarded Consumer Reports just ranked: Worst value for a small hatchback: Ford Focus SE Best value for a small sedan: Toyota Corolla LE

    • See 1 previous
    • Inside Looking Out Inside Looking Out on Jan 01, 2013

      I guess phrases "highly regarded Consumer Reports" and "Best value for a small sedan: Toyota Corolla LE" are sarcastic. Only CR can call piece of garbage "the best value".

  • AJ AJ on Jan 01, 2013

    Now that's some boring cars at the top.

    • Wsn Wsn on Jan 01, 2013

      Cars at the top are boring by definition. If you see 1M sales of Ferrari Enzos at the top, followed by 0.9M of 911s, those cars will be the very definition of boring cars.

  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Off-road fluff on vehicles that should not be off road needs to die.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Saw this posted on social media; “Just bought a 2023 Tundra with the 14" screen. Let my son borrow it for the afternoon, he connected his phone to listen to his iTunes.The next day my insurance company raised my rates and added my son to my policy. The email said that a private company showed that my son drove the vehicle. He already had his own vehicle that he was insuring.My insurance company demanded he give all his insurance info and some private info for proof. He declined for privacy reasons and my insurance cancelled my policy.These new vehicles with their tech are on condition that we give up our privacy to enter their world. It's not worth it people.”
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