America's 10 Best-Selling SUVs & Crossovers In September 2014

After a brief one-month hiatus in which Toyota’s RAV4 took over the title, the Honda CR-V was back on top of America’s SUV/crossover leaderboard in September 2014. CR-V sales were up 11%, year-over-year, to 23,722 units, the CR-V’s highest September sales result in the history of the nameplate. The CR-V’s 2015 revamp brings with it more LEDs.

America’s second-ranked utility vehicle in September, the Toyota RAV4, is 28,093 sales back of the second-ranked Ford Escape on year-to-date terms. The RAV4’s quite helpful 43% year-over-year improvement last month equalled 6798 extra sales for Toyota during a month in which total Toyota passenger car sales (Lexus and Scion included) were down 9%. In addition to the RAV4’s big leap, sales of the Highlander rose 22% to 10,542 units and 4Runner sales shot up 76% to 5659.

In September 2014, for the third time in three months, the Ford Escape ranked third among SUVs and crossovers competing for sales in the United States. But while July sales jumped 19% and August Escape volume was up 9%, Escape sales in September slid 4% to 21,718 units, a three-year September low for the smallest Ford utility.

The Escape was joined in the top six by the Ford Explorer. Civilian Explorer sales were up 1% to 13,770 units in September; Police Interceptor Explorers were up 55% to 2025 units, 134% more than the total achieved by the Taurus-based Police Interceptor sedan.

U.S. sales of the Chevrolet Equinox were up 12% in September. (Meanwhile, GMC’s Terrain, an Equinox twin, was up 16% to 8310 units.) The Equinox’s rise was part of a GM boost that saw the automaker’s September sales climb by 36,242 units – more than the totals achieved by Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BMW, or Mazda, for example – compared with the same period one year ago. The Equinox played a small role in this; the Silverado’s 54% leap was more certainly the more lucrative improvement.

At Nissan, where brand-wide sales have been steadily growing for a full year, Rogue volume jumped 52% in September 2014. Year-to-date, Rogue sales are up 24% to 154,568 units, 16% of the Nissan brand’s three-quarter volume. The Altima, Nissan’s best seller, accounts for 26% of Nissan’s sales. The Rogue slots in second, ahead of the Sentra (14%) and Versa (11%).

That Jeep, an SUV/crossover builder through and through, could land three nameplates in the top ten is not surprising. Although the Cherokee’s rise to the top of the Jeep heap has been steady, September does mark the first occasion in which the top-selling Jeep in America has in fact been the Cherokee. The new one, the one with the face.

Rounding out the top ten in September was Subaru’s best-selling model, the Forester. U.S. sales of the Forester have increased in 19 consecutive months. By the end of October, Subaru will have sold more Foresters in America in ten months than in all of 2013, a record year for the Forester.

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