America's 10 Best-Selling Cars In January 2015

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.

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.