It's Official And Insurmountable: These Are 2015's Top Sellers Two Months Early
The Ford F-Series will end 2015 as America’s best-selling truck line and the best-selling vehicle line overall. Yes, there are two months remaining on the calendar, but there will be no unseating of the Ford, which built up a 137,400-unit lead over the second-ranked vehicle over the course of 2015’s first ten months.
The F-Series isn’t the only vehicle to secure its position at the front of its respective pack. These are the kinds of stories typically not published until the beginning of January, but we already know that the level of dominance enjoyed by certain nameplates is so high that they won’t – they can’t – be caught.
BEST-SELLING CAR
Toyota is not going to stop selling the Camry. This year will be the 14th consecutive year of Camry passenger car leadership in America.
BEST-SELLING SUV/CROSSOVER
In 2015, the CR-V’s 7-percent year-over-year improvement through ten months produced 288,531 sales, 30,800 more than the Escape has managed through the end of October. The Escape will not outsell the CR-V by 15,400 units in each of the next two months. Therefore, 2015 will be the fourth consecutive year in which the CR-V is America’s top-selling utility vehicle.
BEST-SELLING THREE-ROW VEHICLE
Year-over-year, Explorer sales jumped 20 percent to 210,894 units between January and October, meaning this is already the best Explorer sales year since 2005.
BEST-SELLING SMALL/MIDSIZE PICKUP TRUCK
Tacoma volume is up 17 percent so far this year aided by renewed interest in the category, a clear-out of MY2015 trucks, and now the introduction of 2016 models. This year will be the 11th consecutive year in which the Tacoma has outsold all other non-full-size pickup trucks.
BEST-SELLING COMMERCIAL VAN
Between the Transit, E-Series, and smaller Transit Connect, Ford owns 53 percent of the commercial/cargo van market in America in 2015.
BEST-SELLING PREMIUM BRAND CAR
With 80,832 sales through October, the BMW 3-Series leads the surging Mercedes-Benz C-Class by an insurmountable 9,014-unit margin.
BEST-SELLING PREMIUM BRAND SUV/CROSSOVER
Nevertheless, RX sales – down 8 percent to 77,940 units so far this year – are 21,208 units stronger than the SRX’s year-to-date tally. The RX is responsible for 28 percent of Lexus sales in the U.S.
BEST-SELLING SPORTS CAR
The Mustang was outsold by the Chevrolet Camaro in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. But the Mustang was all-new for the 2015 model year. The new sixth-gen Camaro is only reaching customers now and sits 39,488 sales back of the Mustang’s 106,321-unit year-to-date tally.
These are the dominant ones, the vehicles which control the largest chunks of their respective categories; the cars and trucks and SUVs which have so thoroughly outsold their rivals in ten months that victory over twelve months is assured.
They’re not all equally dominant, however. The Ford F-Series hasn’t just outsold all other vehicles in each of the last four years, but outsold its two chief twin rivals from General Motors, combined. This year will be different. The Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra duo leads the F-Series by an insurmountable 42,774-unit gap so far this year. Only GM’s admittedly successful branding exercise allows Dearborn to once again claim top spot.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.
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The only thing that is surprising is that the Corolla is in position to be the #2 selling car. Amazing that the Accord is that far out of the running.
What's in a name? People are paying $1600 more for a dumbed-down Flex and buying them at a near 13:1 ratio. If it weren't for Mazda's CX-9 stagediving and saying "don't look at me," Ford would be both 1st and DFL in the 3 row category. Still, kudos on dominating the working truck and van market; you're definitely doing something right when even Nissan's turnkey blue collar configurations can't boost the rest of the field to the halfway mark. On a side note, I'm seeing a lot of lunch wagons in heavy rotation around town the past couple years: breadbox trucks are the runaway favorite, with 2nd place featuring a heaping helping of converted campers.