The analysis by RL Polk & Co. company concluded that the best selling car in the world in 2012 was Ford Focus, followed by Toyota Corolla.
Last year there were 1,020,410 Ford Focus cars sold worldwide, compared to 872,774 Toyota Corolla cars. In third place were placed the Ford F-series, with 785,630 pickup trucks sold, followed by Toyota Camry in fifth, Ford Fiesta subcompact model, 723,130, in sixth position, Volkswagen Golf – seventh, 699,148, while General Motors Chevrolet Cruze was eighth with sales of 661,325, ahead of Honda Civic, 651,259, and Honda CR-V, 624,982. The Zhiguang van built by the Chinese automaker Wuling was fourth with sales of 768,870, mostly in China.
Focus, Fiesta and Cruze are among U.S. producers who built successful models ahead of cars manufactured by Toyota and Honda, which typically dominate the market.
Interest in Ford was revived by the director general of the group, Alan Mulally, who renewed the series with more efficient vehicles on fuel to support the strong position held by large segments of the pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. Mulally also promoted a global plan called One Ford for product development.
“The global ranking of F-Series really shows our strong position in this segment not just in the U.S., but also how F-Series compares on a global scale, relative to a number of vehicles that sell in every region of the world,” said Erich Merkle, Ford’s sales analyst.
Toyota said it sold 1.16 million Corolla vehicles last year, 33% more than estimates of RL Polk & Co. The difference could come from the fact that Toyota included in its list the Corolla Axio and Corolla Altis models.
On the other hand, the Toyota Camry remained the best-selling car in the U.S., with global sales of 729,793. Toyota has regained from General Motors the title of the largest global automaker by sales.
Ford has never managed to win the title of best selling car since the time of the Model T and its successor, Model A, said John Wolkonowicz, an independent auto analyst in Boston.
Volkswagen has held this title in the 50s with the Beetle, and, in recent years, the Golf from the German automaker and Toyota Corolla have been the leaders.
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