America's "Top 10" Best-selling Car Brands in 2019

With 2020 bringing with it not just a new year but also a new decade, there is lots to look forward to. On the same note, it is also time to retrospect the year that just went by and see how the car-makers fared. 

China might have stolen the limelight as the single largest market for automobiles but the money-minting potential offered by the United States of America - a country that loves its big and burly trucks and SUVs - can just not be overlooked. 

2019 was a good year as Americans bought a little over 17 million cars, a marginal 1.3% drop from the prior year. Low unemployment rate and easy financing have led to positive consumer sentiments, reports claim.

With over 30 brands competing for a share of the lucrative American market, here's the list of brands that made the Top 10.

Ford marks a decade of leadership

With over 2.31 million cars sold in 2019, it's a decade of standing atop the podium for Ford Motor Company. If you're after year-over-year stats, the Blue Oval saw a 3.5% drop over 2018. As always, more than a third of Ford's sales are from the F-Series alone with the truck notching up 896,526 units through the year. Believe it or not, that's now 38 years in a row the F-Series has ended up as America's best-selling vehicle and 43 years on the trot as the country's best-selling pick-up.

Transit grew sales and ended the year as America's best-selling van with the full-size Expedition and the pint-sized EcoSport also pitching in with handsome gains over the prior year. Mustang led the muscle-car race for the fifth straight year, finishing 2019 as America's most-popular sports car.

These bright spots aside, Ford lost volumes on the big-selling Escape and Explorer with launch issues while the entire car portfolio comprising of the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Taurus are either off the showrooms or are on the way out.

Toyota and Chevrolet round off the podium spots

The status quo remains unchanged as far as the podium spots are concerned with Toyota finishing runner-up with close to 2.1 million customers opting for it. The newly-refreshed RAV4 was a star and the Japanese brand's best-seller but the Camry and Corolla went one step ahead and did well in a market that's unforgiving for anything that's not a SUV or crossover.

Chevrolet is hot on Toyota's heels selling 1.96 million vehicles through the year. GM's best-selling brand had a good year with the Equinox, Traverse, Trax and Tahoe having a good run on the sales charts. Like Ford though, cars wearing the bow-tie are being sent to the gutters one after the other with the Malibu, Cruze, Impala and Sonic suffering from the decision. 

Ram had a stellar year while Subaru, Hyundai and Kia gain

Honda, Nissan and Jeep finished fourth, fifth and sixth on the sales charts like they did in 2018. While Honda improved its figures marginally over the prior year, Nissan and Jeep posted declines with the Japanese brand ending up as the biggest loser in the Top 10. Jeep's loss is a bit of a surprise as the market is moving big-time towards SUVs and high-riding vehicles that the American brand is synonymous with. The Renegade, Compass and Cherokee lost big chunks that the Grand Cherokee and the all-new Gladiator couldn't make-up.

The real star of 2019 though was Ram with the all-new Pick-Up range proving to be a smash hit amongst the truck-loving Americans. This was the FCA brand's best performance since being spun off as a standalone brand towards the end of the last decade and quite deservedly so. The new Ram range looks stylish and the interiors are miles ahead of what the competiton offers at the moment. 

Rounding off the Top 10 are Subaru, Hyundai and Kia with each of the three brands posting gains over 2018. While the Outback and Forester led to Subaru's best-ever showing in America, the Korean brands were boosted by their all-new three-row SUV twins, the Palisade and Telluride.

BMW trumps Mercedes-Benz & Lexus in the luxury race

Moving onto the premium echelons of the automotive ecosystem, BMW led the standings selling 324,826 cars and SUVs in 2019. The X3 and X5 were big contributors to that number with the 3-Series also chipping in handsomely. Hot on BMW's heels was Mercedes-Benz (316,094) with the GLC emerging the top-seller. Lexus (298,114) finished the year in third position not that far off the leading Germans.