Top 10 Best-Selling Vehicles for 2012

Listen closely and you'll hear a collective sigh of relief from automakers, who are no doubt pleased that sales are back on track after the rocky road that the industry traveled just a few short years ago. For 2012, total light vehicle sales were up 13.4 percent relative to 2011. The economy is showing real signs of improvement, and people are buying cars again.

The 10 models listed below led the pack from a sales perspective. Once again, the mighty Ford F-150 was at the top of the heap. The Toyota Camry — the country's best-selling midsize sedan — was in 2nd place, trailed closely by the Honda Accord. Small was big last year. The compact-car segment was a dominant force on our list, represented by the Ford Focus, Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. Compact SUVs also sold well, as is evidenced by the strong performance of the Honda CR-V and Ford Escape.

Keep in mind that our vehicle sales numbers are more granular than those reported elsewhere — instead of lumping all Ford F-Series sales into a single number, for example, we report separate numbers for the F-150, F-250, F-350 and F-450. As a result, our rankings may differ slightly from those published in other sources.

1. 

   1. Ford F-150

Numbers of units sold: 434,585

Numbers of units sold: 359,241

Numbers of units sold: 331,872

Numbers of units sold: 310,753

Numbers of units sold: 306,127

Numbers of units sold: 302,831

Numbers of units sold: 286,432

Numbers of units sold: 281,652

Numbers of units sold: 259,567

Numbers of units sold: 245,922