World's most popular cars
April 28, 2010
The Toyota Corolla is the world's most popular car.
Toyota’s Corolla was the world’s top-selling car last year.
Toyota’s recent massive recall of more than 8 million cars
highlighted the potential hazards of building a world car, but the
company has also reaped the rewards, producing three of the top 10
selling cars in the world in 2009.
The Japanese giant basically builds the same car for every market in
the world, with minor modifications to suspension and engine
line-ups to suit local tastes. The high-volume approach pays
dividends in lower tooling, development and production costs.
According to figures compiled by economic forecaster IHS Global
Insight and published by Forbes magazine in the United States,
Toyota’s Corolla was the world’s most popular car in 2010, while the
Camry and Yaris also made the top 10.
The “One Ford” strategy - which threatens the extinction of Ford’s
locally-built Falcon – has seen the Focus small car and the Fiesta
city runabout move into second and third place respectively.
Fiesta’s global sales should improve even further when the car is
launched in the US later this year. The car toppled Europe’s
perennial best-seller, the Volkswagen Golf, in the first quarter of
this year.
Volkswagen’s dominance of the
booming Chinese market has pushed its Golf and Polo into the top 10,
while Honda’s popularity in the United States sees it field two
top-10 cars, the Civic small car and the mid-size Accord.
Number eight on the top seller list will surprise many Australians;
the Peugeot 207 small car is a niche player in our local market –
and doesn’t sell in the United States – but its popularity in Europe
seals it a place among the blockbuster sellers.
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