By James Raia
Pickup trucks once again led vehicle sales in the United States in 2020. It was expected. What wasn’t expected was how much the coronavirus hurt the automotive industry. It was alarming.
Overall, 14.4 million vehicles were sold in the U.S. in 2020, a 14.8 percent decline from 2019.
The top-10 best-selling vehicle list had two changes from 2019 to 2020. The Toyota Tacoma and GMC Sierra were new additions to the list, replacing the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Rogue.
Pickup track sales stumble in 2020
For the 39th consecutive year, the Ford F-150 was the country’s top-selling vehicle in the U.S. last year, even with the big decline.
According to several automotive analyst companies and search engines, here are percent increases and decreases among the top-10-selling vehicles in the country from 2019 to 2020:
Ford F-Series (down 12.2%); Chevrolet Silverado (up 3.2%); Ram pickup (down 11%); Toyota RAV4 (down 3.9%); Honda CR-V (down 13.2%); Toyota Camry (down 12.7%); Chevrolet Equinox (down 21.7%); Honda Civic (down 19.8%); GMC Sierra (up 8.9%); Toyota Tacoma (down 4%).
James Raia, a syndicated columnist in Sacramento, California, publishes a free weekly automotive podcast and electronic newsletter. Sign-ups are available on his website, www.theweeklydriver.com. He can be reached via email: james@jamesraia.com.
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Truck manufacturers still want to sell trucks like cars. Truck owners want reliability, economy and durability, not one hundred miles an hour.