And the Best-Selling Automobile of 2009 was…
…the Ford F series pickup…again.
The honored F was redone for ‘09. But once the shining child of the American auto market, the F is far from its prime. The pickup achieved its high-point in ‘04 with almost 940,000 units sold. The number for ‘09? Well under 414,000. With all the cash, advertising, and labor put into it, the F couldn’t break out of the recession’s pull. The Chevrolet Silverado (#3) was well behind it with 317,000, and Dodge Ram (#10) came in with a rather weak 177,000 units.
The big truck losers? The GMC Sierra came nowhere near the Silverado’s numbers (112,000), making the argument for us that it’s time to assimilate the damn thing into the Chevy line. The Toyota Tundra, Nissan Titan, Honda Ridgeline, and Ford Explorer were nowhere to be seen. The smaller Tacoma, Escape, and RAV4 all did well, however.
The Toyota Camry was the top car and #2 overall. The sale decline with the Camry was small, as the sedan managed to push out 357,000 units. Behind it were the Corolla with 297,000, the Honda Accord with 290,000, and Civic with 260,000. The only American car to break into the top ten was Ford’s Fusion. That came in at #9 with 181,000.
Toyota Reeling from Record Number of Safety Recalls
So much for Toyota dependability: the Japanese automaker had the most recalled vehicles in 2009.
Of the approximately 4,870,000 vehicles pulled from the road, the vast majority were related to “unintended acceleration.” The exact cause is unknown, but it was initially claimed to be from poorly designed floor mats, though Toyota did push ahead with gas pedal replacements. About 110,000 Toyota trucks were also recalled due to prematurely rusting frames, resulting in Toyota extending its warranty coverage to fifteen years. Before that, Toyota had to settle a case against it over charges of oil sludge buildup within its engines.
Consumer Reports, a longtime supporter of Toyota, was forced to concede its practice of automatically recommending the company’s vehicles would have to cease. Both the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have placed Toyota vehicles under review.
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