GM Inside News Forum banner

America's Top Ten Sellers of 2003

2K views 25 replies 17 participants last post by  yoblues 
#1 ·
1. Ford F-Series
821,865

2. Chevrolet Silverado
684,302

3. Dodge Ram
449,371

4. Toyota Camry
413,296

5. Honda Accord
397,750

6. Ford Taurus
300,496

7. Honda Civic
299,672

8. Ford Explorer
268,644

9. Chevrolet Impala
267,882

10. Chevrolet Cavalier
256,550

Source: MSN
 
See less See more
#9 ·
Have you driven a Camry? I can't believe those things sell. Their suspension not only manages to give you a stiff ride, but still suck during any sort of dynamic driving. Usually you get one or the other. Oh, the much talked about Toyota interior looks like a boring expanse of tan plastic.

See, I was wondering if maybe there was something I was missing, so I've been test-driving everything I can get my hands on. (I've also been bored :D ) I love my GM's even more after driving the heaps Japan is flushing onto our roads.
However, I do give props to the Accord, I was totally put off the brand after driving my girl's '01 Civic, but the Accord is a different animal. It has uber-stiff ride but at least it handles ok, and the engine is weak, but can pull for enough RPM's it actually wheezes out some performance.

After driving all sorts of crap I figure Toyota and Honda want to be like BMW---
"Hey guys, if we put a high sticker on our cars people will think they're great.....Just because of the sticker price!! Mwahahahaha!"

Too bad American consumers fall for that crap every time.
 
#10 ·
Yeah, I've driven a Camry on a number of occasions. Keep in mind I'm comparing it to a Taurus though. Here are my impressions on the Camry....

Very quiet, rides nice, engine power is pretty good (it can get out if it's own way). Handling is better than I expected.

That said....It's a very bo-ring car! I get the feeling I'm driving around in a sensory depravation chamber! I prefer excitement. I like to hear the engine. I like to know and feel what the car is doing.

Would I buy a Camry? No. Given the choice of only Taurus and Camry? Well, maybe then. If I was desperate. Maybe I'm odd, but I much prefer my Z28!

If I needed a car with more utility I'd probably go with a Maxx LS. :)
 
#12 ·
of course I like too "driving excitement"! My w/e car is a '89 GTA 350 tpi, I definately don't like boring ride... but people who buy camry/acord, want reliability first. thy are one step from getting an suv or minivan. now, is a minivan a "driver's" car??
seriously, I have NO ideea who buys taurus, they should simply disapear, they don't stand a chance.

we need serious cars, like the new malibu!
 
#13 ·
Originally posted by Hudson@Jan 23 2004, 06:34 PM
If you were to add in the 196,000 Sierras, GM's two brands (and 2,000 more dealers) would pass Ford's one brand by a lowly 60,000 units.
Also, add the Century, Regal, Monte, Impala, and Grand Prix and they would outsell the Camry and Accord by 200,000 units. And thats not even including the N-Car... thats where GM gets hurt - proliferated brands... but It helps provide variety and gain more sales...
 
#14 ·
Good grief!! :eek:
The Impala is on the list????? I went on a 1 month business trip around the US, which gave me a chance to sample a lot of rental cars. I sooooo wanted to get rid of the mazda 626 and Impala and Monte Carlo. The only car that impressed me was this Buick Regal I had. It had a LOT more pep than I ever expected and had decent handling.

UGH... of all the cars in GM's lineup... the Impala. :plasma:
 
#15 ·
Originally posted by mgescuro@Jan 24 2004, 01:03 AM
Good grief!! :eek:
The Impala is on the list????? I went on a 1 month business trip around the US, which gave me a chance to sample a lot of rental cars. I sooooo wanted to get rid of the mazda 626 and Impala and Monte Carlo. The only car that impressed me was this Buick Regal I had. It had a LOT more pep than I ever expected and had decent handling.

UGH... of all the cars in GM's lineup... the Impala. :plasma:
key word rental fleet. i like the new impala i drive my parents sometimes and it is great. im thinking of getting one for myself.
 
#16 ·
Originally posted by Hudson@Jan 23 2004, 06:34 PM
If you were to add in the 196,000 Sierras, GM's two brands (and 2,000 more dealers) would pass Ford's one brand by a lowly 60,000 units.
Geez hudson
Lowly 60000 units? Last time I checked there were entire models that dont sell more than 30000 units. I dont think 60000 units is lowly. :type:
 
#17 ·
Originally posted by Smilingoat+Jan 24 2004, 08:02 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Smilingoat @ Jan 24 2004, 08:02 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-mgescuro@Jan 24 2004, 01:03 AM
Good grief!! :eek:
The Impala is on the list?????  I went on a 1 month business trip around the US, which gave me a chance to sample a lot of rental cars.  I sooooo wanted to get rid of the mazda 626 and Impala and Monte Carlo.  The only car that impressed me was this Buick Regal I had.  It had a LOT more pep than I ever expected and had decent handling.

UGH... of all the cars in GM's lineup... the Impala.  :plasma:
key word rental fleet. i like the new impala i drive my parents sometimes and it is great. im thinking of getting one for myself. [/b][/quote]
The Impala has the highest quality rating for the past 3 years in its segment... bettering camry, accord... the exterior styling is good, however, the interior is very outdated. Overall a very good car - gets fuel mileage awards, has suffiicent power and does the job well... wait till '06 and see a honda/toyota killer... trust me.
 
#18 ·
Originally posted by SilverZ+Jan 24 2004, 02:44 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (SilverZ @ Jan 24 2004, 02:44 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
Originally posted by Smilingoat@Jan 24 2004, 08:02 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-mgescuro
@Jan 24 2004, 01:03 AM
Good grief!! :eek:
The Impala is on the list?????  I went on a 1 month business trip around the US, which gave me a chance to sample a lot of rental cars.  I sooooo wanted to get rid of the mazda 626 and Impala and Monte Carlo.  The only car that impressed me was this Buick Regal I had.  It had a LOT more pep than I ever expected and had decent handling.

UGH... of all the cars in GM's lineup... the Impala.  :plasma:

key word rental fleet. i like the new impala i drive my parents sometimes and it is great. im thinking of getting one for myself.
The Impala has the highest quality rating for the past 3 years in its segment... bettering camry, accord... the exterior styling is good, however, the interior is very outdated. Overall a very good car - gets fuel mileage awards, has suffiicent power and does the job well... wait till '06 and see a honda/toyota killer... trust me. [/b][/quote]
I hope so. My parents qualify (sadly) as the Honda crowd. They were looking seriously @ the Impala and said "...well, this would have been good five years ago..." OUCH! Then again, my mother, the Accord driver, went to test-drive a new one and said "Ummm... This doesn't drive like my old Accord (1996)..." She complained the handling was far more of a large car than that of the old Accord...

Now she's on an AWD kick... looking at 2-3 yr old Audi A4 and A6's. She loves the SAAB 9-3, but again WANTS AWD. And she doesn't like the Subarus...

Gotta love car shopping...

My father is also shopping...for a pickup or SUV... likes the Colorado, but was turned off by the reclining seats being a package... now he's flocking to the Nissan Titan <_<

That looks like 2 more lost sales for GM... :(
 
#19 ·
We need to get Ram off the top 10, like we did with the Ford Explorer. If we do, Malibu might have room to get inside. Malibu needs to attack the competitors. Saying that the Malibu has more mpg in its class, and more features for less money will make the Malibu more famous, instead of showing stupid commercials with people getting out and into the car. That won't help :plasma:
Gm's gotta attack the imports, and get them away. Just like Toyota is able to attack the domestic by saying 'we've got the better selection than any other automaker'. GM needs to get cracking, and say bad stuff about the imports. If it works, I'll be seeing an American Revolution soon. When Chevy gets the Impala, Cavalier, Malibu, Silverado, and Trailblazer packed into the top 20, that's when they stop attacking. When they get them into the top 10, they have to provide cool new features to give the vehicles a fresh look. By 2007, here's what I want to see:

1. Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra (if they would count them together)
450,000 units

2. Ford F-150
345,000 units

3. Chevrolet Malibu
325,000 units

4. Toyota Camry
300,000 units

5. Chevrolet Impala
260,000 units

6. Chevrolet Cobalt
259,000 units

7. Honda Accord
245,000 units

8. Chevrolet Trailblazer
235,000 units

9. Pontiac G6
230,000 units

10. Honda Civic/Ford Taurus
210,000 units

:D Yeah, in my dreams. Until Chevy can redesign Impala, and finally make it good, don't expect my dreams to become reality....but still, Chevrolet looks to be doing good in the sales. Congrats Chevy.
 
#20 ·
:lol:
That's unrealistic... yup. Grand Am used to be on the Top 10 list. But now I guess it's an "unloved" car? Hmmm... Whatever.
G6 has the potential. I'd like to see the Impala out of the Top 10. A car that ugly outside and inside and lack luster performance doesn't deserve a spot in the Top 10. i think Cobalt sould easily hit those numbers. I'd like to see ION climb up into the list too... once they fix its perceived problems.
 
#22 ·
The Taurus is only in the top ten because of fleet sales. Same for the Impala. The Cavalier is the cheapest domestic vehicle you can get thanks to the ludicrous rebates, so if it weren't in the top ten, I'd be surprised. Those of you who bash the Focus need to wake up and realize it's not 2001 anymore. The vehicle is one of the best built small cars around. Yes, the early models had a large number of recalls, but from the 2002 model year on, they've been great. If you bitch about it, you're no better than the typical Honda/Toyota buyer who claims that domestic cars are low quality, even though the last one they drove was a 1980's Chrysler k-car.

It's no surprise that the F-series is the top selling vehicle, of course. Nor does it surprise me that the top three vehicles are trucks. As for #4 and #5... I don't get the Camry or Accord. They're so boring and generic as to seriously turn me off from the entire brand. They're fine if you want to go from point a to point b, but if you want to drive, then there's a lot of other cars out there that are better.

For as much as we see SUVs on the road, it's curious to see the Explorer being the only one in the top ten. I suspect this is more because GM has so many different SUVs (many of which are the fundamentally the same) that no individual one sells well enough to make the top ten. Before you try to point out the differences, you might want to retract your arguments about the Silverado/Sierra being the same truck and therefore outselling the F-series. Collectively, SUVs are probably the second best selling vehicle (pickups still being #1 no doubt).

To those griping about the F-series not selling as much as the combined Silverado/Sierra, well... that's what happens when you have three truck brands (Chevy, GMC, and Hummer) -- you lose a lot of bragging rights for individual vehicles, and that actually does attract buyers and build reputations. Much of the general public believes that the F-series is really the ultimate truck, and this isn't just because it's such a great truck - it's also because of the repeated "best selling vehicle in America for over 20 years" tagline. That is repeated often enough to stick in the minds of the buying public. So when they decide to buy a truck, the F-150 is many times one of the first vehicles they think about. The Toyota Tundra is a nice alternative to an S-10, Dakota, or Ranger. But if you want a full size truck, you've got the F-150, Silverado, Ram, Sierra, and Titan. Of those, the Ram is getting rather long in the tooth, and the Titan is.. well.. I refuse to buy one on principle, but even objectively speaking, I'd prefer the F-150 to it. The S twins are not terribly impressive to me. From a purely advertising perspective, only the F-150 has effective commercials for it. The latest Silverado commercial talking about how it has the highest resale value of any truck makes me laugh. I don't give a hoot about resale value when I'm buying a vehicle, especially not a truck! I care much more about power, warranty, comfort, ride quality, and things like that. Nobody buys a vehicle based on resale value. It's really kind of a non-issue for most folks, so I don't see why Chevy is harping on that issue so much. The one commercial for the Titan that keeps talking about being the first in the industry with a power retracting rear window is pathetic. Yeah, when I buy a truck, that's an important feature for me.... NOT. Ram commercials lately are focusing mostly on the Hemi, which is probably about the only real selling point they have anymore, because the Ram is in serious need of an update. The design was bold and fresh when it first came out back in the early 90's, but now it's just a bit too old to be fully competitive anymore. Say what you will about the F-150, but the marketing has been truely impressive, and undeniably effective. A lot of people perceive it as being the best truck you can buy -- even some Chevy/Dodge fans are admitting that they'd rather have the F-150.

Anyway, this post went from a short little paragraph to a freaking mini novel, so.... I'm done now.
 
#25 ·
Originally posted by awalbert88@Jan 25 2004, 04:09 AM
If you bitch about it, you're no better than the typical Honda/Toyota buyer who claims that domestic cars are low quality, even though the last one they drove was a 1980's Chrysler k-car.
Hey! My family's 1985 Dodge Aries (K car) was one of the most reliable cars we've ever owned. Don't be dissing my (fmr.) K car! :lol: j/k .. I know what you were saying. :D
 
#26 ·
Japan has been winning with cars for two reasons. GM and the rest have been concentrating on trucks and suv's for years. Also in GM's case they have to spread the money over 5 car lines and 1 dedicated truck line in the US alone never mind their overseas brands. Toyota and Honda have two car lines. If there was only Chevy and Caddy compeating against them in the U. S. and Chevy and Caddy had all the GM money things would look different. GM is a massive corperation and sometimes large entities are slow to react where smaller companies Toyota/Honda can react quicker. Less suit/beancounters potecting their turf. Thats why you get a Cavilier thats been around for a decade when the Civic gets remade about every four years. Hopefully the lessons of the past have been learned cause the competition is only going to get worse in the future.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top