The most popular car in the world -- of all time, in fact, -- is the Toyota Corolla, with more than 43 million units sold worldwide since 1966. It's built at 16 plants worldwide, including Toyota plants in Mississippi and Canada. Toyota sold 1,160,495 units of the efficient and reliable compact in 2017, easily beating the Honda Civic and Volkswagen Golf, ranked 2nd and 3rd, which sold 833,017 and 788,044 vehicles, respectively, according to LMC data.
But it's worth noting that an SUV, Toyota's RAV4, almost broke into the top three with global sales of 786,580 units. Two other SUVs, the Honda CR-V and Ford Escape, also made the top 10. Ford's F-Series pickups were also among the top sellers, primarily due to their popularity in North America.
"Globally, small cars still win when you look at the volume because they dominate many markets," said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of global forecasting at LMC. But the growth of SUVs is a worldwide trend that's picking up steam. "Back in 2013 when we did this, there were only four SUVs in the top 20. In 2017, that number grew to seven and we see continued growth ahead."
Other SUVs in the Top 20 include the Nissan Qashqai (No. 12), Hyundai Tuscon (No. 16), Volkswagen Tiguan (No. 17) and China's Great Wall Motors' Haval H6 (No. 20).