Bestselling Retail Passenger Car in 2021 is the Honda Civic
In 2021, the bestselling passenger car in the U.S. was the Toyota Camry with 313,795 units sold. The second bestselling passenger car was the Honda Civic with 263,787 units sold. However, excluding fleet sales, the Civic performed better than the Camry as well as any other car — a feat it has managed for six years in a row, Honda will remind you.
Yes, even as passenger cars dwindle in the face of mounting SUV popularity, the battle between the Honda Civic and Toyota Camry, historically the two highest selling non-utility vehicles in the United States, remains as fierce as ever. So fierce that automakers must continually resort to technicalities to win their enduring game of Who Sold The Most Cars This Year.
Honda vs Toyota: How the Civic stacks up to the competition
The Civic also grabbed a quarter of all compact car buyers in 2021 and has been the bestselling vehicles among millennials since 2011. And while these are impressive achievements, it’s safe to say that once a car enjoys a level of popularity as the high as the Civic does, it probably doesn’t matter if it sells more or less than its main rival.
After all, everyone already knows about the Civic and how good it is. In fact, the all-new 2022 model, which propelled the Civic into its 11th generation, was named the 2022 North American Car of the Year — arguably the most prestigious accolade in the industry. And for the past three years, the Civic is the top-selling certified pre-owned car in America and according to J.D. Power, it is now the car with the most residual value in its segment.
Second bestselling passenger car by total volume or bestselling retail passenger car — it doesn’t really matter. The Civic is excellent, and we all know it. That’s why over a quarter of a million people bought one in 2021.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.