How many Ford Model-Ts have you seen on the road, lately? Is it more than the number of Volkswagen Beetles or Toyota Corollas you’ve seen around town or on the freeway?
Personally, I liked to see more Model-Ts. But according to the automotive news web site, Automoportal.com, the Model T and the Corolla have a lot in common. Both are among the top-five best-selling cars in history.
Here’s the list of the top-five best-selling cars in history and a comment on each vehicle:
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1. Toyota Corolla. It’s now more than 40 years and it’s been manufactured in nine generations and more than 35 million have sold. It’s topped the all-time bestseller list since 1997.
2. Ford F Series Pickup. So far, 25 million have been sold. At a rate of 1 million cars sold per year, that translates into one every 30 seconds.
3. Volkswagen Golf. With 24 million Golfs sold since 1974, the sports GTi version recently celebrated its 30th birthday.
4. Volkswagen Beetle. The story goes that Adolf Hitler designed the car on a paper towel. And nearly 21.1 million have sold in the last 60 years.
5. Ford Model T. “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” It’s among the greatest adages in automotive history and it worked — for 16.5 million customers.
Article Last Updated: February 27, 2008.
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A sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004.
In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida.
An author and contributor to many newspapers, magazines and online publications, co-hosted The Weekly Driver Podcast from 2017 to 2024.
