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All of the top 10 models are global nameplates built in a range of countries, including the Corolla which is now into its tenth generation and has a winning margin over the Focus of more than 100,000 sales.
The world's all-time favourite car is also the world's current favourite.
The Toyota Corolla tops the showroom league tables for 2009, ahead of the Ford Focus and Fiesta, according to figures from Forbes in the USA. Worldwide vehicle production was down by nearly eight per cent last year, but the full-year total was still more than 60 million with China in number one spot — and heading for 2010 sales of more than 16 million.
There are no surprises in the top-10 rankings but the results do not include trucks or SUVs, where the Ford F-Series reigned as America's best-seller — ahead of the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord passenger cars — for more than a decade before the global financial crisis.
The Volkswagen Golf fills number four spot off the back of its success in Europe, and a string of major awards including last year's Carsguide Car of the Year, although it was recently overtaken there by the Fiesta.
All of the top 10 models are global nameplates built in a range of countries, including the Corolla which is now into its tenth generation and has a winning margin over the Focus of more than 100,000 sales. Honda's Civic and Accord are helped by their popularity in the USA, like the Camry, while the baby Peugeot 207 makes the list with help from fans across Europe.
However, Ford and Volkswagen still dominate the list of the world's all-time most successful vehicles, even if the Toyota Corolla sits on top. Combined sales of Ford's F-Series trucks — from the working-class F100 to the giant F350 and beyond — now top 25 million and more than 16.5 million T-Model Fords were built at the dawn of affordable motoring.
Total production of the Corolla is beyond 35 million cars, while the Volkswagen Golf tops 24 million more than 21 million Beetles were built before VW ended production in Mexico in 2003.
GLOBAL TOP 10 — 2009
1. Toyota Corolla, 908,661
2. Ford Focus, 781,139
3. Ford Fiesta, 724,502
4. Volkswagen Golf, 705,276
5. Honda Civic, 686,000
6. Toyota Camry, 679,117
7. Honda Accord, 586,584
8. Peugeot 207, 536,090
9. Volkswagen Polo, 467,067
10. Toyota Yaris, 466,267
ALL-TIME BEST SELLERS
1. Toyota Corolla
2. Ford F-Series
3. Volkswagen Golf
2. Volkswagen Beetle
3. Ford Model T
