Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs In America – May 2011

Whether or not Ford cares, there appears to be little doubt that the 2011 Ford Explorer is eating away at sales of the Ford Edge. One reason Ford won’t care: the Edge was still America’s seventh-best-selling utility vehicle in May. Another reason not to care: altogether, Ford SUV sales totalled 51,982 last month, up 12.7% from May 2010’s total when the Explorer was all but all-new.

By themselves, Ford’s five utility vehicles – the three you see below plus the Flex and Expedition – owned 4.9% of the overall new vehicle market in the United States in May. Pair Ford’s dominance with the effects of March 11th’s disasters in Japan – now being firmly felt by Honda, Toyota, Nissan and others – and there are barely enough SUV buyers to go around for Ford’s foreign rivals. These points have been made on GoodCarBadCar.net before, so rather than belabour them any longer, consider a couple of other facts stemming from the list of the Top 10 Best-Selling SUVs in America you’ll scroll through in a moment.

The Jeep Wrangler, one of the planet’s most old-fashioned new vehicles, posted a 3.9% year-over-year increase in May. “That’s nothing special,” you say, “After all, Kia Sorento sales rose 45.8%.” True, but it’s recently been revealed that the Wrangler will soon feature the powerful Pentastar V6 and a 5-speed automatic. This basically means that America’s favourite off-roader could be even more popular come this time next year. Moreover, the Wrangler was the best-selling Jeep in May, ahead of the civilized Grand Cherokee. And while the 3.9% gain seems small, any increase in a market which shrunk 4% can be celebrated. The Jeep Wrangler, by the way, is a member of GoodCarBadCar.net’s The Good 12.