Top 20 Best-Selling SUVs In America - 2011 Year End

The 2013 Ford EcoSport wasn't one of
America's best-selling SUVs in 2011.

In America, in 2011, the Ford Escape was far and away the country's best-selling SUV. Okay, it's true, the Escape is not really a sport-utility vehicle by the classic definition. But automobiles are increasingly difficult to define, so an old-fashioned term like SUV works fine for the purposes of establishing best sellers. 

And the Escape is most def a best seller. Fer realz. Or so the kids say. Perhaps the new Escape will even be epic, sweet, and sick. 

Trailing the Escape by nearly 36,000 sales in 2011 was the Honda CR-V, another vehicle which has also recently been revamped. Unlike the Escape, which posted a 33% sales improvement in its last year on sale, the CR-V slid 7.2%. In 2010, the Honda CR-V was America's favourite SUV.

There are eleven so-called "domestic" utility vehicles on this list. Domestic means that the brands originated, in some way or another, in Detroit, Michigan. There are also two Korean SUVs, the platform-sharing Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe. That leaves seven Japanese vehicles, from the CR-V to the plunging-in-popularity Toyota RAV4 to the people-usually-just-choose-an-Outback-but-not-this-time-Subaru Forester, down 10% in 2011. Stuck in there somewhere, in 15th spot to be precise, is the only premium utility in the bunch, Lexus's RX. The RX is Lexus's most popular model. The same can be said for the Grand Cherokee at Jeep and Kia's Sorento.

These were America's 20 most popular sport-utility vehicles, crossovers, CUVs, and tall & rugged wagons in 2011. This list will not read the same a year from now.

Rank	Best-Selling SUV	2011	2010	% Change
#1	Ford Escape	254,293	191,026	+ 33.1%
#2	Honda CR-V	218,373	203,714	+ 7.2%
#3	Chevrolet Equinox	193,274	149,979	+ 28.9%
#4	Ford Explorer	135,704	60,687	+ 124%
#5	Toyota RAV4	132,237	170,877	- 22.6%
#6	Kia Sorento	130,235	108,985	+ 19.5%
#7	Jeep Grand Cherokee	127,744	84,635	+ 50.9%
#8	Nissan Rogue	124,543	99,515	+ 25.1%
#9	Jeep Wrangler	122,460	94,310	+ 29.8%
#10	Ford Edge	121,702	118,637	+ 2.6%
#11	Honda Pilot	116,297	102,323	+ 13.7%
#12	Chevrolet Traverse	107,131	107,744	+ 0.4%
#13	Toyota Highlander	101,252	92,121	+ 9.9%
#14	GMC Terrain	83,179	60,519	+ 37.4%
#15	Lexus RX	82,595	95,790	- 13.8%
#16	Chevrolet Tahoe	80,527	75,675	+ 6.4%
#17	GMC Acadia	79,288	68,295	+ 16.1%
#18	Subaru Forester	76,196	85,080	- 10.4%
#19	Hyundai Santa Fe	74,391	76,680	- 2.3%
#20	Jeep Liberty	66,684	49,564	+ 34.5%

Source: Manufacturers & ANDC 
Red font indicates year-over-year declining sales

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