Even top sellers seeing decline thanks to fuel costs

While some drivers might think there’s an increasing amount of SUVs and pickup trucks on the road nowadays, 2007 might have changed such logic.

According to an MSNBC list of the top-selling cars of 2007, trucks and SUVs are giving way to more mid-sized sedans, with cars such as the Chevrolet Impala and Nissan Altima being among the top 10 cars sold last year.

One likely reason for fewer SUV and pickup truck sales last year was the high cost of fuel. While SUVs and pickups provide certain benefits smaller sedans and cars simply can’t produce, fuel-efficiency is rarely one of those benefits. Couple that with high fuel costs and the decline in SUV and pickup sales was no great surprise.

Still, the most popular-selling vehicle of 2007 was Ford’s F-Series pickup, which also was the top-selling car or truck of 2006. While the number of F-Series units sold was not as high in 2007 as the year prior, it was enough to earn the popular pickup series the top spot once again.

And the F-Series wasn’t the lone pickup truck among the top 10. The Chevrolet Silverado was the second most popular vehicle of 2007, while the Dodge Ram came in at ninth on the list.

The rest of the top 10 list was largely made up of import sedans. Honda had two cars rate in the top 10, with their long popular models the Accord (fourth) and the Civic (sixth) having another strong sales year in 2007.

The Toyota Camry was the most popular car in 2007, coming in at third overall. Others to make the list included the Toyota Corolla (fifth), the Impala (seventh) and the Altima (eighth).

Interestingly enough, the Honda CR-V, a smaller SUV offering many of the benefits of a standard SUV and better gas mileage as well, was tenth on the list, proving that consumers still like SUVs but prefer ones that aren’t so hard on the pocketbook when pulling up to the pump.