THE ULTIMATE CAR GUIDE: Car Features - The Best Sellers of 2000

Welcome to the year 2000, where everyone survived the Y2K bug, where the common phone is the 3310, and Facebook hadn't been invented yet. So, I saw this article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer and they revealed the top selling cars of the millennium year (per category). Not all car companies such as GM Automobiles (Opel, Chevrolet) are members of CAMPI, which do not report sales figures. Let us now go to a trip down memory lane.
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That category alone was the hottest segment in the market with most of them buying as a dual purpose vehicle which they use for family and business purposes. Seen here is the Revo, which incidentally is the best selling car in the country, for the second time around. Playing catch-up is the Adventure and Hilander while the old body Tamaraw FX managed to sell 950 units (probably to shuttle operators).

Toyota Revo

Units Sold: 11,818

Units Sold in 1999: 11,317

Difference between 1999: 4%

Mitsubishi Adventure

Units Sold: 6,824

Units Sold in 1999: 4,709

Difference between 1999: 45%

Isuzu Hilander

Units Sold: 4,303

Units Sold in 1999: 2,521

Difference between 1999: 71%

Toyota Tamaraw FX

Units Sold: 953

Units Sold in 1999: 1,038

Difference between 1999: -8%

Sub-Compacts and Compacts

The second most popular category, and the number one in this segment is the Honda Civic, which held against modern rivals and its swan song as it was to be replaced for 2001. Other best sellers include its smaller brother City, Nissan Sentra Exalta, and the Toyota Corolla.

Honda Civic

Units Sold: 5,456
Units Sold in 1999: 6,827

Difference between 1999: -20%

Toyota Corolla

Units Sold: 5,349

Units Sold in 1999: 5,548

Difference between 1999: -4%

Nissan Sentra

Units Sold: 4,853

Units Sold in 1999: 3,348

Difference between 1999: 45%

Honda City

Units Sold: 3,391

Units Sold in 1999: 2,443

Difference between 1999: 39%

Premium sedans

Ok, I would be renaming it from midsize since most of the cars categorized are sold in the region of a million pesos. During this period, Nissan's Cefiro was a favorite followed by the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.

Nissan Cefiro

Units Sold: 686

Units Sold in 1999: 569

Difference between 1999: 21%

Honda Accord

Units Sold: 610

Units Sold in 1999: 770

Difference between 1999: -21%

Toyota Camry

Units Sold: 338

Luxury sedans

And you'll be here for a shocker, the best selling luxury car is from the land of ABBA. Volvo's S80 was the reason (they sold 112 of them) to be the market leader. BMW and Mercedes Benz were the follow up players in a rather discerning category.

*Pictures show the best seller per brand

Volvo

Units Sold: 225 (112 are S80's, 113 are split of other models)

Difference Between 1999: 40%

BMW

Units Sold: 158

Difference Between 1999: -56%

Mercedes Benz

Units Sold: 155

Difference Between 1999: 474%

Vans

This one is a rather silent category, but a smattering piece of vans that have different sizes and target markets are clamped together. The Hyundai Starex would have been the sure winner but with its grey market status, it is not counted here, thus the honor goes to the Toyota Hiace. Next to it are the Kia vans (Besta, Carnival, Pregio) and Mitsubishi vans (L300 and Spacegear) in the list.

Toyota Hiace

Units Sold: 3,076

Units Sold in 1999: 2,245

Difference between 1999: 37%

Kia Besta/Carnival/Pregio (combined)

Units Sold: 1,333

Mitsubishi L300/Spacegear (combined)

Units Sold: 1,041

Pick-ups

The Inquirer article lists them separately (4x2 and 4x4), so we will have them combined here if there is data available for both. Overall, the favorite back then is the Nissan Frontier with other sellers from Isuzu, Mitsubishi, and Ford. Toyota's Hilux is a floater here, but became a favorite later on.

Nissan Frontier

Units Sold: 2,326 (combined 4x2 and 4x4)

Isuzu Fuego

Units Sold: 2,014 (4x2 figures)

Ford F-150 and Ranger (combined sales, Explorer Sport Trac not counted)

Units Sold: 1,718 (combined 4x2 and 4x4)

Mitsubishi L200 Strada

Units Sold: 1,130

SUVs

Among the few competitors back then, SUVs are crammed into one category regardless of size and price. Despite the influx of new competitors, the small Honda CR-V became the favorite of Filipino buyers despite an expensive price tag. Other favorites include the *surprise* Ford Expedition (probably Brother Luistro's unit was counted) and the Mitsubishi Pajero.