
The Ford Fiesta comes in 5th position at 765,465 units ahead of the Hyundai Elantra.

Then, a crowded pack, consisting of the Wuling Sunshine with 731,689 sales and not the 900,000+ reported by Forbes, the Chevrolet Cruze (the best-selling passenger car coming out of a General Motors factory this year), Ford F-Series and VW Jetta. Suddenly it all makes sense, doesn’t it?

The Iranian Saipa Pride is at #13 – yes it doesn’t make any sense to add it to the 2012 Kia Forte as Forbes did: they absolutely have nothing in common. So I divorced them.

The best-selling SUV in the world is the Honda CR-V at #20 with an estimated 530,000 units.
World’s Top 30 best-selling cars in 2011:
Pos Model 2011
1 Toyota Corolla 1,141,709
2 Ford Focus 882,551
3 VW Golf 864,452
4 VW Polo 788,789
5 Ford Fiesta 767,465
6 Hyundai Elantra 751,967
7 Wuling Sunshine 731,689
8 Chevrolet Cruze 704,691
9 Ford F-Series 698,319
10 VW Jetta 695,159
11 VW Passat 628,097
12 Toyota Camry 621,679
13 Saipa Pride 618,265
14 Opel Corsa 591,505
15 Nissan Tiida/Versa 568,319
16 Toyota Yaris/Vios 556,092
17 Honda Civic 555,071
18 Suzuki Alto 549,931
19 Hyundai Accent 541,519
20 Honda CR-V 530,000
21 Hyundai Sonata 499,168
22 Toyota Hilux 490,000
23 Honda Accord 488,000
24 VW Gol/Voyage 479,135
25 Chevrolet Silverado 468,977
26 Renault Clio 460,000
27 Opel Astra 457,957
28 Hyundai Tucson/ix35 420,649
29 Kia Cerato/Forte 410,709
30 Foton Forland 403,000
But where’s the Top 100 I hear you ask? Fear not, You can check out 2011′s Top 105 best-selling models in the world here
Note this is not an official ranking but based on the country-by-country information, some official annual sales data by manufacturer and my best informed estimates.