Answer: Toyota Corolla

If you get the feeling that every parking lot in America has a Toyota Corolla in it because you just keep noticing them everywhere you go, you’re probably not wrong. It might be a stretch to say every parking lot has a Corolla in it, but not much of a stretch: the Corolla is the best selling car in automotive history.

Introduced in 1966 as a sub-compact car (and later updated and expanded in 1991 to its present compact car status), the Corolla first broke sales records in 1974 when it became the best selling car worldwide. It has been one of the best-selling cars in the world since then and as of 2013 over 40 million Corollas have been sold. In the United States alone Toyota has sold over four million Corollas since 2000.

Although Toyota production has expanded to plants around the globe, the original factory, the Toyota Takaoko Assembly Plant (located in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan), has continuously produced Corollas since production began there over 40 years ago.

Before we leave the subject of best selling cars, however, here is one more bit of trivia for our North American readers. You might have been inclined to say that the Ford F-series trucks were the best selling vehicle. While the Ford trucks might not be the best selling in the entire world, they are the best selling vehicle in America and Canada. When you factor in all the different models within the F-series, Ford has done very well since they were introduced in 1948 (33 million sold as of 2013) and it has been the best selling vehicle line in America for 32 years (and the best selling pickup truck for 43 years). In Canada, Ford made huge headway after World War II when car dealerships in rural Canada were few and far between (but nearly every rural village would have access to a Ford or a Lincoln-Mercury-Meteor dealer).