New 2015 Toyota Camry beats Accord in first full month of sales – barely

The Toyota Camry changed a couple months back, and the all-new 2015 car had been overlapping fire-sale 2014 models on dealer lots until December. Even during the transition the Camry stayed number one. In this past month, the new car’s first full month of sales, it remained number one, but by only 29 cars! Toyota sold 31,618 Camrys and Honda sold 31,589. It does not come any closer than that in this huge market segment.

2014 Total Camry Sales
For the year, Toyota sold 428,606 Camrys in the N. American market. The Accord garnered 388,374. This is close enough that Honda will continue to say it sold more cars to “Households” than Toyota did, but that is a dubious claim. Honda refers to Toyota’s fleet sales, which are about 10 to 15% of its total Camry sales. Honda sells very few cars to fleets.

2015 Camry Sales Outlook
The Outlook for the coming year is very strong for the 2015 Camry. The Camry is the only top-selling mid-size car to earn the IIHS' Top Safety Pick Plus rating. Accord and Fusion have been demoted due to the fact that their forward collision prevention systems don’t meet the IIHS’ standards. Consumer Reports also just picked a Camry as the Best Value in all of the automotive world. These are just two distinctions that set the Camry apart from the pack and help Toyota make a case for the car. Every car in the segment is now great, and the top few are absolutely fantastic. Finding ways to call one’s model better the pack is important.