Trucks, SUVs head list of best-selling used vehicles, but Tesla EVs moving up
It’s not a surprise to find full-sized pickup trucks at the top of a list of America’s 100 best-selling used vehicles. Nor is it a shock that SUVs dominated that list.
It was, however, a bit unexpected to find an electric vehicle in the top 30, and two EVs among the top 75.
But that was the case in iSeeCars’ latest study, which analyzed more than 7.7 million used car sales from the past five model years to identify the most popular used cars bought in 2024.
As has become expected, Ford’s F-150 pickup was the top-selling used vehicle in the U.S. last year, according to iSeeCars, followed by two more pickups: the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and RAM 1500. And SUVs accounted for 65 of the 100 best sellers.
But Tesla’s Model 3 set a precedent by placing 30th on the list, becoming the first EV to reach that lofty a position in used sales. In addition, the Tesla Model Y made its first appearance in the top 100 at No. 74.
“We’re now seeing Tesla’s massive gains in new vehicle sales transfer to used car share, with the Model 3 jumping from 47th to the 30th best-selling used car, and the Model Y moving from 129th to 74th in the past 12 months,” iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer said.
“At the rate these Teslas are moving up, we could see the Model 3 and Model Y ranked among the top 20 most popular used cars in another year or two.”
In addition to the three trucks at the head of the list, the 10 most popular used vehicles of 2024 included another pickup — the sixth-ranked Toyota Tacoma — as well as the Chevrolet Equinox (4), Nissan Rogue (7), Ford Explorer (8) and Toyota RAV4 (9) SUVs, and passenger cars Toyota Camry (5) and Honda Civic (10).
Toyota was the most popular brand with nine models among the top 30 sellers, followed by Chevrolet, Ford and Jeep with four each among the top 30.
iSeeCars’s analysis also identified the No. 1-selling used vehicle in the 50 largest U.S. metro areas and, again unsurprisingly, the F-150 earned that distinction in 26 of those markets, including top 10 markets Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Atlanta and Phoenix.
But in the nation’s largest markets Honda reigned supreme, with the CR-V ranking No. 1 in New York and the Civic at the top in Los Angeles. Chevy’s Equinox and Toyota’s Camry each topped four metro areas, including Detroit for the Equinox and Washington D.C. for the Camry. And the Tesla Model 3 was the leader in EV hot spots San Francisco and Seattle-Tacoma.
“The Ford F-150 remains the best-selling used vehicle across the U.S., holding first place in seven of the 20 largest cities,” Brauer said. “But we are seeing compact cars and SUVs, like the Chevrolet Equinox and Toyota Corolla, growing in popularity in many densely-populated cities. And even the all-electric Tesla Model 3 is making big moves, dominating the used car markets in San Francisco and Seattle.”
The full study is available here.