The Worst-Selling Toyota Car of 2023 Is Not a Huge Surprise
Toyota is one of the few automakers still selling sedans stateside, but that doesn’t mean the Japanese auto giant’s car sales numbers are skyrocketing. Of course, favored Toyota sedans like the Camry still exist, but the brand’s least popular model is another sedan. Here’s a look at the worst-selling Toyota model right now and why its abysmal sales aren’t shocking.
Here’s how Toyota car sales look in 2023
Toyota posted its sales numbers for the first half of the year, and overall, the auto giant remains strong. It sold over a million vehicles in North America in the first six months of 2023. As with most automakers, SUVs and trucks dominate Toyota’s sales, but cars represent a healthy chunk, too. Toyota sedans, coupes, hatchbacks, and other cars totaled nearly 278,000 units sold in the first half of 2023.
The Camry is a bestseller, moving over 150,000 units. That’s more than half of the segment’s total sales. The compact Corolla is performing well, selling just over 97,000 units. The Prius family is also doing fine, with nearly 15,000 units. Those three models represent the majority of Toyota’s car sales.
Other cars, including the Crown, GR86, Mirai, and Supra, have all sold a few thousand units so far this year. However, they’re all outperforming the worst-selling Toyota: the Avalon. In the first half of 2023, the company sold only 43 examples of the full-size sedan.
Why is the Avalon the worst-selling Toyota car?
As Toyota fans know, the Japanese manufacturer discontinued the Avalon after the 2022 model year. As a result, the few dozen units Toyota has delivered so far this year represent the last models left. Like most discontinued cars, the Avalon retired due to declining sales.
In the first half of 2022, the auto giant sold only about 8,000 Avalon sedans. That didn’t make it the worst-selling Toyota car, but it was still a step below the Prius, Corolla, and Camry. However, Toyota didn’t kill off the Avalon and replace it with nothing. The Crown is the Avalon’s replacement, and it’s doing OK for its first model year.
In the first half of the year, Toyota sold 6,155 Crown sedans. That’s fewer units than the Avalon sold in the same period last year. It’s the same story in terms of monthly sales. The Crown sold about 1,200 units in June 2023; that’s fewer than the Avalon’s June 2022 sales of roughly 2,200. This data also isn’t surprising because car shoppers need time to learn about the Crown.
How does the Avalon compare to the Crown?
Ultimately, because the Avalon and Crown are Toyota cars, they’re both safe and reliable. But the 2022 Avalon is more potent, packing a 301-hp engine. That’s much more powerful than the Crown’s 236-hp standard powertrain.
The full-size Avalon is also slightly larger and has more cargo capacity, with 16.1 cubic feet of trunk space, compared with the Crown’s 15.2 cubic feet. That said, the Crown has a hybrid powertrain. Therefore, it gets much better EPA-estimated fuel economy of 42 mpg combined, compared with the Avalon’s 27 mpg.
And because it’s discontinued, the 2022 Avalon is cheaper, too. So it’s a bargain for car shoppers wanting a traditional full-size sedan. On the other hand, the Crown is hard to classify, thanks to its not-quite-large-sedan size and crossover-like body style.
