Pickups rule Top 20 best-selling vehicles of 2014

Top 20 best-selling vehicles of 2014

For a 33rd year, Ford's F-Series pickup took its place at the head of the top 20 best-selling vehicles in the USA, outselling all other car and truck models.

The Ford pickup's lead was so great that it remained on top despite a sales decline in 2014 compared with 2013. It still trumped the No. 2 finisher — its archrival Chevrolet Silverado pickup — by more than 200,000 vehicles.

There were so many F-Series trucks sold last year, Ford says, that if they were all parked bumper-to-bumper, they would snake from Los Angeles to New York City — with about 50 miles to spare. That's 753,851 trucks sold in 2014, a 1.3% decrease from a year ago.

The sales decrease reflected the changeover to a new F-150, one that will test buyers' acceptance of a body made of aluminum instead of steel to save weight and fuel.

Beyond the Ford, trucks of all types — pickups, SUVs and crossovers — made big gains in 2014 on the top 20 best-sellers list.

Detroit 3 full-size pickups placed 1, 2 and 3 for the year, with the Ram from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles moving up to third place on the strength of 23.6% sales gain, highest of any vehicle in the top 20.

And GMC Sierra, a corporate premium cousin to the No. 2 Silverado, worked its way up to 18th place.