At some point or another, during your elementary and high school days, there was one student who always got a big chunk of the achievement awards.

In a similar vein (albeit in the Philippine auto industry setting), that student is Toyota Motor Philippines.

According to information gleaned from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines (CAMPI), which is the largest automotive group in the country, Toyota once again dominated in 2022 by having eight of the top 10 models and nine of the top 15 nameplates.

The Japanese carmaker also grabbed a lion's share of the Philippine car market by selling 173,245 out of the 352,596 vehicles sold by CAMPI last year, which is around 49.13 percent.

Of the total figure, 123,107 were light commercial vehicles (LCV), which include crossovers, multi-purpose vehicles (MPV) and sport-utility vehicles (SUV). At the same time, the Japanese brand sold 50,138 passenger cars (PC).

When you examine further the top-selling models in the archipelago for 2022, Toyota's trouncing of all its competition is astounding. Eight of the top 10 nameplates are Toyotas, with a Mitsubishi and a Ford breaking the Toyota stranglehold.

Here's the list of the top 15 best-selling automotive models in the country for 2022 in terms of units sold.

Go past number nine on the list and the brands diversify somewhat.

But overall, three Mitsubishis, two Fords and a Nissan are the non-Toyota members on the sales chart above, with another Toyota, the Veloz seven-seater crossover rounding out the Top 15.

Missing the Top 15 cut were two notables on the LCV scene – the Mitsubishi Montero Sport midsize SUV, with 7,465 units and number 16 on the top-selling automotive brands of 2022, and the Isuzu Traviz multipurpose light truck at number 17 with 6,506 units.

What cars do buyers prefer?

Speaking of LCVs, eight of the Top 10 and 12 of the Top 15 were utility vehicles.

On the broader list, four pickups were in the Top 15 – the Toyota Hilux, the Ford Ranger, the Nissan Navara and the Mitsubishi Strada.

SUVs/crossovers also filled up the Top 15 – the Toyota Fortuner midsize SUV, the Toyota Raize subcompact SUV and the Ford Territory compact crossover SUV.

With manufacturers often blurring the lines between SUVs and MPVs nowadays, it is no surprise to see four multi-purpose vehicles in the Top 15 – the Toyota Innova, the Mitsubishi Xpander, the Toyota Rush and the Toyota Veloz. 

With the LCV charts in the table above, one can opine that the hauling needs of many Filipinos are increasing and many prefer a utility vehicle to navigate Philippine roads (urban or rural), hence the domination of LCV nameplates for 2022.

The PC is still king

It should be noted that 2022’s top-seller is still a PC in the Toyota Vios.

That is surprising given that the majority of Toyota sales were more LCVs than PCs and overall LCV sales throughout the industry far outsold PCs (209,728 LCVs sold versus 85,897 PCs).

Furthermore, two more PCs cracked the Top 15 – the Toyota Wigo mini-compact hatch and the Mitsubishi Mirage G4 mini-compact sedan.

Brand loyalty a big factor in decision-making

Regarding Toyota vehicles frequently appearing on the model sales leaderboard, one can opine that customers’ preference for a longstanding, reliable automaker takes precedence over newcomers with their bells and whistles.

And this was evident in 2022 sales.

Just asking people on the street about their automaker preferences, and more often than not, the Toyota name comes up, with the vernacular adjectives:

• “Subok na [tried, tested]”
• “Matibay [strong, durable]”
• "Maraming [many] spare parts"
• “Matatag [established]”

Given that Toyota's brand presence has been in the Philippine market since the 1960s and the manufacturer’s well-founded reputation for building products that address the market's needs over a wide price range, the sales performance of 2022, therefore, shows no surprise. 

What do you think of the top 15 cars of 2022?