Taurus Keeps Title As Top-Selling Car

Ford’s Taurus was the nation’s top-selling car for the third time in a row as foreign and domestic automakers finished a strong year and predicted another.

Year-end reports Thursday showed Ford sold 397,037 Taurus sedans and station wagons last year in the United States, topping the runner-up Honda Accord by 29,422 sales. The Accord has been second best-selling passenger car in this country since 1992, when Taurus took away its best-seller status.

U.S. sales for the industry totaled just under 15 million cars and light trucks - up 8.2 percent from 1993.

“We’ve had 36 straight months of sales improvements,” said Ford Motor Co. Vice President Ross Roberts, general manager of the Ford division. “We anticipate that the strength of the industry is going to continue.”

The Big Three domestic companies finished the year with light vehicle sales up 7.4 percent. Chrysler Corp. was 7.6 percent ahead of 1993, General Motors Corp. was up 7.5 percent and Ford was up 7.2 percent.

In each case, the overall percentage gain was pushed up by strong sales of light trucks, including pickups, minivans and sport-utility vehicles.