2023 was an outstanding year for the automotive industry writ large. Supply chain issues finally eased, and despite rising prices, more expensive loans and UAW strike-related production hiccups, Americans bought more than 15.6 million new cars in 2023 — a 12 percent increase from 2022.
As a result, nearly every brand (that wasn’t Stellantis) had some new sales feat to peacock about in its press release at the start of 2024. But although sales performance across the board was excellent, certain cars still outperformed the baseline expectation — notching sales increases in the high double, if not triple, digits.
And it wasn’t just due to new models replacing dated old ones. It turns out an unexpected number of buyers saw 2023 as a time to invest in a new family minivan — all those COVID babies are getting old enough to require some vehicular lifestyle changes — or splurge on a pricey sports coupe, especially if it happened to be going out of production soon.
Here are 10 cars that dramatically outshot our sales expectations in 2023 without benefitting from a new model-based sales bump.
Nissan GT-R
Nissan- 2023 Sales: 390
- 2022 Sales: 57
- Increase: 584.2%
