Top 10: Big pickup trucks rule auto industry sales

With gas prices low, Americans are showing how much they love owning a new, big pickup truck.

A look at the top-selling new vehicles in the first nine months of the year shows that Detroit's Big 3 automakers are still kings of the road when it comes to pickups.

Ford has the nation's best-selling vehicle with its F-150; General Motors is second with the Chevrolet Silverado; while  Fiat Chrysler is third with its Ram 1500. Sales of the Ram truck are up the most among the three at 8.6% over the nine months compared with the same period a year ago.

Buyers are being attracted to trucks as do-anything vehicles. "Functionality and flexibility," says Karl Brauer of Kelley Blue Book. "Everything you need in a big, roomy crew cab."

The same three were locked into the top three spots just as solidly a year ago.

Then, as now, the nation's best-selling car is the Toyota Camry, in fourth place among vehicles overall. In a big rivalry, Honda's redesigned Civic, with sales up 13.6%, has nudged out Toyota Corolla, down 1%, for fifth place.

Sport-utility vehicles, which have also been hot sellers, start showing up in seventh place, with the Honda CR-V, and eighth place, with Toyota RAV4. CR-V sales are up 1.5% and RAV4 rose 14.2%.

Finally, two midsize sedans, Honda Accord and Nissan Altima, round out the Top 10. Before truck sales started soaring again, midsize sedans ruled the auto industry. Now, as the sales numbers show, they are losing their luster.

Accord sales were down 2.3%. Altima sales were down 7.7%.

Here's the Top 10:

1. Ford F-Series pickup  595,656

2. Chevrolet Silverado pickup 425,556

3. Ram 1500 pickup 359,226

4. Toyota Camry  297,453

5. Honda Civic 283,783

6. Toyota Corolla  275,818

7. Honda CR-V   263,493

8. Toyota RAV4   260,380

9. Honda Accord   258,619

10. Nissan Altima 242,321