Ranking the most popular U.S. passenger vehicles from least to most considerate

Following up on our post discussing the need for Americans to drive smaller cars, we provide a list of the most popular U.S. passenger vehicles in 2025 ranked from least to most considerate, based on vehicle size and fuel efficiency. We ranked all 94 passenger vehicles with more than 50,000 reported U.S. sales in 2025. Manufacturers report only aggregate sales for all configurations of each vehicle. We tried to consider the most popular configuration for each vehicle, while also trying to be consistent for similar vehicles. We show in parentheses any important configuration assumptions we made. We obtained all data, other than sales data, from MotorTrend. The trim type typically doesn’t significantly affect the factors we considered, but we always considered the least expensive trim type for the configuration shown in parentheses.

We constructed a considerateness index based on the following five factors: (1) length, (2) width (without mirrors), (3) height, (4) weight, and (5) fuel economy, as measured by gallons per hundred miles so larger numbers represent less considerate vehicles to be consistent with the other factors. We considered the number of people affected by each factor in assigning weights to them. Fuel economy affects everyone, because of the impact on the environment, so that factor received the greatest weight at 30%. Length, width, and height all affect everyone in the vicinity of the vehicle, by taking up more space on roads and parking lots and making it more difficult to see over and around the vehicle, so those factors each received 20% of the weight. Vehicle weight, apart from its impact on fuel economy, affects only people involved in collisions with the vehicle, so that factor received the least weight at 10%. We constructed our index by calculating the z score for each factor for each vehicle, multiplying that z score by the weight for each factor and summing those weighted z scores across all five factors for each vehicle. So, a vehicle with average length, width, height, weight, and fuel economy would have an index value of 0, a vehicle that is one standard deviation above the mean on each factor would have an index value of 1, and a vehicle that is one standard deviation below the mean on each factor would have an index value of -1. Positive index values indicate a less considerate vehicle than average, while negative index values indicate a more considerate vehicle than average.

Unsurprisingly, heavy duty trucks are the least considerate vehicles, with index values from 1.95 to 2.20, followed by vans, with index values from 1.58 to 1.71. Full-size SUVs and full-size trucks are next, with index values from 1.28 to 1.56. In general, mid-size trucks and minivans are next, with most index values from 0.52 to 0.80, followed by mid-size SUVs, with most index values from 0 to 0.52. In general, compact SUVs and the one compact truck are next, with most index values from -0.66 to -0.19, followed by subcompact SUVs and midsize sedans, with most index values from -0.96 to -0.73. Compact cars and the one subcompact sedan are the most considerate vehicles, with index values from -1.44 to -0.96.

Looking at the sales ranks, the most popular inconsiderate vehicles are full-size trucks: Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado 1500, and Toyota Tacoma. The most popular considerate vehicles are compact cars and hybrid or electric vehicles: Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Toyota Camry, and Tesla Model Y.  The other vehicles in the top 10 for sales are all compact SUVs that rank in the middle in terms of considerateness: Chevrolet Equinox, Honda CR-V, and Toyota RAV4.