Featured 2018 Camry hybrid to offer two different battery packs

I'm just disagreeing that your top ten list shows they chose cars for fuel economy. Most of those with a hybrid option have it make up about 10% of the total. They all have a less efficient option that sells much better.

The GoodCarBadCar lists include the change from last year. Of the cars on your list, only the Corolla and Civic had gains in 2016. The four small SUVs on it all had gains to some degree. On the separate GCBC lists for cars and SUVs, all but four of the top ten cars had losses, and all but four of the SUV's had gains. If the trend continues this year, the Rav4, CR-V, and Rouge could outsell the Camry, Civic, and Corolla.

 

i think people buy non hybrids for fuel economy as well. if the list was all suv's and minivans, i would agree with you.
no doubt a lot of things go into car buying decisions for most people. but when 8 out of the top 10 are sedans, and 2 are small suv/crossover/whatever, i think fuel economy is part of the decision.
part of the reason people don't buy hybrids is that the fuel economy decision is financial, and there's no payback. also fear of technology, reliability and expense of repair.

 

Again, the Escape and the Rouge on your list are also SUVs, making it 4 out of ten.
Despite sales trends, there are people that still prefer a sedan over a SUV. Plus, there was some good deals on them in the past year to prop up their dropping sales. Without trim break outs we can't say how many of those sedans were chosen for fuel economy or for better performance and handling over a SUV. In the past, V6 Camries made about a third of the models sales, and the Fusion got a turbo charged V6 with AWD this year.
Considering trends, 3 of those 4 SUVs on the list will be in the top 5 this year, and one of the cars will be pushed out for a larger SUV

 

i suppose the longer gas prices stay low, the more people will believe they'll never go up again.

 

The bigger the disruption will be when they do

 

yup, it's like every time a hurricane comes along, the population and infrastructure are that much larger.