HINT: Its appeal is rooted in a philosophy set forth by the vehicle's first chief engineer: “to develop a car that brings happiness and well-being to people around the world.”

MORE HINTS: 47 years on market | 40 million units sold | 154 countries sell it

Answer: Toyota Corolla

A theatrical performance by Fuerza Bruta helped introduce the 2014 Toyota Corolla in Santa Monica, Calif., June 6, 2013.

On June 6, Toyota revealed the all-new 2014 Corolla in California.  Corolla pricing, final grade content, and option packages will be made available closer to launch timing.

Smaller Cars Earning Bigger U.S. Sales

The most popular cars in the world are the Ford Focus and the Toyota Corolla. Compact cars have long been popular elsewhere in the world, but here in the U.S. we, too, are beginning to see the light.

The Corolla has been around since 1966 in Japan and 1968 in America. Since that 47-year-ago debut, more than 39 million Corollas have been sold. It's the best-selling nameplate in the world. The first Corolla was a subcompact, and eventually got bigger and has been reclassified as a compact sedan. (Note: In U.S., the bigger Camry is America's best-selling car.)

The Ford Focus doesn't have the longevity of the Corolla, but since its inception in 1998, over 9 million Focuses have been sold and for a brief time it was the best-selling car in the world. Some of those sales no doubt were conquests from the Corolla.

The trend toward smaller is due to the increasing demands on carmakers to meet government regulated fuel economy standards. Another reason is that we consumers don't want to spend our food budget filling our gas tanks.

But how small is small? According to Polk, a leading provider of automotive data, several compact and subcompact vehicle segments continue to gain share. From 2008 through this year-to-date, luxury compact Crossover Utility Vehicles went from a share of 0.32 percent to 1.16 percent. There was a profound increase in non-luxury crossovers, which went from 9.40 percent to 12.74 percent over the last five years. Non-luxury traditional compact grew from 13.92 percent to 16.07 percent and non-luxury traditional subcompacts grew from 3.22 percent to 4.28 percent.

Larger vehicles are experiencing a decline in market share according to Polk. Traditional full-size luxury vehicles went from 0.81 percent to 0.53 percent, non-luxury SUVs went from 3.05 percent to 1.52 percent. Non-luxury midsize pickups went from 3.31 percent to 1.62 percent.Even though the news recently has been good for full-size pickups, in 2008 they had a market share of 6.01 percent and today they have a 3.87 percent market share.

 -- Kate McLeod, Motor Matters