Countdown: Here are May's top 10 bestselling cars

As the rising and sinking fortunes of the auto industry go, May sales certainly had it share of drama when it comes to the top 10 best-selling vehicles.

Talk about big swings. The fifth most popular vehicle in showrooms for the month, the Nissan Altima, was up a whopping 40.8% compared to the same month last year, Autodata reports.

Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck, the second most popular vehicle, has a 25.3% sales boost even though it will soon be replaced by a revised version. And as impressive as the increase was, it couldn't top the boost in the perennial top seller, the Ford F-Series pickup. It was up 30.6%.

There were also some close calls. Nissan Altima edged out the Ram pickup for fifth place for the month by a mere 300 cars . The numbers were huge -- 31,940 for Altima and 31,672 for the Ram.