GM's Truck Market Share Slides In January

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

U.S. sales of full-size trucks slid 4.5% in January 2014 as the two leading manufacturers of pickups reported falling sales of all their big trucks.

Typically the slowest month of the year for new vehicle sales, this past January should be no different, as the U.S. auto industry generated 32,000 fewer sales than it did one year ago. Although minivans, commercial vans, and the vast SUV/crossover segment all expanded, passenger car sales plunged, year-over-year, and truck volume declined, as well.

Despite the Ford F-Series’ slight 1% (305 fewer units) drop in January sales, the market share of America’s best-selling vehicle in its own vehicle category expanded by more than a percentage point compared with January 2013.

FCA’s Ram pickup range improved its January market share by more than four points to the level where one out of every five full-size trucks sold were Rams. Year-over-year, Ram sales jumped 22%.

The only other big truck to report higher totals this year than last was the Toyota Tundra. Toyota has recorded four consecutive months of Tundra increases; only once in 2013 did the Tundra decline. But Tundra volume is well off the pace Toyota set in pre-recession 2007 when nearly 200,000 were sold – Tundra sales jumped 11% to 112,732 in 2013. January market share didn’t rise as much as Ford’s even as Toyota sold 886 extra Tundras.

GM’s losses were the bigger story during a disappointing January for trucks. Silverado sales plunged 18%; Sierra sales fell 13%. In total, GM sold more than 10,000 fewer full-size pickup trucks this January than in January 2013, a 20% drop.

Jointly, the Silverado/Sierra decline to 40,044 January sales resulted in a market share tally of 33.2%, down from 38.3% in January of last year. The GM twins outsold the Ford F-Series by 1450 units in January 2013, the second of three consecutive months in which the pair had outsold the F-Series. They have not done so since.

If we are to assume the two trucks themselves are to blame, rather than some combination of inside and outside forces, we can surely place some responsibility on the conservative nature of the redesign. Perhaps the exterior changes from one generation to the next needed to be as different as the changes made under the skin. It’s true, the serious truck buyer is well aware of the newness of the Silverado and Sierra. But the family truck buyer – a big reason for the mass expansion of the truck market – may not wish to pay more money in order to park a pickup in their driveway that doesn’t look much different from the pickup their neighbors bought two years prior.

Thus, with plenty of trucks on dealer lots and concern about losing market share to Ford even before the F-150 is replaced by the more boldly-designed 2015 model, GM will ramp up incentives with a long-running Presidents Day promotion, according to Automotive News. Clearly, for General Motors to avoid going head-to-head against Ford without F-150-like incentives would have required a more significant leap forward with the 2014 models. There’s a belief that truck buyers will pay more for the better truck, but how much better does that truck need to be?

TruckJanuary2014January2013% ChangeJanuary2014 Market ShareJanuary 2013 MarketShareCadillac Escalade EXT25172– 85.5%0.02%0.1%Chevrolet Avalanche311939– 98.4%0.03%1.5%Chevrolet Silverado28,92635,445– 18.4%24.0%28.1%Ford F-Series46,53646,841– 0.7%38.6%37.1%GMC Sierra11,11812,846– 13.5%9.2%10.2%Nissan Titan8871394– 36.4%0.7%1.1%Ram P/U25,07120,474+ 22.5%20.8%16.2%Toyota Tundra78907004+ 12.6%6.5%5.6%—— ————Total 120,484 126,115– 4.5% ———— ————Total (Excluding EXT/Avalanche) 120,428 124,004– 2.9% ——
Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

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  • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Feb 12, 2014

    @DenverMike - I have to agree. They gotta sell a sh!tload of Corvette's to make up for the money they are loosing on pickups. I liked the 2014 Silverado when it first came out but after a few months of looking at them it felt like 1987 all over again. The Sierra looks like a warmed over GMT900. Even using the same displacements as the old engines even though the new lumps are "all new" gives the impression of "same old same old". Those are mistakes that are dangerous to make. Ford gets away with the grill of the year club but when a big change is made it is obvious inside and out. Ram and Ford are the only companies pushing the truck market with new (for trucks) technology.

    • See 2 previous
    • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Feb 12, 2014

      @ajla My understanding is that the Ecotec line of engines share virtually nothing with the Vortec engines. Displacement is supposedly the only thing in common.

  • Doctor olds Doctor olds on Feb 13, 2014

    Before too many conclusions are drawn from a single month's data, one ought to consider the geographic strongholds of the various brands and the severe winter weather conditions in many areas in January. It certainly has depressed sales in my region.

  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
  • Dave Holzman A design award for the Prius?!!! Yes, the Prius is a great looking car, but the visibility is terrible from what I've read, notably Consumer Reports. Bad visibility is a dangerous, and very annoying design flaw.
  • Wjtinfwb I've owned multiple Mustang's, none perfect, all an absolute riot. My '85 GT with a big Holley 4 barrel and factory tube header manifolds was a screaming deal in its day and loved to rev. I replaced it with an '88 5.0 Convertible and added a Supercharger. Speed for days, handling... present. Brakes, ummm. But I couldn't kill it and it embarrassed a lot of much more expensive machinery. A '13 Boss 302 in Gotta Have It Green was a subtle as a sledgehammer, open up the exhaust cut outs and every day was Days of Thunder. I miss them all. They've gotten too expensive and too plush, I think, wish they'd go back to a LX version, ditch all the digital crap, cloth interior and just the Handling package as an add on. Keep it under 40k and give todays kids an alternative to a Civic or WRX.
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