Pickup Trucks Grab Three Best-Selling Positions In America In Five Consecutive Months
The pickup truck world’s consistent hold on the whole of American best seller’s podium is steadily tightening.
January 2015 was the fifth consecutive month in which all three of America’s best-selling vehicle lines were pickup trucks.
It’s nothing new for Americans to see the Ford F-Series atop the monthly leaderboard. Not since the Cash For Clunkers-fuelled August 2009 has the F-Series not been the top-selling vehicle line in America.
We’re also accustomed to seeing the Chevrolet Silverado in the second spot. Only three times in 2014 did the Silverado fall from the silver medal position, and only twice did it surrender that position to a car.
With ever-strengthening Ram P/U sales, however, pickup trucks now routinely claim all three top spots. Not only did they do so in January 2015 – a month in which total pickup volume jumped 22% – and each of 2014’s final four months, they also did so in January and March of 2014. In fact, the Ram outsold the Silverado in March, though not the combined GM twins.
On an annual basis, 2014 was the first year since 2003 that the F-Series, Silverado, and Ram topped America’s best seller list.
In September, the three trucks combined for 146,651 sales, 62,925 more than the top three cars managed.
In October, their 150,210-unit total was higher than the total sales achieved by all but three brands: Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota.
In November, the 137,713 F-Series’, Silverados, and Rams sold was greater than the total achieved by the five next-best-selling vehicles.
In December, the top three trucks generated 176,414 combined sales, more than double the number of sales achieved by the three top SUVs/crossovers.
In January, 10.3% of the new vehicles sold and 84.7% of the full-size trucks sold were F-Series, Silverado, or Ram pickup trucks.
The three top trucks, however, are only the tip of the collective best-selling iceberg. 30 nameplates account for half the new vehicles sold in America in January, leaving the remaining 89% of nameplates to fight over 50% of the market.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.
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These statistics make me sad. I guess I will never understand the popularity of trucks. Here's hoping for $5.00/gallon gasoline.
Highdesert, Your friend finally decided to sell his 92 S-10. I still have my 99 S-10 extended cab with 104k miles on it. There are a lot of pickups where I live, most are domestic brands. Crossovers in all sizes seem to be the must have vehicle. People are going to buy and drive what they like and it would take a significant increase in fuel prices to change most people's vehicle choices.