Cain's Segments: April 2014 Full-Size Truck Sales

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Strong year-over-year growth in America’s full-size pickup sector was powered by all five major players in April 2014.

General Motors added 6398 sales to the April 2013 Silverado/Sierra total. Chrysler sold 5265 more Ram trucks than at this time one year ago. F-Series sales improved by 4357 units. Toyota added 1941 Tundra sales for the most significant percentage increase, a 23.5% jump.

Collectively, these trucks – with a slight decline from the low-volume Nissan Titan – produced 12% gains last month. Sales are up 6% through the first one-third of 2014, equal to 36,259 units.

Taking small and midsize trucks into account, along with the Chevrolet Avalanche and Cadillac Escalade EXT, pickup truck sales are up 4% in 2014, a gain of nearly 26,000 units in an overall market that has risen by 154,000 sales. (Sales of SUVs and crossovers are up by 160,000 units. Car sales have dropped by 57,000 units.)

There’s been much debate over the merits of GM’s efforts to focus on profit over market share with their new pickup trucks. Indeed, through the first four months of 2014, the pair’s share of the full-size sector is down by more than two percentage points. Only one out of every three full-size trucks sold in America this year has been a Silverado or Sierra of one sort or another.

April was better, marking the Silverado’s highest sales month since August of last year. Sierra sales topped 16,000 units for the eighth time in the last 16 months. In the previous 36 months, that had only happened on three occasions. Combined, the Silverado and Sierra owned 35% of the full-size truck market, up from 32% in March, when all four of their rivals held greater sway.

Approaching its replacement phase, sales of the Ford F-Series continue to rise, but its share of the market is falling, albeit slowly, and not unpredictably.

Toyota is now on pace to sell more than 133,000 Tundras in the United States in 2014, a figure which approaches 2008’s sales levels but doesn’t come close to 2007 levels. The Tundra is currently America’s 40th-best-selling vehicle overall, up from the 48th spot a year ago. The F-Series and Silverado have held on to their two top spots.

America’s third-best-selling vehicle, however, is the Ram Pickup range, sales of which jumped 17% in April and are up 23% this year. The Ram ranked fifth among all vehicles one year ago.

Ram sales totalled 380,250 units over the last twelve months. Chrysler hasn’t sold more than 380,000 Rams in a calendar year since 2005. In April 2014, Ram’s share of the pickup truck market grew by a little less than a percentage point compared with April 2013. Year-to-date, market share has grown to 21.5% from 18.6% during the first four months of 2013.

At the current rate, the U.S. auto industry appears capable of surpassing 16 million new vehicle sales for the first time since 2007. During the first four months of that year, these six full-size truck lineups accounted for 77% of all pickup sales and 13% of all new vehicle sales. The former figure has risen to 89% in 2014; the latter has fallen slightly to 12%.

TruckApril2014April2013%Change4 mos.20144 mos.2013%ChangeFord F-Series63,38759,030+7.4%236,745227,873+3.9%Chevrolet Silverado42,75539,395+8.5%150,512156,044-3.5%Ram P/U36,67431,409+16.8%133,580109,003+22.5%GMC Sierra17,24614,208+21.4%59,45955,004+8.1%Toyota Tundra10,2178,276+23.5%37,61931,856+18.1%Nissan Titan9561,038-7.9%4,2746,150-30.5%—— —————Total171,235 153,356 +11.7%622,189 585,930 +6.2%TruckApril2014ShareApril2013Share4 mos. 2014 Share4 mos. 2013ShareFord F-Series37.0%38.5%38.1%38.9%Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra35.0%35.0%33.7%36.0%Ram P/U21.4%20.5%21.5%18.6%Toyota Tundra6.0%5.4%6.0%5.4%Nissan Titan0.6%0.7%0.7%1.0%—————Full-Size Share Of Total Pickup Truck Market89.1%87.3%88.9%86.9%Full-Size Pickup Share Of Total Industry12.3%11.9%12.1%11.8%
Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

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  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
  • EBFlex The best gift would have been a huge bonfire of all the fak mustangs in inventory and shutting down the factory that makes them.Heck, nobody would even have to risk life and limb starting the fire, just park em close together and wait for the super environmentally friendly EV fire to commence.
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