Chart Of The Day: Imagine The U.S. Auto Industry Without Pickup Trucks

by Timothy Cain

April 25th, 2015 12:34 PM

chart of the day imagine the u s auto industry without pickup trucks

With 29% and 30% of their U.S. sales coming from pickup trucks, respectively, General Motors and Ford Motor Company fall from the top two positions to the second and third when auto manufacturer sales are compared without pickups.

Toyota, therefore, becomes the top dog with 507,000 non-pickup sales through the first-quarter of 2015, 21,000 more cars, vans, SUVs, and crossovers than General Motors.

Excluding Frontiers, Titans, and Ridgelines doesn’t change the fact that Nissan and Infiniti are still outselling Honda and Acura. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles nearly pulls level with Ford MoCo when the Ram and dominant F-Series, America’s best-selling vehicle line, are left out of the equation.

Those figures don’t accurately reflect the state of the industry. That’s why today’s chart of the day also includes the actual figures. But the second subject line would clarify the state of the industry if the top manufacturers couldn’t lean on their pickup popularity.

U.S. pickup truck sales are up 12% to 567,560 through the first-quarter, equal to 14% of the industry’s year-to-date volume.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.

#AutoSales #ChartOfTheDay #March2015Sales #PickupTrucks #SalesCharts #U.S.AutoSales

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7 of 186 comments

Big Al from Oz on Apr 27, 2015

@mhurt, Boy, what's wrong with you man?

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Big Al from Oz on Apr 27, 2015

mkirk, By the way I'm a Yank, a real Yank from NY.

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Jeff S on Apr 28, 2015

It is hard for me to accept an argument where having a tariff increases competition and lowers price. My college Economics course would say otherwise. Trucks are not as cheap as Denver Mike pretends they are, but they are not the most expensive vehicle either. It is a poor comparison to compare French cars with smaller trucks from Asia unless you like to compare apples and oranges. Affordable Asian trucks would sell much better than French cars.

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- Pch101 on Apr 28, 2015
  
  Of course. Why allow facts to get in the way of your elementary econ course? Here's a basic exercise for you. Create the following lists: -The automakers that were producing small trucks for the US market prior to the closing of the "chicken tax" cab-chassis loophole in 1980. -The automakers that were producing small trucks for the US market after the closing of the "chicken tax" cab-chassis loophole in 1980. Firstly, notice how the second list is longer than the first. Secondly, do a little digging and you will realize that the new entrants came into the market because of the tariff increase, not in spite of it. For a large market such as the US, manufacturers will respond to tariff barriers by looking for loopholes and relocating production if they believe that there is enough of a market. Unfortunately, you would have take more than one course to learn that.
  
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- Big Al from Oz on Apr 28, 2015
  
  @Pch101, Are you not DiM? It appears so by your comments. How can a 25% import tax not affect a market? Use google and all you need to type in is "Effect of Chicken Tax". Really, to pass the comments you do some group/organization must be funding you. You can't be that stupid. Or, maybe there are people as stupid as you in our society.
  
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Jeff S on Apr 29, 2015

@big al--Pch101 could run for political office with the political promise that he would raise tariffs and that in turn would increase competition and lower prices. How about raising income taxes to increase discretionary income--that would really boost the economy.

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- Pch101 on Apr 29, 2015
  
  You and BAFO have a lot in common: You equate redundancy with accuracy, and can't comprehend basic concepts even when they are explained to you plainly and slowly. Did you make those lists yet?
  
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