April 2015 Full-Size Truck Sales Rise 3%, Silverado And Sierra Outsell Ford F-Series
Full-size pickup truck sales improved by a modest 3.1% as the U.S. auto industry climbed 4.6% in April 2015.
As a whole, the pickup truck category increased its sales at a faster clip than the overall industry, rising 7.8% thanks to 46% gains from small/midsize pickups, vehicles which accounted for 15% of all pickup truck sales in April 2015, up from 11% at this time a year ago.
Even without an additional 9,442 sales from the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, General Motors was the biggest seller of pickup trucks in April 2015. The Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra combined to outsell the Ford F-Series by 1,053 units – they trail the F-Series by 4,257 units year-to-date – after trailing the F-Series by 3,386 sales in April 2014.
TruckApril2015April2014%Change4 mos.20154 mos.2014%ChangeFord F-Series62,82763,387-0.9%240,139236,7451.4%Chevrolet Silverado45,97842,7557.5%172,672150,51214.7%Ram P/U37,92136,6743.4%139,432133,5804.4%GMC Sierra18,08217,2464.8%63,25559,4596.4%Toyota Tundra10,68110,2174.5%39,43837,6194.8%Nissan Titan 1,0389568.6%3,6764,274-14.0%—— —————Total176,527171,2353.1%658,612622,1895.9%Last month marked the second time in three months the full-size GM twins have outsold the transitioning Ford. Year-over-year, F-Series volume slipped 0.9% in April 2015. The Silverado and Sierra were jointly up 6.8%.
General Motors’ sold 73,503 pickups in total in the fourth month of 2015; 271,650 in the first-third of 2015.
TruckApril2015ShareApril2014Share4 mos. 2015Share4 mos. 2014ShareFord F-Series35.6%37.0%36.5%38.1%Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra36.3%35.0%35.8%33.7%Ram P/U21.5%21.4%21.2%21.5%Toyota Tundra6.1%6.0%6.0%6.0%Nissan Titan0.6%0.6%0.6%0.7%—————Full-Size Share Of Total Pickup Truck Market85.1%89.0%85.0%88.9%Full-Size Pickup Share Of Total Industry12.1%12.3%12.2%12.1%Ram’s hiatus into declining territory was brief. March sales slid 2.2% compared with March 2014 following 59 consecutive months of year-over-year improvement. April volume was once again on the upswing, rising 3.4% to 37,921 units, an increase of 1,247 U.S. sales.
Toyota and Nissan, meanwhile, earned slightly less than 7% of the full-size truck market in April 2015. Both the Tundra and Titan reported improved volume. The same two brands, with their Tacoma and Frontier, generated seven out of every ten non-full-size pickup truck sales last month.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar.
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Classic "Bait-n-Switch". They show up looking to trade in their Silverado/Sierra or other GM, on the Hot/New Colorado/Canyon, are disappointed by what they see, MSRP, and end up buying the faithful Silverado/Sierra. That's the whole reason for selling the Colorado/Canyon. Not selling them!
I've been getting more and more customers tell me something along the lines of "I've been doing alot of research and I want one of those Ecoboost motors" and less and less who demand the v8. Even I know there is still things to be proven with the aluminum bodies... but you gotta ask, what if Ford did it right? If 5 years from now there aren't any issues, the other trucks out there are going to look awful darn silly. Ford is moving forward with the superduty as well, so they have plenty of confidence in it. I don't think Ford took this undertaking lightly. I'd bet on them.