Midsize Pickup Trucks Jump 29% In July 2016 As Full-Size Pickup Sales Level Off

Midsize pickup truck sales shot up 29 percent in the United States in July 2016, enough to drive the sub-sector’s share of the overall pickup category up three points to 17 percent.

Indeed, without the gains produced by the midsize truck sector, overall U.S. pickup truck volume would have flatlined in July on declining sales of the two top-selling truck lines, Ford’s F-Series and the Chevrolet Silverado. Moreover, without the midsize truck sector’s additional 8,973 July sales, total U.S. new vehicle sales volume would have risen by less than one-tenth of one percent.

Instead, because of a dramatic increase in sales of the second-generation Honda Ridgeline in its first month of availability, another huge uptick in Nissan Frontier sales, and continued growth from GM’s Colorado/Canyon duo, pickup truck sales grew four percent and the American auto industry reported nearly 10,000 extra sales in July 2016, year-over-year.

In June, Honda reported the best month of Ridgeline sales in America since August 2008. Still suffering from limited availability in July, Ridgeline volume nevertheless grew 42 percent (compared with June; 58,533 percent compared with July 2015) to 3,518 units, the best month of Ridgeline sales since April 2008.

The Ridgeline’s July 2016 total was only 14 units shy of the GMC Canyon’s total in the second-generation Canyon’s best month since the nameplate returned in the fourth-quarter of 2014. For the Canyon’s Chevrolet Colorado twin, July marked the fifth consecutive month with more than 9,000 sales. GM is on track to sell approximately 140,000 midsize pickups in the United States in 2016.

Nissan, which is on track for its best year of Frontier sales since 2001, reported 7,244 sales of its midsize pickup truck in July, a sharp 3,050-unit year-over-year improvement.

Toyota, despite a three percent year-over-year downturn, still earned top honors in the category and claimed 41 percent market share.

Through the first seven months of 2016, total U.S. midsize pickup volume is up 19 percent, with the Toyota claiming 44 percent of the 251,178 sales produced by five nameplates.

Midsize pickups are back. Mostly. Sort of.

Rewind to the first seven months of 2006, and with a bundle of other contenders, Americans had acquired 368,000 small/midsize pickups, a 13-percent year-over-year drop. The Toyota Tacoma, with fewer sales in that seven-month stretch than this year, owned 28 percent of the segment.

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 and on Facebook.