You Know Truck Sales Are Strong When Even Nissan Is Doing Well

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

America’s pickup truck market exploded with significant year-over-year growth in November 2016. After the U.S. auto industry reported three consecutive months of decline through the end of October, auto sales jumped 4 percent in November, year-over-year.

Pickup trucks were responsible for half of the industry’s growth last month.

All 11 truck nameplates on offer in the United States — from the Chevrolet Silverado that posted a modest 0.6-percent uptick to the Honda Ridgeline that shot up 115,367 percent — got in on the action.

Even the Nissan Titan.

For the Titan, November’s 3,329 sales positioned the truck 11th in an 11-truck sector, but it still experienced a 363-percent improvement compared with November of last year.

With the regular-duty Titan now available, in addition to the medium-duty XD that barely moved the needle, Titan sales have now increased in three consecutive months after volume plunged to an all-time low in 2015 and fell flat in the early part of 2016.

Upon the truck’s introduction 13 years ago, Nissan reported 83,848 U.S. Titan sales in its first full year, 2004. 2005 sales increased 4 percent, but then Titan volume declined in nine of the next ten years.

By 2014, Titan volume was down an astonishing 86 percent from its peak a decade earlier.

Now the Titan is on its way back. Very slowly.

If November’s pace could be sustained over the course of a year, Nissan would sell 40,000 full-size pickups in a twelve-month period, less than half of what the company achieved in 2005.

Nevertheless, November 2016’s Titan result was its best since August 2008, a 99-month high.

In the grand scheme of the full-size pickup truck market, the Nissan Titan is scarcely a blip on the radar. Full-size pickup truck sales jumped 9 percent, year-over-year, in November and are up 3-percent year-to-date.

Only 2 percent of the full-size pickup trucks sold in the United States last month were Titans; fewer than 1 percent of the full-sizers sold this year have been Titans.

With the F-Series, Ford owns a GM-beating 36 percent of the full-size pickup truck in 2016. Last year, the full-size GM twins — Silverado and Sierra — combined to outsell the F-Series for the first time since 2009.

So far this year, sales of the GM duo are down 2 percent to 718,994 total sales, 14,293 behind the F-Series. In November, the Silverado and Sierra rose 4 percent with help from huge price cuts. GM’s average per-truck incentive rose 46 percent compared with November 2015 to $5,753, according to J.D. Power PIN data.

In order for Ram to produce an 8-percent surge to 36,885 November sales, incentives rose to an average of $6,062 per truck. Ram owns 22 percent of the full-size pickup truck market in the U.S. in 2016, up a percentage point from 2015. Ford incentivized its full-size trucks to the tune of $4,467 per truck in November and claimed 39 percent of the segment.

GM, of course, benefits from its entrance into a separate segment forsaken by Ford and Ram. The Colorado and Canyon twins owned one-third of the midsize truck category in November, slightly less than one-third year-to-date.

The Toyota Tacoma remains the predominant midsize truck in America, claiming 43 percent of the segment in 2016’s first 11 months and in November. Tacoma volume jumped 15 percent last month in a segment that surged 34 percent because of the GM gains and the Honda Ridgeline’s addition. Honda reported 3,464 total Ridgeline sales in November, ninth among pickup trucks overall.

Through the end of November, 17 percent of the pickups sold in America were Tacomas, Colorados, Canyons, Ridgelines, and Frontiers, the latter being the wildly more common of Nissan’s two pickup trucks.

Frontier volume was up by one-tenth of one percentage point in November, as growth has slowed now that Nissan isn’t pushing every available pickup truck buyer to the smaller truck. 2016 will be the best year for Frontier sales since 2001.

There’s nevertheless plenty of room for improvement at Nissan’s truck division. Fewer than 4 percent of the pickup trucks sold in America in November were Frontiers and Titans.

Nissan owned 5.2 percent of America’s truck market in 2006.

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.

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  • Eyeflyistheeye Eyeflyistheeye on Dec 12, 2016

    To be fair, if all you're doing is light hauling and possible off-roading, all modern full-sizers in North America are pretty decent vehicles. It's only for specialized applications and fleets where every little thing can make a difference. Working in fleet management, the NV200 vans the other guys use are pretty good vehicles, durable as hell but outdated powertrains. All Nissan needs to do is drop the Cummins in there and put manual regen and they have a certified winner. Our honeymoon with the Transit turbo diesels (disclaimer: I didn't buy them nor approve of them, they were there when I was hired) is ending very badly with the silly regen systems and clogged filters. As I write this, I have the unfortunate task of finding the future vehicular path for our company and that's not fun. The Promaster is total shit, the Express should be more reliable for something designed by Barney Rubble with driving dynamics by Fred Flintstone, so that leaves Mercedes with the Sprinter, which could very well be a Transit but I'll have to now procure more expensive parts from Fritz, or the Nissans, which are very good but guzzle gas like a mofo. I'm inclined to go with Nissan.

  • Mtmmo Mtmmo on Dec 12, 2016

    This isn't a surprise given the alpha males have been given a mandate to fix all of the problems created by the pajama boy crowd. The next 8 years look spectacular. Dow 25,000 hear we come.

    • See 4 previous
    • Fiasco Fiasco on Dec 12, 2016

      @Drzhivago138 The election happened, and either way we're probably headed for the second civil war. Hillary would've appointed a cabinet of corporate shills, Trump is going for alt-right/teabag nut job corporate shills. In terms of trucks, I'm thinking the Damnation Alley Bandmaster might be the best choice at this point...and that's why I love cars.

  • GregLocock That's a bodge, not a solution. Your diff now has bits of broken off metal floating around in it.
  • The Oracle Well, we’re 3-4 years in with the Telluride and right around the time the long term durability issues start to really take hold. This is sad.
  • CoastieLenn No idea why, but nothing about a 4Runner excites me post-2004. To me, they're peak "try-hard", even above the Wrangler and Gladiator.
  • AZFelix A well earned anniversary.Can they also attend to the Mach-E?
  • Jalop1991 The intermediate shaft and right front driveshaft may not be fully engaged due to suspected improper assembly by the supplier. Over time, partial engagement can cause damage to the intermediate shaft splines. Damaged shaft splines may result in unintended vehicle movement while in Park if the parking brake is not engagedGee, my Chrysler van automatically engages the parking brake when we put it in Park. Do you mean to tell me that the idjits at Kia, and the idjit buyers, couldn't figure out wanting this in THEIR MOST EXPENSIVE VEHICLE????
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