With summertime bringing vacations, holidays, and three-day weekends, the American pickup truck market experienced an uptick of 4 percent in August 2017.
The Ford F-Series continued its relentless march to sales supremacy, selling 77,007 trucks last month. That brings the total number of Blue Oval pickups vacating showrooms this year to 576,334, nearly enough for every man, woman, and child in Milwaukee. That counts for a 9.2% sales increase when compared to this time last year.
At GM, a total of 54,448 Chevy Silverado pickups went out the door, joined on the road by 17,254 GMC Sierra trucks. Perhaps due to a reduction in fleet sales, year-to-date totals for the Silverado and Sierra are down 4.4 percent and 6.8 percent respectively. Combined, the GM twins count for just under half a million sales this year, enough for everyone in Sacramento.
The General has a stake in the mid-sized market, too, as the Chevrolet Colorado counted for 10,256 sales while GMC Canyon sold 2698 copies. Why the GMC sells at a fifth of the pace of its brother remains one of the world’s greatest mysteries, ranking up there with Stonehenge and the Bermuda Triangle. Year-to-date, the GM mid-sizers have sold 71,763 and 20,347 units respectively, a total nearly enough to populate the city of Lakewood, New Jersey.
Across town, FCA sales of Ram pickups reached 37,608 units last month. Drawing a parallel to this stage in the year twelve months ago, Ram is showing a 5.0 percent increase in sales volume, with 327,729 pickups being sold to in the first eight months of 2017, enough to put one in the hands of everybody in Santa Ana, California. Clearly, all those special editions are keeping people interested in a truck that’s scheduled to be replaced very soon.
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Of course, more companies than the Detroit Three sell trucks. Toyota sold 10,320 full-size Tundras in August, lending to the year-to-date total of 74,518, about the same as last year. If you think you’re seeing Taco trucks on every corner, you’re right: the Tacoma is having a strong year, selling 17,394 trucks last month and 129,362 trucks so far in 2017. That’s an increase of 1.9 percent. Combined, Toyota has moved enough trucks this year for all hands in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Not to be left out, Nissan put keys in the pockets of 3521 Titan buyers, counting a total of 31,776 sales to date in 2017. Technically, that number works out to a 274% year-over-year increase but it’s important to note that few Nissan dealers had Titans to sell twelve months ago, as the company was in the throes of changing over to the brand-new model. Nissan also moved 4637 Frontiers last month for a year-to-date total of 50,097 trucks.
Jeep
The Jeep brand recorded 73,191 sales last month and 548,833 sales year-to-date – in other words, one Jeep for every single living soul in Tuscon. The brand as a whole is off by 13 percent this year, largely explained by the vacuum created by the Patriot’s departure, a model which sold well over 100,000 units in 2016.
Looking more closely at individual models, Jeep moved 16,808 Wranglers, just under nine thousand Renegades, and 11,874 Cherokees in August. By far, its best selling model was the Grand Cherokee, with 23,572 of the off-roaders finding new homes last month.