Pickup truck sales continued their upward swing last month, with all the full-sized nameplates from the Detroit Three showing an increase in units sold compared to this time last year.
Dominating the chart, as it perpetually does, was the Ford F-Series. In October, the Blue Oval moved 75,974 examples, a whopping 15.9% increase over the same month last year. This is directly attributable to the restyled 2018 model F-150 appearing on dealer lots.
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Some of last month’s extra F-Series customers were thanks to buyers snapping up the sharp new model, while others were content to enjoy the rebates being offered on the outgoing F-150. Either way, the arrival of the redesigned 2018 model moved plenty of truck out of Ford showrooms. Year-to-date, Ford has sold 734,610 F-Series pickups, compared to 661,198 in the first ten months of 2016.
Across town, both Chevrolet and GMC enjoyed sales increases, with the Sierra experiencing a remarkably good month compared to the same timeframe one year ago. A total of 18,895 Professional Grade pickup found new homes last month, a full 25% more than in October 2016. As an entire brand, GMC had its highest average transaction price in company history, largely thanks to its Denali sub-brand which made up a whopping 30% of retail sales.
Also selling at a torrid pace was the Silverado, with 53,157 Bowtie pickups finding new homes last month in America. This good month allowed the brand to close in on last year’s performance and is now less than 4000 units shy of total sales at this time in 2016.
Ram was largely flat in October 2017, selling 44,201 pickups in the month. This plateau in sales may be due to the truck industry’s worst kept secret which is, of course, the new Ram 1500 that’ll appear at January’s International Auto Show in Detroit. Some existing Ram owners (*raises hand*) are likely taking a wait-and-see approach before signing the note on a new one.
Full-sized Japanese brand trucks bring up the rear, with Toyota moving 10,022 Tundras and Nissan shifting 4,114 Titans. The Titan is having a banner year, up nearly 200% (almost 40,000 total units) compared to 2016 thanks to a vast selection of bodystyles and engines now available instead of the moribund wasteland which made up the truck corner of Nissan showrooms in the past.
Mid-sized trucks showed either marginal declines or flat sales performance last month. America’s best selling mid-sizer, the Tacoma, found 15,804 buyers in October 2017 for a total of 163,224 sales so far this year. No one else cracked 10,000 units last month, as 9990 Colorados were sold, 6219 Frontiers moved off the lots, and 2860 Canyons rolled onto the streets of America.
At Jeep, the entire brand is off by over 11% so far this year, down to 689,316 units, reportedly due to a reduction in fleet sales to places like rental companies but realistically due to the new Compass not picking up all the slack of the departed Patriot.
Sales of the Wrangler declined by 7% to 13,391 in October 2017 compared to the same period in 2016. This is likely very much due to customers waiting for the new JL Wrangler to appear in showrooms. The brand’s current best-seller is the Grand Cherokee, having sold nearly 200,000 copies in the first ten months of 2017. In the same timeframe, the Wrangler has 163,533 sales.