America’s love for pickups continued apace in September, bringing most models to new heights compared to this time last year.
Full Sizers
Surprising absolutely no one except for That Guy who lives under a rock, the Ford F-Series trucks continued to steamroll its competition, putting up huge sales numbers. A total of 679,018 of the Blue Oval pickups have been bought so far in 2018, a 3.1% increase over last year. The model sold about 7000 fewer units in September this year than last, in part to the pent up demand last year after Hurricane Harvey and the opposite effect created by Hurricane Florence.
Ram’s fortunes, on the other hand, soared last month compared to one year ago. Up a full 10% while the F-Series was down almost 9%, the pickups from FCA significantly closed the gap on their crosstown rivals. Specific numbers are in the chart below. Expect Ram’s robust performance to continue, now that the company has figured out most of its production issues on the 2019 Ram 1500 and those models are now finding their way into dealerships and the hands of anxious customers.
At GM, we’re left to speculate a bit, since The General announces sales for a full quarter rather than for a single month. Best estimates peg the Silverado and Sierra as roughly flat on the year and suffering a bit of a dip in September.
The two pickup truck contenders from non-Detroit brands did well for themselves last month, particularly the Titan which grew its volume by nearly half. Both it and the Toyota Tundra are up by single digit percentage points to date in 2018.
Mid-Size Trucks
Proving the old saw “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” are the older-than-time duo of Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier. Both trucks vastly outsold their efforts from the same timeframe one year ago. In fact, the Nissan very nearly doubled its total. One could brush this off as an aberration if these numbers were just a one-time fluke but year-to-date totals prove them to be solid. The Tacoma is up nearly 25% to date in 2018 compared to last year while the Frontier is up about 8%. Why spend all kinds of R&D money to replace them if they’re selling like gangbusters?
The other two mid-size trucks at GM are also outstripping their numbers from one year ago, with the Colorado doing exceptionally well. Perhaps there is something to the rumour that the ZR2 Bison is acting as a halo, driving customers to the showroom. Even if they drive off with a base model, it’s still a number on the board.
Jeep
No sales report would be complete without mention of Jeep, the engine that – in tandem with Ram – keeps FCA running. The brand itself is up an astonishing 20% compared to Q3 in 2017, proving that America and its citizens really like crossovers and SUVs. The new Wrangler JL is making a huge difference, with that single nameplate responsible for a full 25% of the brand’s volume through to the end of September.