Cars and Drivers

Ford Expands Lead in Pickup Sales

Paul Ausick

Published: January 5, 2016 12:15 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 3:25 pm

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sold 85,211 F-Series pickups in the month of December, the first time in 10 years that a single month’s sales have topped 85,000, to extend its string as the best-selling pickup truck in the United States for 39 consecutive years. And because pickup trucks are the best-selling vehicles at all Detroit Three automakers, the F-Series trucks are the best-selling vehicle of any kind in the United States for the 34th straight year.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) reported December sales of its full-size Silverado pickups rose 8.9% year over year to 62,992. Sales of the company’s GMC Sierra trucks rose 17.1% to 27,438, for a combined total of 90,430. The really good news for GM is that the company sold 7,909 of its all-new midsize Chevy Colorado pickup, a month-over-month jump of 96%.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) sold 43,135 Ram pickups in December, a decrease of 2% year over year.

For the full year, this is the full-size pickup truck scorecard for the Detroit Three:

• Ford F-Series: 780, 354, up 3.5% compared with 2014 sales
• Chevy Silverado: 600,554, up 13.4%
• Ram: 451,116, up 3%
• GMC Sierra: 224,139, up 5.8%

The other full-size pickups on offer in the United States are the Tundra from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and the Nissan Titan. Tundra’s sales totaled 11,150 in December (up 6%) and 118,800 for all of 2015 (up 0.3%). The Titan sold just 1,108 unit in December and 12,140 for the full year.

Toyota’s midsize Tacoma pickup sold 17,192 units in December and 179,562 units in 2015. Now that the Chevy Colorado has been selling for several months, the battle for the midsize pickup market is likely to heat up. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) is introducing a new version of its midsize Ridgeline pickup at next week’s Detroit auto show, and Nissan is showing a concept truck derived from a redesigned Titan pickup at the show as well.

In the full-size pickup segment, sales for December totaled 218,776 vehicles from the Detroit Three. Ford’s market share totaled about 39%, while GM’s share came in at 28.8% for the Chevy Silverado and 12.5% for the GMC Sierra. Ram’s market share totaled 19.7%. Month over month, Ford’s market share slipped by 1%, while GM’s share rose by about 2% and Ram’s share slipped by about 3%.

The sharp month-over-month rise in pickup truck sales in December (up 34%) likely are attributable to expanded year-end incentives and the fact that there were five sales weekends in the month and two extra selling days compared to December 2014. And the general sales conditions continue to influence sales: low pump prices, easy availability of credit, pent-up demand, more employed Americans and an increase in leasing.

Automotive News reported that incentive spending in December rose by about 3.9% year over year, with the average discount topping $3,060 per vehicle, according to research by TrueCar.