Yesterday’s reports on new vehicle sales in the U.S. underscored a well-known fact: U.S. drivers really love pickup trucks. And they like their trucks big: three full-size pickups sold more than all smaller pickups combined.
Sales of the F-Series pickups from Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) totaled 71,604 in May, up 21.3% month-over-month, 30.6% compared with May 2012, and up 21.7% year-to-date, according to data compiled by Kelley Blue Book. The Chevrolet Silverado pickup from General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) sold 43,283 units and the Dodge Ram from Chrysler Group Ltd. sold 31,672 units. GM’s Sierra models sold 16,061 units. The mid-size Tacoma model from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) sold 14,727 units in May of a total of 23,255 for the entire category.
The manufacturing market share leader was GM, with a total share of 17.5%, followed by Ford with a 17.1% share, and Toyota with 14.4% share. But Ford’s share is growing much faster than GM’s, up 16.1% month over month compared with rise of 6.4% at GM, and a year-to-date rise of 13% compared with a rise of 8.3% at GM.
The largest market share gainer is Subaru, up 21.1% year to date, but the company has sold only 165,362 units year to date, compared with 1.05 million at Ford and 1.16 million at GM.
If there’s a slight downside to Ford’s unit sales, it is that the company’s average transaction price was down 1% in May 2013 compared to May 2012. GM was able to manage a gain of 0.5%, with Volkswagen posting a gain of 5.2% compared to May 2012.
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