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2018 U.S. Pickup Sales Results Quarter 2

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2018 U.S. Full-Size Pickup Sales Results Quarter 2The numbers are in for sales quarter 2 of 2018 and Ford continues its dominance while Ram, Nissan Titan and the Honda Ridgeline are trending in a not so positive direction.

Before we get into the numbers, we should first address the elephant in the room. Why publish quarterly sales updates and not monthly? Simple. GM made this decision for us. A few months ago, GM announced it would only publish quarterly updates. This means we can’t break down monthly sales without doing some creative math to determine how they did each month now that we have the quarterly numbers. Yeah. Not going to do that.

Instead, here are the quarterly updates for all automakers. Frankly, GM was probably right to only publish quarterly since it gives a much better picture on the pickup market.

Without further ado, here are the numbers.

ModelYTD 2018YTD 2017Change
Ford F-Series451,138429,8604.9%
Chevy Silverado291,074262,94010.70%
Ram233,539250,443-7%
Toyota Tacoma116,26694,59722.90%
GMC Sierra100,87499,1531.70%
Chevy Colorado69,87550,30138.90%
Toyota Tundra55,79253,6524%
Nissan Frontier41,70137,81310.30%
Nissan Titan23,29424,464-4.8%
GMC Canyon16,84814,88813.2%
Honda Ridgeline14,98818,596-19.4%
TOTAL1,415,3891,336,707+5.6%

Scanning over the numbers, lots of items catch our eyes. Like Ford continuing to keep pace with the industry average on sales improvement. You have to give credit where credit is due and they really do a great job selling pickups.

Next, we see both Chevy and GMC are up year over year and with a new model coming out, it will be interesting to see how these numbers change. We would guess a lot of this sales momentum is around the new pickup with dealers offering incentives and consumers making up their minds on whether to buy now or wait.

Moving on to Ram, we see their sales are down. Again, this could easily be explained with a new model coming out (see above). However, in this case, consumers might just be waiting for the new pickup.

Toyota makes a solid showing as usual with the Tacoma that continues to flat-out dominate the mid-size market. While the Colorado showed a nearly 40 percent gain and the Canyon had its own 13% gain, the Tacoma kept pace and holds a big lead over the Colorado. The economical Frontier has another solid year going with a 10.3% increase.

Then, there is the Nissan Titan and the Honda Ridgeline. We can’t believe how these recently designed pickups are fairing in the market. The Titan has both a half-ton and an XD version with a full assortment of cabins, bed lengths and a great warranty yet the market isn’t rewarding them. With the industry average at a 5.6% increase, the Titan is off by nearly 10% and the North American Truck of the Year winner Honda Ridgeline is off 25%. Really goes to show what awards mean and what consumers want.

What do you think? Anything surprise you?

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Tim Esterdahl

Automotive Journalist Tim Esterdahl has been a lover of trucks and SUVs for years. He has covered the industry since 2011 and has pieces in many national magazines and newspapers. In his spare time, he is often found tinkering on his '62 C10 pickup, playing golf, going hunting and hanging out with his wife and kids in Nebraska.

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