Sales of America’s most popular vehicle, Ford Motor Co.’s (NYSE: F) F-150, rose above 250,000 through the first four months of the year, posting numbers that mean that it cannot possibly be caught in 2016 by its full-sized pickup rivals. Whatever combination of new features and old loyalty have driven its success, the F-150’s sales are extraordinary, even after it experimented with the metal composition of the truck.
Ford sold 256,895 F-150 pickups through April, up 7% from the same period last year. Well behind it, sales of the General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Silverado were 178,995, or up 3.6%. Sales of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.’s (NYSE: FCAU) Ram hit 154,446, up 10.8%. The American demand for full-sized pickups is so strong that the three each eclipse the sales of any car.
F-150 sales not only grew year over year, but Ford management reported the trend is the best in over a decade:
Ford F-150 – the only truck to earn an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick –helped lift F-Series sales 13 percent with 70,774 trucks sold. This is the second month in a row F-Series surpassed 70,000 sales, marking their best April performance in 11 years.
The pickup’s sales were 29% of all vehicles Ford sold in the first four months.
Ford has used some measure of incentives to sell the F-150. It is impossible to tell for Ford outsiders what this does to margins on the pickup. Ford currently offers 0% annual percentage rate (APR) for 60 months. In the current car market, the offer is not without precedent
Even if Ford has to entice buyers for the F-150, its performance is unmatchable.
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