Cars and Drivers

Chevy Silverado Narrows Ford F-Series Lead in February Pickup Sales

Paul Ausick

Published: March 1, 2017 12:25 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 2:21 pm

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sold 65,956 F-Series pickups in February, topping sales of General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Chevy Silverado by 15,452 units. Adding in sales of the GMC Sierra, GM outsold Ford in the pickup wars by just 2,166 units.

Ford pickup sales rose 8.7% year over year in February, compared with a rise of 17.1% in Silverado sales and a rise of 15.9% in Sierra sales. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.’s (NYSE: FCAU) Ram pickup sales rose 5% year over year to 39,046 units sold in February.

February buyer incentives remained high but were a little lower than January incentives at all of the Detroit Three automakers. Month over month, incentives fell 0.8% at FCA, while dropping 0.9% at GM and 1.1% at Ford, according to industry research firm ALG. The researchers also estimated that Ford boosted its December incentives by 24% year over year, with FCA lifting its incentives by 6.9% and GM raising incentives 13%.

ALG estimates February incentives per vehicle at GM to average around $4,500, while Ford and FCA spent around $4,000 or more on incentives. GM was offering up to $11,000 off some models of its Silverado pickup last month.

Other full-size pickups on offer in the United States are the Tundra from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and the Nissan Titan. Tundra sales for February totaled 7,234 units, down 12.9% year over year. The Titan sold 2,988 units in February, up a huge 182% compared with February 2016.

Sales of GM’s midsize Colorado pickup rose 1.7% to 7,591 units, and sales of the GMC Canyon rose 22% to 2,978 in February. Nissan’s midsize Frontier pickup sold 4,736 units in February, down 31% year over year. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) sold 3,265 units of its all-new Ridgeline pickup, compared with none in February of 2016.

In the full-size pickup segment, January sales of 127,738 vehicles from the Detroit Three pencils out to a Ford market share of 40.4% (a month-over-month decline of 4.0 points). GM’s share came in at 29.2% for the Chevy Silverado (up 1.2 points) and 10.2% (down 0.5 points) for the GMC Sierra. Ram’s market share totaled 26.4% (down 3.8 points).