Cars and Drivers

Ford F-Series Pickups Gained Market Share in March

Paul Ausick

Published: April 3, 2017 11:50 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 1:21 pm

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sold 81,330 F-Series pickups in March, topping sales of General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Chevy Silverado by 38,920 units. Adding in sales of the GMC Sierra, Ford outsold GM in the pickup wars by 20,460 units.

Incentives were lower month over month in March, with GM dropping incentives by 4.5 points to $4,892, Ford cutting payments by 0.7 points to $3,983 and Fiat Chrysler cutting incentives by 0.8 points to $4,327.

Ford F-Series pickup sales rose 10.1% year over year in March, compared with a decline of 11.6% in Silverado sales and a drop of 14.3% in Sierra sales. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.’s (NYSE: FCAU) Ram pickup sales rose 6% year over year to 46,384 units sold last month.

Sales of crossovers, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and pickups (together grouped as “light trucks”) accounted for 61.5% of all sales in the first two weeks of March, according to J.D. Power. If that percentage holds through the last two weeks of the month it would represent the highest level ever for March and the ninth consecutive month that light trucks have comprised more than 60% of light vehicle sales volume.

Other full-size pickups on offer in the United States are the Tundra from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and the Nissan Titan. Toyota sales for March totaled 9,358, down 6.4% year over year. The Titan sold 5,539 units in March, up a huge 335% compared with March 2016.

Sales of GM’s midsize Colorado pickup dipped 13.3% to 8,426 units, and sales of the GMC Canyon fell 13.1% to 4,048 in March. Nissan’s midsize Frontier pickup sold 6,973 units in March, down 14.1% year over year. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) sold 3,778 units of its all-new Ridgeline midsize pickup, up from zero in March of 2016.

In the full-size pickup segment, March sales of 185,094 vehicles from the Detroit Three pencils out to a Ford market share of 47.7% (a month-over-month gain of 2.3 points). GM’s share came in at 22.9% for the Chevy Silverado (down 4.9 points) and 10% (down 0.7 points) for the GMC Sierra. Ram’s market share totaled 25.1% (up 1.3 points).