Ford Dominates August Pickup Sales

Cars and Drivers

Published: September 4, 2018 12:10 pm

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 6:26 pm

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sold 81,839 F-Series pickups (up 6.3% year over year) in August, topping sales of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) Ram pickups of 49,912 units (up 33%). For the year to date, Ford has sold 603,926 F-Series pickups to Ram’s total of 323,727. General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) no longer reports monthly sales results.

For the first six months of 2018, GM sold 291,074 Chevy Silverado pickups and 100,874 GMC Sierra pickups, for a total of 391,948 units. GM will report quarterly sales figures on October 2 for the third quarter and on January 3, 2019, for the fourth quarter.

Ford F-Series pickup sales rose 4.6% year over year for the first half of the year, compared to an overall sales gain of 8.2% for the two GM models and a decline of 7% in Ram pickup sales.

For the first eight months of 2018, F-Series sales are up 4.8% and Ram sales are down 1%.

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 August totaled 11,058, up 7.2% year over year. Nissan reported August Titan sales of 4,661 units, a 32.4% gain year over year.

Toyota sold 23,534 of the company’s midsize Tacoma pickups in August, up 35.3% compared with August of last year. Combined light truck sales added up to Toyota’s best-ever August.

Nissan’s midsize Frontier pickup sold 4,573 units in August, a drop of 1.4% year over year. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) sold 2,792 midsize Ridgeline pickups in the month, up by 7% year over year.

For the year to date, Toyota has sold 76,328 Tundras (up 2.4% year over year) and 161,644 Tacomas (up 25%), and Nissan has sold 31,932 Titans (up 0.5%) and 50,856 Frontiers (up 1.5%). Honda Ridgeline sales of 20,268 units are down 14.8% year over year.

Both Ford and FCA have their 2018 models on the market with 2019 models on their way to dealer showrooms. The refreshed 2019 GM trucks are due by the end of the year, and Ford is expected to have its new 2019 Ranger midsize pickup to dealers late this year or early next.

In 2017, Ford’s share of the full-size pickup market came in at 39.7%, while Chevrolet Silverado nabbed 26%, GMC Sierra took 9.6% and Ram rang up 24.7% of the market.