Ford Pickup Sales Jump 20% in February

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) sold 60,697 F-Series pickups in the month of February, an increase of 9.9% year over year. Compared with January 2016 sales, that’s a jump of 20%, quite a turnaround from the 40% month over month decline in January.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) said sales of its Silverado pickups fell 5% year over year in February to 43,136 units. Sales of the company’s GMC Sierra trucks rose just 0.3% to 15,202, for a combined total of 58,338. Sales of the midsize Colorado pickup rose by 12.7% to 7,394 units.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) sold 38,555 Ram pickups in February, an increase of 23% year over year.

The other full-size pickups on offer in the United States are the Tundra from Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and the Nissan Titan. Tundra’s sales totaled 8,301 in January (down 8.3%). The Titan sold 1,060 units in February, up nearly 30% from January and up nearly 26% compared with last year. Toyota’s midsize Tacoma pickup sold 14,172 units in February. Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (NYSE: HMC) introduced a new version of its midsize Ridgeline pickup at January’s Detroit auto show, but the new pickup has not yet hit showroom floors.
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In the full-size pickup segment, sales for December totaled 132,722 vehicles from the Detroit Three. Ford’s market share totaled about 38.5%, GM’s share came in at 27.4% for the Chevy Silverado and 9.6% for the GMC Sierra. Ram’s market share totaled 24.5%.

Sales rose sharply month over month as better weather and promotions around the Presidents’ Day holiday had a dramatic impact. The 20% jump by Ford was much better than the expected 12% increase. GM’s decline, however, was unexpected, with a consensus estimate for a 5.6% gain.

According to estimates from J.D. Power and LMC, consumers were expected to spend more than $32 billion on new vehicles in February, a record for the month and up by $3 billion year over year. The analysts noted that 65.1% of all February transactions were made with long-term loans and leases.