Ford takes every opportunity it can to remind us their F-Series trucks have been the best-selling vehicles in America for more than thirty years, but there's a little more to the story. Between the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra lineups, GM has outsold Ford on full-size trucks in eight of the last 16 years.
Since GM identifies the Sierra and Silverado as distinctly different models, I suppose Ford F-Series' "best selling" title stands (though it is a frustratingly convoluted statement since "F-Series" covers four different models sold in an array of configurations). But we know the GMC and Chevrolet versions of their respective 1500, 2500, and 3500 pickups are structurally and mechanically almost identical. A "combine" win over F-Series is still significant.
F-Series may have lead truck sales for most of 2014, but according to The Motley Fool GM was actually about 75,000 trucks ahead of them from 1998 to as recently as 2012. All I'm saying is, The General's reputation as the perennial "second place finisher" in truck sales is a little undeserved.
Last month, Silverado sales spiked 13% with the GMC Sierra not far behind with a 10% increase. F-Series came up a little over 7% from the month prior.
Meanwhile, GM is reporting that some 28,000 dealer orders have been placed for the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado, and about 14,000 for the 2015 GMC Canyon. I can't wait to see how those do and affect sales of the other offerings, but until then let's take a look at the trucks America bought in August:
The Almost Truck
| Trucklets | August 2014 Sales | 2014 Sales thru August | 2013 Sales thru August | Change | % Of Brand's Sales, 2014 | % Of Brand's Sales, 2013 | Current Market Share |
| Honda Ridgeline | 1,347 | 10,593 | 12,403 | -14.59% | 1.13% | 1.31% | 100% |
| Segment Overall | 1,347 | 10,593 | 12,403 | -14.59% |
Honda reports they had their best month of all time, with 151,551 US sales. 1.13% of those sales were Honda Ridgelines which, again, you can still buy. A second generation is in the works with an unknown release date.
Mid-Size Trucks
| Small Pickups | August 2014 Sales | 2014 Sales thru August | 2013 Sales thru August | Change | % Of Brand's Sales, 2014 | % Of Brand's Sales, 2013 | Current Market Share |
| Nissan Frontier | 6,770 | 48,510 | 41,519 | 16.84% | 5.49% | 5.31% | 32.07% |
| Toyota Tacoma | 14,338 | 102,736 | 110,293 | -6.85% | 6.31% | 7.19% | 67.93% |
| Segment Overall | 21,108 | 151,246 | 151,812 | -0.37% |
When will Nissan finally redesign the geriatric Frontier for real? Probably as soon as y'all stop buying the old one, which certainly didn't happen last month. Frontier sales increased over last year again, as they have every single month we've been watching. The Toyota Tacoma on the other hand, seems to be resting on the laurels of its small-truck market share domination with another drop in consumer interest.
Full-Size Trucks
| Full-Size Pickups | August 2014 Sales | 2014 Sales thru August | 2013 Sales thru August | Change | % Of Brand's Sales, 2014 | % Of Brand's Sales, 2013 | Current Market Share |
| Ford F-Series | 68,109 | 497,174 | 499,050 | -0.38% | 30.24% | 30.16% | 37.33% |
| Chevrolet Silverado | 49,201 | 331,977 | 328,269 | 1.13% | 23.90% | 24.04% | 24.93% |
| GMC Sierra | 19,847 | 130,526 | 122,232 | 6.79% | 39.78% | 40.31% | 9.80% |
| Ram P/U | 43,775 | 283,256 | 234,642 | 20.72% | 20.43% | 19.33% | 21.27% |
| Toyota Tundra | 11,834 | 80,133 | 72,750 | 10.15% | 4.92% | 4.74% | 6.02% |
| Nissan Titan | 1,231 | 8,719 | 11,281 | -22.71% | 0.99% | 1.44% | 0.65% |
| Segment Overall | 193,997 | 1,331,785 | 1,268,224 | 5.01% |
GM's photo-finish sales win (939 vehicles) over Ford F-Series may be indicative of an incentive push to try and strengthen their position before the 2015 F-150 drops, but it's still worth talking about if only to highlight the fact that combined Sierra and Silverado sales do surpass the F-Series more often than you might realize.
Ram has yet to come up with another big surge since the release of their EcoDiesel 1500.
The Toyota Tundra is actually up somewhat significantly over this time last year, and Nissan continues to not give a damn about the Titan, which still represents less than 1% of their lineup sales.
Image: Andrew P. Collins (Graphics: GM)