While car sales seem to be slowing at an ever-increasing pace, pickup trucks continue to do well. Analysts are predicting that the six years of steady sales growth we've been experiencing will likely come to a halt this year, with car and truck sales totaling around 17 million units by the end of the year — a small, albeit significant, decline to last year's 17.47 million final sales.
Historically, fall is when manufacturers begin to rely on incentive spending to maintain market share. However, although there are some hefty cash-on-the-hood deals out there (we've seen as much as $10,000 on select pickup models and trims), to date it looks like the big pickup makers are being cautious about overextending themselves.
For September the big winners are the consistent players, with Ram sales up almost 30 percent, the Toyota Tacoma up more than 35 percent, and the Chevrolet Colorado and Nissan Frontier up more than 40 and 60 percent, respectively. Of course, we need an entirely different scale to put the Honda Ridgeline sales numbers into perspective. When looking at the Ridgeline's sales history, the 2016 monthly numbers are similar to the monthly sales numbers it had in the first few years after it was introduced 10 years ago.
We should also note the sharp improvement Nissan made in September. The aging Frontier made a strong showing (benefiting from aggressive pricing strategies in the hot mid-size segment), and the full-size half-ton Titan showed huge gains after its first full month of sales.
The Chevrolet Silverado and Toyota Tundra are the only pickup trucks sold in the U.S. that are having an off year, but that could change in 2017 since both are scheduled to get some significant upgrades late in the year. We'll have more sales information later this week as we dive a little deeper into the mid-size and full-size categories.
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