For just the second time in 205 months, the Ram P/U range outsold the Chevrolet Silverado in the United States in September 2016.
It’s a victory wiped away by including GM’s other full-size pickup truck, the GMC Sierra, not to mention both Ram and Silverado are fighting for second place. The Ford F-Series is America’s top-selling truck line, outselling the Ram by 20,000 units and the GM twins by nearly 4,400 sales.
September was nevertheless the icing on the cake for a three-quarter period in which Ram’s pickups finished 27,549 sales ahead of their record-setting pace last year.
But Fiat Chrysler Automobiles placed a lot of extra cash on the hood to put so much icing on the cake.
During a month in which even sales at the Jeep brand decreased and total non-pickup sales at FCA fell 8 percent, a Ram P/U increase was vital.
Heading into September, FCA had a 102-day supply of pickup trucks. To aid inventory glut reduction, the average Ram P/U incentive rose approximately $1,100 from $6,000/per truck in August to $7,100 in September, discounts worth nearly $2,000 more per truck than Ford applied to the F-Series.
(F-Series incentives reportedly remained level from August to September; the Silverado’s average per-truck incentive grew from $4,700 to $5,650.)
Naturally, the precise amount would vary depending on the specific truck. Like its key Detroit competitors, Ram’s pickup line is vast, ranging from light-duty 1500s with Pentastar V6 engines to heavy-duty models with dual rear wheels and Cummins diesels, trucks laden with leather, enough electronic doodads to embarrass many so-called luxury sedans, and thick profit margins.
However deep the price cut, it worked. Ram P/U sales jumped 29 percent to 47,792 units, topping the Silverado — for the first time since March 2014 — by 2,412 sales.
U.S. sales of full-size pickups grew by just 1 percent in September, as Ram’s competition collectively lost 6 percent of their sales.
As a result, Ram’s share of the full-size pickup truck market grew from 20 percent in September 2015 (and 21 percent in August 2016, when Ram incentives were already greater than GM’s or Ford’s) to 25 percent in September 2016.
General Motors remains the top-selling manufacturer of pickup trucks overall in 2016. Through the first three-quarters of this year, GM’s pickup sales are up 1 to 697,249, boosted by a 25-percent surge in sales of the company’s midsize twins.
After outselling the Ford F-Series with its full-size twins in calendar year 2015, ending a five-year streak, the F-Series leads the Silverado/Sierra by 5,660 units heading into the Q4.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.
Is the Titan a flop? Because it seems like a flop. I know the whole line isn’t out yet but I can’t imagine too many people are waiting for regular cab V6 ones.
Sure there are people waiting for the regular cab V6 and they expect to wait 3 or 4 years before they are available on the used market.
I got tired of waiting so I bought a RC F-150.
C’mon now. The Titan had it’s best month since at least 2008. Almost 2500 units!
Just think of all the conquests!
Titan and all of those lost Ford sales. BTW, where is Big Al? Is he too busy terrorizing school kids in a clown costume?
Lou,
I have had much less time of late due to massive efficiency gains at work. I also went blind in my right eye 2 months ago and now have an IOL. The left eye has a year or so to go.
Last week I was involved in an aircraft investigation as a SME and flew up to Townsville for a week. I’m also heading to Paris and Valencia in Few days.
So, as you can appreciate my a$$ has been flat out.
Wow. Sorry to hear about your eyes but “IOL” (Intra Ocular Lens) – you have cataracts.
‘I have had much less time of late due to massive efficiency gains at work.”
Does that mean they are making you do some work? LOL
Oh – the clown remark, that is a bit of a fad now. Running around in scary clown costumes and scaring the sh!t out of people. Doesn’t seem like a good idea in gun toting USA.
Lou,
Yes, a cataract. There are a variety of them. The one I had was directly in the centre of my eye. So in brighter conditions when my iris contracts I was blind.
Oh, they axed 25% of my work force.
Yes I figured it out!
THE STUPID IT BURNS.
(this is completely unrelated to the Nissan Titan)
I took a very quick look at discounts in Canada.
Ram – 12k off
Ford – 0% finance 84 months and 1,500 cash bonus and 2k off delivery allowance
Chevy/GM – 13k off HD’s, up to 10K 1/2 ton “selected models”, or no lease payments until 2017
Nissan Titan XD – 14k off
Those numbers would indicate who is worried about sales and who isn’t.
This segment is driven by discounts. Only a sucker would buy without any cash on the hood.
For a short time last month around here there were ads that touted 30% off MSRP on Ram pickups. Not sure what the fine print revealed, though I’m certain it excluded a number of combinations, and required “dealer participation” to get the full amount of the advertised discount.
Scoutdude,
Your comment is true. This also displays at the end of the day to some brand loyalty stops at your hip pocket.
One of the local large volume dealers used to end their radio and TV ads with a nice loud “PRICE SELLS CARS”, though they later changed it to add AND TRUCKS as more and more people were trading in their cars for trucks.
I actually just tried to help my BIL buy a Tradesman. He wanted the regular cab,longbed,4×2,Hemi,ZF and the 3.72 (3.92? whatever)locker. He was happy with white and happy to order one. Every dealer just steered him to heavily discounted available stock and wouldn’t budge off retail if he had the temerity to insist on a custom order.
How many dealers did you try? There must be a decent one somewhere around you. My buddy custom-ordered his current-generation 1500 a couple years ago at around 10k off MSRP, most of which was not factory incentives.
My local dealer always has a few of those in stock. Best hot rod deal on the planet.
Shortbeds though, yeah? With big wheels usually. He wants a long bed and steelies.
Drew8MR – Nope. Usually fleet spec. They were short box though. I’ll bet more rural or fleet oriented dealers will have them.
I love it when journalist play the number game like the manufactuers. The lack of transparency here suits Tim.
GM still outsold Ford in pickups. A Colorado has more in common with most 1/2 ton Silverado’s sold than a 1/2 ton vs a 1 ton.
Because of the distorted pickup numbers just incorporate all pickups or break them down completely.
The Silverado 1500 does not have more in common with the Colorado than it does the Silverado 2500.
I disagree Adam.
Most half ton pickups sold can easily be replaced with a midsizer. Most 3/4 and 1 tons sold can’t be replaced with a 1/2 ton.
Well there are a lot of companies that switched to 1/2 Ford or GMs as the max payload and/or max towing actually overlap a bit with the 3/4 tons of today and exceed the ratings of the 3/4 tons from not that long ago.
Scoutdude – that is very true. At one time most of the big companies in my region went with HD pickups. I now see more and more 1/2 ton pickups being used. That is partially a payload issue but it also due to 1/2 ton trucks being built more durable.
1/2 tons used to run 215-235 tires on 15’s and now most are 18’s at 255-265. I ran aftermarket 265/16’s on my 1990 3/4 ton and now that is basically a stock tire on a 1/2 ton.
Scoutdude,
The key word is “most”. I did not state “none”.
But which mid-sizers have a regular-cab option? (some of us want ONLY regular cabs)
Higheriq – no reg cab in any small truck. A while back it was blamed upon CAFE footprint rules. Reg cab means too small a footprint so tougher mpg rules. Reg cab small trucks are also domain of fleets and “economy conscious” buyers. Extra cost and no profit means “we no make” anymore.
1/2 ton reg cabs on the other hand sell in huge numbers to fleets, single guys and empty-nesters.
Tim did play your game and clearly stated that GM sold more pickups than anyone. Again it seems like you need to brush up on your reading comprehension. But if you want to play number games Ford sold more trucks than anyone since vans are part of their respective mfg’s truck lines.
The Colorado has virtually nothing in common with a full size GM truck, it case you missed it every single body part is different. The 1/2 ton trucks share a ton of body and interior parts with their 3/4 and 1 ton brothers.
Scoutdude,
You are correct.
As I pointed out to Lou, I’m time poor at the moment (like much of the time). So I glanced through the article.
This is also why I tend to reply to comments and not articles.
@BigAl – to quote you, “Comprehension is key”
or did someone else say that?
Lou if a word has more than two syllables I’m lost.