Although diesel and pickups go together smoothly in our minds, this is the first light-duty diesel-powered pickup truck available in our market since before I was born. I wasn’t born yesterday.
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Posts By: Timothy Cain
Small and midsize pickup trucks accounted for 10.6% of the new pickups sold in the United States in June 2014 as their collective volume slid 9.3%.
Overall pickup truck sales slid 5.1%. Sales of the core set of six full-size trucks fell 3.5%.
One year ago, in June 2013, this group of non-full-size trucks generated 11.1% of the pickup truck volume.
It feels like we’ve known a lot about the 2015 Ford Mustang for years. There have been stories on its alleged weight gain, then stories that suggested the gain wasn’t nearly so bad. Its independent rear suspension makes the idea of serving global markets so much more tenable. Its turbocharged four-cylinder should, on paper, offer a new blend of performance and efficiency.
89% of the pickup trucks sold in the United States in the first half of 2014 were full-size trucks, a segment of the auto market that has risen 4.3% so far this year.
In May 2014, Canadian auto sales shot up to record monthly levels by soaring beyond 195,000 units, one-eighth the size of the U.S. industry last month.
These record sales levels occur as buyers transition from in large numbers from cars to crossovers, particularly smaller crossovers from volume brands. (Read More…)
Even those who didn’t appreciate the first Kia Soul’s eye-catching exterior would acknowledge the Soul was a car that majored on style. Replacing the underlying platform, updating the interior, and adding features are, to a degree, a set of secondary concerns in a car like this. The new Soul had to look every inch like […]
After a troubling first third of 2014, passenger car sales in May were resurgent in large part because of big numbers achieved by small cars. Overall car sales were down 2% through the end of April, but with a 9% year-over-year May increase (in a longer month with an extra weekend), there have now been a few more cars sold in the first five months of 2014 than during the same period one year earlier.
Ford is in a transition phase: readying the new 2015 F-150 while trying to sell the old model as often as possible. This requires knowing just how many F-Series pickups dealers will need in the weeks leading up to the new model’s introduction.
In a record-setting April for the Canadian auto industry, Ford Canada reclaimed its position atop the sales leaderboard by outselling the Chrysler Group’s various and sundry brands by a handful of units.
The impact of Mercedes-Benz’s W222 S-Class has been keenly felt in America’s luxury car sector. The S-Class’s most direct rivals have been shunned in favour of the venerable Benz over the last seven months. And yet there’s no denying that big luxury SUVs have cast a shadow over these flagship luxury cars, nor is there any point rejecting the idea that Tesla’s Model S is stealing market share.
|
Auto
|
April
2014
|
April
2013
|
%
Change
|
4 mos.
2014
|
4 mos.
2013
|
%
Change
|
|
BMW X5
|
4,393 | 3,444 | +27.6% | 14,153 | 15,335 | -7.7% |
|
BMW X3
|
3,544 | 1,914 | +85.2% | 13,974 | 9,125 | +53.1% |
|
Mercedes-Benz M-Class
|
3,831 | 3,280 | +16.8% | 13,965 | 12,442 | +12.2% |
|
Audi Q5
|
3,293 | 3,241 | +1.6% | 12,067 | 11,437 | +5.5% |
|
Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class
|
3,144 | 2,702 | +16.4% | 11,415 | 10,212 | +11.8% |
|
BMW X1
|
1,130 | 1,556 | -27.4% | 9,098 | 6,967 | +30.6% |
|
Volkswagen Tiguan
|
1,998 | 2,488 | -19.7% | 8,109 | 10,439 | -22.3% |
|
Mercedes-Benz GL-Class
|
2,253 | 2,481 | -9.2% | 7,671 | 10,099 | -24.0% |
|
Porsche Cayenne
|
1,839 | 1,750 | +5.1% | 6,119 | 5,931 | +3.2% |
|
Audi Q7
|
1,462 | 1,183 | +23.6% | 5,551 | 4,084 | +35.9% |
|
Volkswagen Touareg
|
597 | 578 | +3.3% | 2,162 | 3,102 | -30.3% |
|
BMW X6
|
342 | 354 | -3.4% | 1,442 | 1,618 | -10.9% |
|
Mercedes-Benz G-Class
|
274 | 188 | +45.7% | 882 | 800 | +10.3% |
|
—
|
—
|
— | — | — | — | — |
|
Total
|
28,100
|
25,159 | +11.7% | 106,608 | 101,591 | +4.9% |
It’s not as though consumers hadn’t experienced doses of luxury in their SUVs before the Mercedes-Benz ML, Lexus RX, and Lincoln Navigator began pushing an increasingly impressive wave toward shore in the late 90s. But, especially in the enthusiast community, there was some reluctance to accept the notion of such illustrious brands diving head first into a market that was going to demand perfectly balanced compromises. The traditional off-road ability we associated with SUVs couldn’t be thrust overboard in favour of road manners. Or could it?
Strong year-over-year growth in America’s full-size pickup sector was powered by all five major players in April 2014.
General Motors added 6398 sales to the April 2013 Silverado/Sierra total. Chrysler sold 5265 more Ram trucks than at this time one year ago. F-Series sales improved by 4357 units. Toyota added 1941 Tundra sales for the most significant percentage increase, a 23.5% jump.
The Ford Mustang is selling more frequently in 2014 than it did in the same period of 2013. Ford is also grabbing greater U.S. market share in the relatively high-volume muscle car sector.
America’s large car category shed more than 18,000 sales in the first quarter of 2014 as new entities weren’t able to add enough sales to overcome the declines of established players.
Year-over-year comparisons are a completely valid comparison tool, indeed a vital one, when analyzing the sales volume reported by automobile manufacturers. The auto industry is seasonal; cyclical at the best of times. The number of vehicles sold in say, January, bears little resemblance to the number of vehicles sold in May.
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