F-Series Sales Support Ford’s Focus on Pickups
Ford trucks are beating Chevy and Ram while outselling the top cars by almost three-to-one.
Earlier this year, Ford Motor Company shocked the automotive world when it was announced that the automaker would be discontinuing almost all of its car nameplates in an effort to focus on trucks and SUVs. FCA had previously made a move to shift their company focus away from cars and since then, General Motors has announced a similar shift. Many people still question the decision to focus the majority of the company’s resources on larger, heavier and less-efficient vehicles, but current sales trends show that FoMoCo is making the right move.
F-Series Sales through November
We are probably about two weeks away from getting the final sales numbers for the 2018 calendar year, but based on numbers from the end of November, we can paint a pretty clear picture of sales trends in the US auto industry.
Through the first 11 months of 2018, Ford has sold 821,558 examples of the F-Series pickup, just 1.8% from the same period last year. That leads to an average of about 75,000 trucks sold each month and at this rate, the Motor Company is likely to sell around 900,000 pickups in the US in 2018, making this one of the best sales years ever for the F-Series.
The growth in truck sales isn’t restricted to Ford, as Ram truck sales are up 5%, Chevrolet Silverado sales are up 1.6% and Toyota Tundra sales are up 1.4%, with only the GMC Sierra and the Nissan Titan posting sales declines in the full-size truck segment. Overall, the large truck segment is up and while Ford doesn’t lead the way in growth, the F-Series will likely be the bestselling vehicle in the US for the 37th-straight year while leading all truck sales for the 42nd year in a row.
So trucks are up, but more importantly, cars are down.
America’s Bestselling Cars Struggle
Over the course of the past decade, the bestselling car in the United States has been the Toyota Camry or the Honda Accord, both of which are down over the first 11 months of 2018. With 298,991 Camrys sold this year, Toyota is down 4% with their top-seller while the Accord is down 13%, sitting at 262,444 units with just one month left on the year. Based on their current sales rates, the Camry could end up in the area of 325,000 units while the Accord should finish up around 285,000 units.
In other words, the bestselling truck in the US will outsell the bestselling car by a rate of nearly three-to-one, even as fuel prices and truck prices continue to rise. Best of all, as truck sales rise and car sales fall, the F-Series continues to be the top choice among all vehicles sold in the United States, so it looks like Ford trucks are likely to lead the industry for years to come.