February 2015 U.S. Truck Sales – Toyota Tundra Improves Again
Tim Esterdahl | Mar 04, 2015 | Comments 12
Another month is in the books for 2015 and the sales numbers are now out. While some companies will claim poor weather had an effect on their sales, let’s take a closer look at the numbers and draw some conclusions. Like is Ram maxing out demand? Will GM ever consolidate their numbers to show how much they are trouncing Ford? Toyota continues to see sales increases and nobody seems to care.
Toyota continues to sell more Tundra pickups each month keeping up with the growing industry.
First, let’s see the results for January 2015.
| Rank | Model YTD Sales | YTD vs. 2014 | Year-Over-Year | Monthly Sales | Monthly Change vs. 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - Ford F-Series | 109,606 | +7.0% | February 2015 February 2014 | 55,236 55,882 | -1.2% |
| 2 - Chevy Silverado | 81,501 | +24.4% | February 2015 February 2014 | 45,395 36,584 | +24.1% |
| 3 - Ram Truck | 59,916 | +10.2% | February 2015 February 2014 | 31,298 29,303 | +6.8% |
| 4 - GMC Sierra | 27,778 | +9.6% | February 2015 February 2014 | 15,157 14,232 | +6.5% |
| 5 - Toyota Tacoma | 23,781 | +14.4% | February 2015 February 2014 | 12,372 10,942 | +13.1% |
| 6 - Toyota Tundra | 17,249 | +9.1% | February 2015 February 2014 | 9,052 7,923 | +12.6% |
| 7 - Chevy Colorado | 12,505 | NA | February 2015 February 2014 | 6,563 1 | NA |
| 8 - Nissan Frontier | 11,974 | +11.7% | February 2015 February 2014 | 6,106 5,791 | +5.4% |
| 9 - GMC Canyon | 4,718 | NA | February 2015 February 2014 | 2,513 0 | NA |
| 10 - Nissan Titan | 1,590 | -20.7% | February 2015 February 2014 | 816 1,117 | -26.9% |
| 11 - Honda Ridgeline | 350 | -84.8% | February 2015 February 2014 | 136 1,143 | -88.1% |
Looking over the results, lets pull out a few conclusions.
GM trucks combined sales of 126,502 trounces Ford’s 109,606 of F-Series truck sales. If this continues, even after the Kansas City, Mo. plant begins producing new 2015 Ford F-150 trucks, will Ford concede the best-selling truck title? (We assume not).
Is Ram cooling off? Yes, the Ram Truck brand was up again with a 6.8% increase, they had been running increases right along with Chevy in the mid 20s. We wonder if the demand on a half-ton diesel is starting to be met.
Take a close look at the Tacoma and Tundra numbers. Once again, they both sold well with increases. The Tundra actually bested its “best February since 2008” in 2014 with an even better number. Also, the Tacoma hasn’t been phased at all by the new 2015 Chevy Colorado or 2015 GMC Canyon.
Who is buying the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon? GM is selling a combined 17,223 of their mid-size trucks, yet both the Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma saw an increase in sales. Now, this increase wasn’t too great in the case of Nissan, XANNONCE so maybe they lost some customers there, but who is buying these trucks?
GM has long maintained that the customer is someone who drives a SUV, but really wants a truck. Yet, GM announced large SUVs were up 66 percent for the month and small/compact crossovers were up 14 percent combined. The GMC Acadia and Terrain has their best February ever and the Buick Encore saw deliveries rise 60 percent.
Plus, the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra were up a combined 31 percent.
GM’s CEO Mary Barra said she foresaw the automotive market holding steady against 2014 sales and there wouldn’t be any new growth. If that is the case, then who is buying these trucks? We don’t know, but are working on finding out.
What do you think of the month? Any surprises?
Filed Under: Tundra News
Column titles: Ok “XX vs. 2014” I think?
Ok, what is “not” said on the other web sites?
Tundra’s monthly net change percentage is twice Ram and twice GMC, but half Silverado.
Ford continues the slide in growth rate for over 18 months now. On Feb 15th 2015 Ford began in the DFW and Houston areas the “early” launch of the $2,000 national rebate on the new 2015 F150 in place now; they are not selling in great numbers so far. Dealers around here have hundreds in stock. I wager that rebate will be up to $5,000 before March is out.
All this while Tundra continues to slowly and surely gain ground.
More and more truck buyers that actually use trucks are realizing a truck that actually works is far far better with a truck with all the wiz bang gizmos in the shop with a broken engine. Both Tacoma and Tundra are still king of the QDR mountain. It is that simple.
Side Note: Reading the comments by the GM and Ford salesmen on other web sites are hilarious. They do love puffing their wares into delirium.
The people buying the mid size GM twins are “not” truck users. More than 90% are SUV drivers that want a midsize SUV with a box on the back. It is like the PT Cruiser again a 12-18 month flash in the pan, their sales will fade quickly.
Randy,
Thanks for catching the year error. I can’t “see” the table until after I publish the article and I forgot to double-check it.
Basically, what I said in my article is what is not said on other sites. Wondering about Ram’s performance numbers and also about how GM collectively bests Ford again.
I had the same thoughts on SUV drivers buying the mid-size trucks, but I can’t find the data to back it up.
-Tim
Lots of cash on the hood of the GM twins to roll those numbers out. I would expect that to plateau as the months go on, new F150 gets more readily available, and the incentives decline on the GMs.
Impressive numbers by Toyota, especially when I had a dealer tell me they were having difficulty moving Tundras “unless somebody just really wants a Toyota”. Must be a LOT of people like that. I think reliability and that big V-8 are pushing folks into the Tundra IMO.
Ram numbers are strong, too. Ecodiesel driving that train? Would love to see how many ecodiesels are sold monthly compared to the increase in sales.
Brian J,
Historically, Ram has said 1 out of every 5 trucks they build is an EcoDiesel. I am simply wondering if things have cooled a bit. I’d work on getting a response, but there is a big work truck show going on at the moment. I’ll follow up down the road.
-Tim
Tim,
I would agree the numbers are better than before ;however, the numbers could be considerably better if Toyota wasn’t so…slow with bringing about changes. The big 3 nearly failed because they were too liberal, Toyota in my opinion is doing ok(vs. where I think they could be); they are overly conservative in their approach.
Right now I could be paying for that new Tundra I would have bought if the Gen 3 aka Gene 2.5 would of been the truck it should have been, but I am not. Its good for me, bad for Toyota. I am just one customer they could of had; wonder how many feel the same way I do.
T,
I hear you. There is that level of frustration out there and I know I suffer from it. I’ll be talking with Sweers or Bill Fay about a new product and I keep thinking, “so what? That’s all you did??” It is infuriating at times to go to a Ram or Ford press conference and see all of these cool toys then go to Toyota and see same old, same old. Yet, that is what has made Toyota… well… Toyota. They don’t take the risks, they give up a few customers and they still sell a TON of vehicles. We can get upset all we want, but they have had a pretty successful business model.
-Tim
Toyota. Good power, decent mileage, excellent reliability! That’s all I want/need in a pickup truck…
Tim,
the Total Toyota trucks sold right now is 2 months worth…… that would suggest about 250000 at this pace… I think you counted the 41,000 total to be one month not two…..
Whoops! I see I forgot a month.
-Tim
no idea on who is buying GM period, especially the overpriced Colorado. Found a crewcab short bed fairly loaded for 35K msrp – OUCH, NOT cheap for a mid-sized at best truck. Pretty skinny interior inside as well and skiny seats made for someone under 200lbs. for sure, not me.
I don’t think the tacoma has anything to fear against the colorado.
Tim,
Ram sales are down maybe from the bottoming out of crude. January sales overall were an indictor of buyers gambling on the oil market going down and diesels had a head start from last year’s residual high prices. They’re gonna cool because diesel continues to be higher than gas even though both are dropping – though now climbing back up.
Analysts say oil should drop to $20 by april/may because US reserves are at unheard of 2/3rds full. It’ll be interesting to read this market in the coming months.
If you make a reliable truck and don’t saturate the market, you’ll sell as the Tundra does at a steady rate.
Rick,
This is a good point with diesel fuel prices staying higher than gasoline, yet this has been the case for a while.
The reality could be that Ram is now up against their sales numbers from the big growth of 2014. Whenever, you have a big year with double-digit increases, it is hard to do the same in the following year. Not sure if this is the case, just speculating.
-Tim