Ford edges out General Motors in pickup truck sales

Ford Motor Co. narrowly beat General Motors Co. in sales of full-size pickup trucks during the half of this year.

Ford’ F-Series pickup sales rose 10.7 percent to 395,244 through the end of June, according to industry data issued Friday. GM, by comparison, sold a combined 382,134 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups – just a 0.9 percent gain – during the same period.

Silverado sales have fallen slightly this year, despite aggressive marketing that included a commercial showing a dropped tool chest punching a hole in the bed of the rival F-150 pickup. The spot was a knock on the aluminum architecture of the Ford’s body and bed.

“With Chevrolet sales flat, one wonders if the splashy incentive program that kicked off June and the provocative Silverado steel bed versus Ford’s F-150 aluminum bed ads actually did much to boost sales,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with Cox Automotive, which owns car shopping companies Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book and the Manheim auto auction house.

Overall, full-size pickup sales are up 5.3 during the first half of the year to almost 1.1 million vehicles. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Ram truck sales rose 8.8 percent to 231,405. Nissan Titan sales rose 0.8 percent to 6,099. But sales of Toyota’s Tundra dived 9.9 percent to 54,966.

Consumers are gravitating to trucks, sport-utility vehicles and crossovers because they like the room and the higher seating position, said Mark Wakefield, co-head of the automotive practice at global consulting firm AlixPartners.

Overall, the auto industry is having a banner year is on track to sell about 17 million vehicles. IHS Automotive forecasts, sales of 17.68 million vehicles this year, which would set a record for the industry.

Automakers have sold more than 8.6 million vehicles in the U.S. through the end of June, a 1.5 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp. Ford and other automakers also are seeing robust sales of commercial vans.

Ford said its commercial van sales grew 17 per cent in the first half of the year to 128,378 vehicles – largely driven by Transit’s 36 per cent gain during the period.