The imminent arrival of the Ford Ranger and Jeep pickup will find a segment with a sustained growth rate
Sales in the US Small Pickup segment rose by 19.9% to 259,119 in the first half of 2018, with second quarter growth slowing only a little bit from the level achieved in the first quarter of the year. With the Ford Ranger and the long-awaited Jeep Gladiator pickup finally arriving later this year the segment is set for a nice period of expansion, especially if Nissan finally decides to replace the geriatric Frontier.
Highlights:
- Toyota Tacoma remained the undisputed segment leader, with 22.3% growth in the second quarter almost matching that recorded in the first quarter of the year
- As good as the Toyota’s growth rate was, it was the second-placed Chevrolet Colorado which saw its sales rise most in the second quarter of the year, with a growth rate of 45.9%
Note: Clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model; clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off
- By contrast, sales of the geriatric third-placed Nissan Frontier see-sawed once, shrinking by 15.2% in the second quarter despite the almost 50% growth rate the model recorded in the first quarter of the year
- The good fortune that lifted the Colorado’s sales clearly rubbed off on its GMC Canyon twin, with the model posting a strong 26.5% growth rate in Q2’18, recovering from a modest sales decline in the first quarter of the year
- At the back, Honda Ridgeline managed to arrest its sales decline somewhat, reducing it from almost 30% in the first quarter of the year to 10.0% in the second quarter
Note: clicking on the model names in legend turns the display for that model on/off; data is displayed from 1990 onwards, but starts earlier – access previous years using slider on bottom