The segment eeks out moderate growth in 2017 as sales of new Honda Ridgeline already started declining in the second half of the year
Sales in the Pickup segment rose by 0.5% to 116,828 in the fourth quarter of 2017, while overall sales in 2017 rose by 0.9% to 452,335, a substantial climbdown for the hefty 26% growth rate the segment registered in 2016. However, things are looking up in 2018, with the imminent arrival of the eagerly-awaited Jeep Wrangler pickup and the return of the Ford Ranger, as well as the replacement of the geriatric Nissan Frontier potentially arriving in the US by the year’s end.
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
Highlights:
- Toyota Tacoma easily held onto the segment lead, selling almost twice as well as the second-placed Chevrolet Colorado, with both models registering modest growth in 2017
- The same cannot be said of the geriatric third-placed Nissan Frontier, which lost almost 15% of sales in 2017, although it did register 9.2% growth in Q4’17
- Although the headline year-on-year growth of almost 50% looks good for Honda Ridgeline, as does the fact that it managed to outsell the GMC Canyon, the Honda’s growth is flattered by the fact it only came to market towards the end of Q1’16, andsales actually fell by almost a quarter in 25% in the second half of 2017, leaving the model’s 2017 total about a third lower than the peak achieved by the first-generation model in 2006, its second year on the market
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