Wow, Chevy had a big leap. That must have been one heck of a fleet sale.

GM also sold 36 Colorados and 11 Canyons last month :)

Chevy much be back to throwing big discounts on the hood to move them square trucks.

Toyota is selling more than three 50-mpg Prius automobiles for every Tundra, giving them total freedom to ignore Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations.

Always love to look at Ram's increase in YTD numbers. I don't care what brand you are loyal to, you have to respect how far Ram has come in the last 10 years. Can't wait for the next-gen Ram!

I'm very surprised at the Frontier.

Has Nissan been putting a lot of cash on the hoods of the Frontier?

Silverado's have made a huge leap this month. But a one off with that large increase shows Chev must of had something a little different for the month.

Get used to seeing the subtraction operator in front of the F Series. I do think this will become a familiar sight in the shorter term.

Hopefully when the aluminium F Series comes out Ford will stabilise. I don't see any huge growth for Ford down the track.

@BAFO - The Frontier is back on an even playing field, with regular cab Tacomas gone, and I'm sure by now, all hoarded by Orkin and the like.

Does anyone seriously think GM is losing money on discounting Silverados and Sierras? So instead of getting 8k to 10k profit GM gets 4k to 5k on the trucks sold with incentives. Multiple the number of units sold and the profit is sizable. Ram and Ford do the same as well so if Ram happens to jump for one month in sales due to incentives then this is good for the customers and for Ram. Recently New F-150s' in Cincinnati area have advertised discounts of $10k to $14k depending on which dealers. The higher volume dealers seem to have the largest discounts. The positive thing to take away from this is that new vehicles are selling well and more people are working.

Nissan will deal on the Frontier where Toyota not so much. The Frontier is a very good truck for the money.

Ford's flat sales for the month are no surprise, its retooling factories for the 2015 model - a massive undertaking given the sales volume. And you have potential buyers waiting for the new model to compare since its just around the corner. That will probably be the case over the next couple months as the 15's roll out. Once it hits full production expect to see a bump in sales.

Breaking News:

$55,220 Ram Laramie Longhorn Crew RamBox 4x4 w/EcoDiesel has payload rating of 770 lbs. Without any passengers!

This is a scary thing.

or the driver's weight!

Now that's really scary.

Ford will sell every 2015 truck they can make, quickly. Total numbers will likely be flat for a few months till they get the assembly process fine tuned. Appears the 2.7 will be a huge seller if the performance numbers are there. Love it or hate it, whatever truck you drive will be more like the 2015 F150 in a few years turbos, and aluminum included.

@ Jeff

If those Ford dealerships are giving discounts that deep then it is coming out of their pockets and not Ford's.

"Ford continues to lag rivals' sales gains because of a couple of strategic decisions made (for good reasons) by Ford's management. 

First, for the past several months, Ford has made year-over-year reductions in the total number of vehicles it sells to rental-car fleets. Those sales generate lower profits than retail sales, and with several of Ford's factories running at or near maximum capacity, the company wants to allocate its supplies to the channels that will generate the most profit.

Second, Ford expects supplies of its F-150 pickups to tighten by year-end. The complicated factory changeovers needed to produce the all-new aluminum-bodied 2015 F-150 have required weeks of downtime at Ford's two truck plants. Ford North America chief Joe Hinrichs estimates that the company will have lost 90,000 units of production by the time the changeovers are completed.

Those supply concerns led Ford to cut its truck incentives earlier this year. That helped Ford's profits remain strong last quarter. But F-Series sales have suffered, and the company has lost market share as GM and Chrysler have jumped on the opportunity."

GM saw strength almost across the board in September, and outpaced the industry with the newest trucks and SUVs at exactly the right time,” said Kurt McNeil, U.S. vice president of Sales Operations. “We will have improved availability of heavy-duty pickups and large SUVs in the months ahead, and the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon are arriving in showrooms as we speak. This sets us up to finish the year on a very strong note.”

Exceptionally strong sales of trucks and crossovers helped GM earn average transaction prices (ATPs) of about $34,600, the highest in company history, according to J.D. Power PIN estimates. ATPs were up about $1,200 per unit compared with August, and they were up about $2,500 per unit from a year ago.

Nearly 80 percent of retail customers who bought a large SUV during September purchased a Chevrolet or GMC product. In addition, the Chevrolet Silverado had its best retail sales month since 2008 and GM’s estimated share of the retail market for large pickups increased 5 percentage points from a year ago to close to 40 percent.

Chevrolet deliveries increased 20 percent, with Silverado up 54 percent, Suburban up 50 percent, Traverse up 45 percent, Cruze up 45 percent, Sonic up 14 percent and Equinox up 12 percent. Corvette deliveries nearly tripled.

GMC deliveries were up 28 percent, including a 25 percent increase for Sierra and a 16 percent increase for Terrain. Yukon sales nearly doubled and Yukon XL was up 64 percent.

Sales of the new Cadillac Escalade more than doubled, helping the brand deliver results equal to a year ago.

The first deliveries of the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon occurred in September and availability will grow throughout the fall. GM has announced plans to add a third shift at its Wentzville, Mo., assembly plant in early 2015 to meet expected demand for both mid-size pickups and full-size vans.

Incentive spending as a percentage of ATPs was 11.1 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from August but the lowest of all domestic automakers by a significant margin, according to PIN. GM’s calendar-year-to-date spending as a percentage of ATPs is 10.7 percent, down 0.3 points, while industry spending is 10.0 percent, up 0.4 points.

Unless your business is buying the truck, most of the average income earners in this country can't afford a $500 per month truck payment. Those who offer the biggest bang for their buck will sell the most trucks. I did the build and price of a basic XL f150 crew cab 4x2 in a 2015 model. It was 36K. I did a tradesman ram 1500 same configuration with the 3.6l V6 and it was only 3 3K I did a 2015 Colorado Crew cab with the 6.2 bed, 4x2, WT with a spray on bed liner and the Tow package and it was 28k. Sure the Colorado is smaller but it has 2 inches more leg room than a quad cab Ram and 4 inches less than a crew cab ram. Those of us who are not contractors and use our trucks as weekend warriors also have to use them as our daily driver. When we start running the numbers, and the rebates help, the truck regular guys can afford are not the f150. I think we have seen trucks priced as high as they can go with regular folks still able to buy them. If it wasn't for rebates, I think there would be fewer new ones coming off the dealer lots. Who has the best bang for our buck is going to be who continues to sell more. Right now the f150 isn't it. Its a great truck, but you can get more for your money. When you are spending 4-500 per month for the next 5-7 years, you want to make sure you got what you will be happy with and don't want to feel ripped off buying it.

My comments on leg room were for the rear seat on my post...Thanks for the correction.

ALL 1
Very Good! I agree what you said, BUT one important thing you left out.
The Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon is going to eat into the F-150 sales numbers for 2015

nissan best value product

@Tom3

I didn't wrote that. It was from an article about truck sales. Hence the quotation marks.

@Jeff S

Ford guys whine a lot whenever GMC and Chevy combine to sell almost 70k pickups in a single month. Wait till the Ram guys get home from whatever they do all day and see this story!

I do think with the new Colorado/Canyon, total GM sales of pickups will outstrip the other manufacturers.

I do think this will be a continuing situation in the near term, until another manufacturer can become as competitive as GM.

GM's advantage is they are going to generate sales in a 'new' segment with the Colorado/Canyon. This will take some sales away from all manufacturers, even including some Silverado sales.

Some SUV and CUV buyers will migrate over to the Colorado as well. Ford miscalculated when it dropped the Ranger. Where did those ex-Ranger buyers go? To SUVs and CUVs.

The same applies for the gradual downward trend with all midsizers. The Frontier and Taco had sales slip and most likely trend over to SUVs and CUVs.

Now with a competitive and refined midsizer I do think GM will have some better success. This is until another or other manufacturer can offer an equivalent vehicle.

ram will gain more ground till ford drops prices. chevrolet is selling lots of left overs. and the leftovers have 5 major recalls that current owners are not happy about. I just talked to a guy that traded his 14 silverado in. said he had 4k miles on it and best part about it was it looked nice. otherwise he was unhappy with truck and recalls. ram has the opportunity to really take this bull by the horns! throw some serious rebates in the mix and some no charge hemi's ram will take market share that the other 2 cant get back ever! watch this happen! chevrolet messed up big time by releasing trucks that werent ready to compete against real trend setters! fords aluminum will win a bunch over but rams price and better ride will make others think twice. gm has loyalty which is diminishing everyday!

"Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon is going to eat into the F-150 sales numbers for 2015"

But at what cost? Say the Caloranyon captures 500 F-150 sales per month while chewing up 1,500 GM full size sales a month.

I think conquest sales will be trivial, at best, which means GM has paid, probably, somewhere between $500M and a billion dollars in order to reduce their profits.

GM sharply boosted its incentives to Chevy dealers in September, offering generous bonuses to dealers that hit aggressive sales targets for the Silverado.

Well that explains the big jump in Silverado sales.

GM will be pouring the incentives on the Silverado be it directly to the consumer or the dealer because the Ram was getting to close for comfort.

Ram had a strong month, riding the end-of-summer deals on full-size pickups and full-size SUVs.

GUTS GLORY BEST IN CLASS RAM!!!!!

Automotive News reported that GM recently launched a new program of bonus payments to Chevy dealers who hit ambitious sales targets for the Silverado...

For September, GM is offering special leases and rebates under a Truck Month promotion and dangling bonus cash for Chevrolet dealers who hit Silverado retail sales targets. GM will pay a bonus of $1,300 for every sale of 2014 and ’15 pickups to dealers who hit their U.S. targets, according to a memo outlining the program.

“GM is throwing some money out there that we’re all chasing,” said Dominique DeNooyer, a sales manager at Robert DeNooyer Chevrolet in Holland, Mich., who says September truck sales are strong so far.

“You can tell GM is focused on getting back some market share from Ford.”

GM’s September promotion and dealer incentives are early salvos in what’s likely to be a sustained offensive to capitalize on Ford’s vulnerability as it negotiates the complicated changeover to its aluminum-body 2015 F-150, set to begin arriving in showrooms in November. With Ford’s main truck plant in Dearborn, Mich., idled until late October in preparation for the launch, the company will be hard-pressed to counter GM’s moves without the risk of running thin on inventory, analysts say.

Ford dialed back F-series incentives in August and saw market share erode because it was “likely conserving inventory given the changeover,” Barclays Capital analyst Brian Johnson said in a Sept. 3 research note. He said F-series incentive spending in August fell about $650 per vehicle vs. a year earlier.

@papa jim - pouring gasoline upon that fire.... LOL

The math will get real confusing once GM releases 2 more truck lines ;)

papa jim used to whine about buying market share, but it looks like that's what GM did with the low lease deals, increased incentives and bonus checks.

"Wait till the Ram guys get home from whatever they do all day and see this story!" - papa jim

@Jeff S,

papa jim's car dealer logic:

Ram buying market share = bad
GM buying market share = good, look at the story!

Is this a pic of papa jim at the family dealership?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3_ezKk28Oi8/T32ZYkhoPoI/AAAAAAAAF9g/qQUqONDQmh8/s1600/2.jpg

Starting to wonder if would be f150 buyers are not interested in the aluminum body and are looking else where? I understand why ford numbers are flat because the new truck is coming but surprised by how well GM did. Only time will tell.

Ford has released statements a while back stating that since they are releasing 23 new vehicles globally that this will have a short term impact on sales, profits, and operational costs.

It is a case of short term pain for long term gain.

ODD - PUTC has not mentioned the news that the Super Duty is also going aluminum.

That's the best GM can do, PAPA JIM? Two new trucks, and they are barely ahead of Ram?

Ram is gonna put more diesels out there in the 1500 class, meanwhile, the GM 1500 is just buying from "low bidder"

@TRX-4 Tom - GM is working things out for themselves as opposed to Chrysler who has Fiat to work things out for them.

I wonder how long it will take for FCA to replace the Cummins I6 with one of their own?

If you want to carry 6 people in the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel, each passenger cannot have an average weight of more than 128 lbs. I'd be cautious about driving with a full tank of fuel on top of that.

That's the best GM can do, PAPA JIM? Two new trucks, and they are barely ahead of Ram?

@Lou BC

Looks like the Rambo's are getting home from (work? Wendy's? Shapes?). The figures that TRX 4 Tom sees aren't good enough, I suppose.

@ TRX 4Tom

Adding GMC and Chevy for September 2014 comes to almost 70k trucks sold. Ram is about half that for the same period.

I'm cheating because I used a calculator, but the difference is almost 2:1

@All1--Beechmont Ford advertises 10k and one of the others advertises up to 14k but they are mostly 4x4 loaded crewcabs. Some of these dealers are fairly large volume. Smaller nearby dealers such as Haig Ford in Indiana will give almost no discount because they are smaller and family run, but Haig has an outstanding service department. We bought our Taurus 14 years ago at Beechmont and it was about 10k off the sticker before trade but it was a left over 2000 demo fully loaded. (leather, power passenger seat, moon roof, 24 valve v-6, premium stereo,and side airbags which at that time were an option for 16k with a sticker at that time of 26k) A few of the CJD dealerships have had 10k to 12k off of fully loaded Rams. If you want a full loaded full size half ton truck there have been some fantastic deals.

@Big Al--GM has something that Ford and Ram don't have, a very competitive set of twin midsize trucks that are better than most of us expected. These trucks might surprise many.

In Sept., GM sold 66,939 trucks, Ford sold 59,853, Fiat sold 36,612, Toyota sold 20,729, and Nissan sold a whopping 7,830.

I look forward to reading these reports each month. September was quite interesting, not for just the truck market but as a whole. It was reported on other sites that both GM and FCA had 20% gains over this time last year. Additionally FCA outsold Toyota this month.

In respect to GM, I agree with Big Al from Oz, the abnormally high sales increase this month had to have some factor involved. I suspect that next month, we will see sales at their normal level.

Ram's numbers don't surprise me as they have been fairly consistent over the past number of months. Whatever doubts I had in Ram being broken off as it's own brand are now gone. I realize that it was probably a smarter move that many people thought.

FCA has been doing pretty well with both Ram and Jeep in general. I think the area they have to improve is with Dodge.

I think Ford's sales figures are also to be expected. My question is how big of a setback will the new F150 be for them? It takes time to get everything switched over and have new trucks on the lots.

I think Ford's sales of smaller cars are picking up, but they are still very much reliant on F-series sales. Short term, it's not a big deal if the '15 F150 is slow to catch on. It's the long term I'm worried about.

How many consumers will buy whatever truck has the most discounts, irrespective of brand?

Will customers be wary of aluminum, despite all the marketing?

@TRX4 Tom,
I have mentioned that Ram will do okay. The increasing production of the diesel Ram 1500 does prove my comments from several years ago as accurate.

I do think your comment aimed towards the GM pickups is a little biased and based on fanboi'ism. In other words immature.

The Colorado will present itself as an alternative to all V6, 1/2 ton pickups. It will be competitive, it will not take all of the V6 half ton pickup sales but it will canab some.

As for the GM full size half ton pickups, I do think the Colorado will challenge some of them as well.

As I've stated in the past as well. I do think the biggest loser out of this transitional phase in the US pickup market will be Ford.

If the global Ranger or variant is introduce in the US by Ford it will reduce the profit margin of the aluminium F-150.

Every Ranger sale is one less aluminium full size sale. This goes for Ram and GM products. Ford is introducing the aluminnium HD to offset the cost of fabricating pickups in aluminium. Ford will need every sale to cover these expensive pickups.

I do think Ford has reached it's zenith.

I do think the aluminium F Series is a great idea. But it will come at a cost and this will reduce sales.

Why doesn't someone ask Ford what the actual cost is developing and re-tooling for the aluminium pickups.

The reasons why the F-150 sales are down , dealers are not offering any discounts they are holding their 2014 stock well into 2015. Next- The consumer finding out the eco-boost is a flop, not getting the gas mileage everybody expected.
The Silverado and Ram V8's are getting BETTER gas mileage.
Next years contender is the Colorado-Canyon, its made to directly compete with the F-150 with a V6 getting good gas mileage and limited interior room ( if you are a big fat guy the Ram's interior fits you better)
The Colorado-Canyon won't butt into the Ram sales numbers BUT it will take away sales numbers from the F-150 and Silverado.
Next year when we read the monthly sales numbers Ram will be on top and the Colorado will be #2, the F-150 and Silverado will be fighting for 3rd place.

MARK MY WORDS !

I wonder what percentage of truck buyers buy based on mileage vs power and capabilities? Since Ford sells nearly half as many ecoboost trucks as Ram sells trucks, probably not that many.

Its very easy to explain why the Nissan Frontier sales were up.
The SUV market is ON FIRE, its HOT-HOT-HOT!
If you would look at those numbers you would say "WOW"
The SUV buyer is choosing the Frontier as an alternative SUV.

That's the secret why the Colorado-Canyon will be a success, not ONLY will it attract the pickup truck buyers it will ALSO attract the SUV buyers too!

I am surprised nobody else here thought of that, I mean that's so simple but so correct at the same time.
Why doesn't Ford or GM hire me as an expert consultant?
I don't know I guess that's their loss! I guess they read my posts here on PUTC and get advice for free.

@BAFO - Ram is doubling down on diesel production to battle the F-150 whoopla, when it arrives. Likely with big rebates to go along with the diesels and huge ad campaign. It's the only thing Ram can do.

GM will let the Silverado/Sierra and GM SUVs/CUVs shrink into the background as they push/promote the all-new Colorado/Canyon to battle all. Including their own.

OEMs take a big loss anyways, when an all-new model goes into production. Ford is doubling down on the losses while retooling and completely changing how cab and bed sheet metal are bonded. It's a big investment, but we're talking trucks that make at least 2 Billion in yearly pre tax profits.

So what exactly is it actually costing Ford to step up to aluminum, per truck? Who cares? Ford isn't telling. A couple $100 per truck? A lot depends on how many trucks are sold, and likely cost even less over time. And the take rate of luxo trucks. Eventually you're talking the difference in sheet metal costs.

And Ford will promote the hell out of aluminum trucks. It's fairly revolutionary for pickups. For the truck owner, it's an advantage that's constant and doesn't need special attention, like diesels or hybrids. Nor huge upfront costs.

So it's hard to tell why you think the move will injure Ford, long term. Aluminum bodies is a commonsense move that all OEMs would love to afford. And midsize trucks may be extinct in America before that happens. Why else would you be so down on such a clear advancement in trucks?

And the best mpg would come from an aluminum pickup with a diesel and 10-speed trans. Interesting which truck will do this 1st. Maybe a 2-speed rear end (splitter) too.

But a 40 mpg fullsize pickup is attainable. It's just a matter of time. Sorry if you were hoping for a midsizer to get there 1st.

Chevrolet really needs the Denali trim line for their trucks. What they have right now just doesn't cut it. And that high country thing is only available with baby puke brown leather.

GM blew everybody out of the water!!! Way to go GM! The best just keeps getting better.

Ford embarked some time ago a loosing ship with their wrong choices. They are not able to run anymore on the inertia wave of the past successes by not embracing midsize trucks segment and diesel engines in half tons and midsize (which btw is the answer for fuel frugality, Europe and rest of the world did go there long time ago. No need to reinvent the sheet metal, I mean the wheel...)
Too bad, personally all I want is a diesel reliable midsize truck. Ford doesn't get it and the eco-boost mirage will prove to be another huge mistake in the near future. Many truck buyers already realized that.

I think people should really look at safety when buying a truck and the think about how dodge has been fined heavily for all those recalls and some that were not fixed properly,this would tell me that dodge doesn't care about your safety whatsoever