With the start of a new year comes manufacturers’ sales breakdowns of the previous year, and one metric that we have been watching closely through 2019 was Ram truck sales compared to the Chevrolet Silverado. Now that Ford and FCA have followed GM in reporting sales quarterly instead of monthly, we only get a snapshot of how sales are doing three times before the year-end numbers come out.
For 2019 Ram came out of the gate swinging after a record-setting 2018. Through the first quarter, Ram was up on the Silverado by 5,713 units, and while that might not sound like a lot, year over year Ram sales were up 15% for the quarter while Silverado sales were down 15.7%. Ram followed that up with an excellent second quarter with a sales increase year over year of 28%, while all other competitors were down, from as little as -0.6% (Ford) to -22.6% (Nissan).
Now that all the manufacturers (aside from Ford at the time of this writing) have released their sales numbers for 2019, we can get a clear picture of where the chips landed. While we don’t have Fords numbers as of this writing, we will update this article with them as they become available.
Brand Sales (U.S) | 2019 | 2018 | Change |
Ford F-Series | N/A | N/A | |
Ram Pickups | 633394 | 536980 | 18.00% |
Chevrolet Silverado | 570639 | 585575 | -2.55% |
GMC Sierra | 232323 | 219554 | 5.82% |
Toyota Tundra | 111673 | 118258 | -5.60% |
Nissan Titan | 31514 | 50459 | -37.50% |
While the F-Series is still undoubtedly the perennial leader in the full-sized truck race, 2019 is the first time that Ram has edged out Chevrolet for the second-place spot. 2019 also marks the eleventh year in a row that Ram truck sales have increased since becoming its own brand in 2009. To put it all into perspective, in 2009, 177,268 Ram pickups were sold in the United States compared to 316,544 Silverados.
Another important metric is the average transaction prices. Since 2010 average Ram 1500 transaction prices have increased by almost 50% to about $50,000 U.S. Meanwhile, the average transaction price for the Ram Heavy Duty has risen by more than 20 percent to about $55,000.
“These results underscore two significant decisions we have made when it comes to Ram – invest in technology and adopt a three-truck strategy,” said Reid Bigland, Head of Ram and U.S. Sales. “It has taken some hard work, but it has been a true reward to see how Ram has evolved over the past 10 years.”
We will keep a close watch on sales numbers again this year. 2020 should be a big year for Ram with the recent launch of the new, third-generation EcoDiesel, for the first time ever available across all trims in the 2020 Ram 1500 pickups. Later on this year, we should also get our first look at the hotly anticipated Ram 1500 TRX.
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