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April 27, 2005
Chevy Small Pickup Sales Up 47.7% on the Year
More Than One Out of Four Small Pickups sold in America is Chevy or GMC as GM Gains 9.3% Category Share
These numbers are astonishing. Taking all GM small pickups into account, the company's sales are up nearly 50% in the first quarter of 2005 -- and account for 27.8% of all small pickups sold in America.
Granted, it's a little tricky to follow, because the above chart shows four GM models. In simple terms, the Chevy Colorado replaced the S-10, and the GMC Canyon replaced the Sonoma. So in order to get a clear number for the Chevy small pickup, we have to add the Colorado and S-10 together, to understand how many small trucks the nameplate is selling. Same goes for GMC.
In a few days, we'll see some numbers for April that should have pretty much moved the two old models out of the picture, allowing journalists to see more clearly exactly what's happening in the small pickup category.
GM is killing. In the small pickup category, GM's market share is up 9.3% from last year's mark of 18.5% at the end of the first quarter.
At first glance, the Colorado is up 64.3% in sales. But that's not entirely a clean number, as the S-10 was still on sale last year. Combining them, we still get a sales increase of 42.1% for the Chevy small truck entry.
The same goes for the Canyon/Sonoma numbers. Total sales of GMC small pickups were up 50% over March of last year.
In total, GM accounts for 41,080 of small pickups sold this year, versus the company's sales of 27,815 units last year. That's a 47.7% sales increase.
Further, the Chevy Colorado has been the number one selling small pickup for two of three months this year [January and March], and is number two behind the Toyota Tacoma by only 1,571 units, or 4.6%.
If this were a boxing match, we'd say the Chevy Colorado won two out of three rounds but was behind on points.
It gets better. Looking at the Toyota Tacoma's numbers, you see they are down 7.6% from last year. Conventional wisdom likes to point out that since Toyota's big pickup, the Tundra, is selling so well, [12,950 last month vs. 8,671 in March '04] they are cannibalizing customers from themselves.
In other words, folks who would have bought a Tacoma are opting instead for the Tundra. This is the same argument that has been used to explain the Ford Ranger's precipitous drop in sales -- some say the F-150 is stealing sales from its little sibling.
However, this does not hold true for Chevy -- sales of its big pickup, the Silverado, were up 22.7% in March, and are up 8.1% for the year. Which means they are simply selling more pickups, large and small.
That means GM is killing in pickups. Period.
Posted by Frank at April 27, 2005 5:22 PM | Filed under Auto News
| Chevrolet
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| Industry Statistics