Truck Sales Drive U.S. Sales

Ford F-150 SVT Raptor (Photo credit: MSVG)

Even though government is trying to slow truck sales in this country, it seems buyers are not listening.

Pickup trucks drive US auto sales
September 5, 2012 Associated Press
By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer

DETROIT — Big pickups carried U.S. auto sales to their highest level in three years.

Demand for full-size pickups jumped 16 percent in August, helping to make it the strongest sales month since August 2009. Overall auto sales increased 20 percent from a year earlier to nearly 1.3 million, according to Autodata corp.

The rising demand shows that businesses need to replace aging trucks and feel more confident about the recovery in U.S. housing — an industry where pickups are essential for hauling equipment and crews.

“Businesses don’t usually go buy a fleet of trucks unless they have good reason to believe that business will be ramping up,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for the TrueCar.com auto pricing service

Ford, GM and Chrysler, the biggest makers of full-size trucks, notched double-digit gains in overall sales last month.

In pickups, Ford’s F-Series, the top-selling vehicle in America, saw a 19 percent sales increase, as did Chrysler’s Ram pickup. Sales of General Motors’ Chevy Silverado rose 4 percent, while the GMC Sierra was up 9 percent. Toyota’s struggling big truck, the Tundra, posted a huge increase of 68 percent.

Read more at The Escanaba Daily Press.