Sales of pickups off to good start in 2015

Ram Truck posted its best March sales since 2007, the company announced Wednesday.

Sales of the Ram ProMaster increased 112 percent, the full-size van’s best March sales since the vehicle was launched in October 2013. Sales of the Ram ProMaster City, which went on sale in January, are ramping up as greater volumes of the compact van arrive at Ram Truck dealerships.

Sales of the Ram pickup truck were down 2 percent in March, compared with the same month a year ago.

Ford Motor Company posted its best U.S. retail sales in nine years, driven by strong demand for its new products, including F-Series.

Retail demand for F-Series was strong, with March retail sales up 10 percent. Kansas City Assembly is back up and building all-new regular cab and extended-box F-150 trucks to fill upcoming commercial orders.

“Our retail performance was driven by gains across our utility van and truck lineups with strong consumer acceptance of the all-new F-150,” says Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service. “We are especially pleased to post our best retail March sales performance in nine years, despite tight supply across our F-Series lineup.”

Ford sold an F-Series truck an average of 1 every 39.6 seconds in March.

Transit, along with Transit Connect and E-Series provided a 42 percent increase in total Ford van sales with 20,821 vehicles sold in March.Ford Transit – America’s Best-Selling Full-Size Van (9,751 units) – outsold Chevy Express by 2.6:1 and Ram Promaster by 4:1 in March, Ford’s best March commercial van sales performance since 1994, and its best first-quarter sales performance since 1995.

Sales of Ford F-650/F-750 sales jumped 52.4 percent in March to 1,143 units and Ford’s revamped F-150 is spending an average of just 18 days on dealer lots.

General Motors reported a total sales of trucks, including pickups, vans and SUVs up 14 percent.

“As the economy gained steam throughout 2014, we knew 2015 would be a strong year for trucks,” says Kurt McNeil, General Motors’ U.S. vice president of Sales Operations.

Chevrolet had its best March pickup sales since 2007, with Silverado up 7 percent and the new Colorado repeating as the industry’s fastest-selling pickup for the second month in a row, taking only 17 days to sell on dealer lots.

GMC had its best first quarter sales since 2005 and its best March pickup sales since 2006, with Canyon deliveries reaching 2,434 units and Sierra up 3 percent. Approximately 40 percent of Sierra customers purchasing heavy-duty models are choosing the high-end Denali trim series. This has helped Sierra earn the highest average transaction prices for any full-size pickup line.

Strong pickup sales also helped drive robust gains with commercial customers.  Through March, commercial deliveries have grown year over year for 17 consecutive months. Commercial deliveries were up 39 percent in March, and full-size pickups were up 41 percent.