2019 Mid-Size Truck Sales

Pretty dang impressive considering the pure amount of competition in the segment. Hopefully is pushes Toyota to continue making upgrades

 

Nissan just needs to rebadge the current Navara and bring the diesel over

 

How many does Honda need to sell to make it worth their time? That doesn't seem like enough, and then to be spanked by the old Frontier. Ouch.

 

Yeah that’s rough...

 

I read something about the Ridgeline when they redesigned it, it mentioned the best selling year was around 57K units and they would basically consider the new one a failure unless it surpassed that figure annually.

 

Looks like the Ranger finished the year at 89K.

 

Not a terrible first year, but inflated because of the 3rd and 4th quarter discounts...

 

They are also milking fleet sales. I'm seeing a bunch of them now either as higher trims with business vinyl plastered on or as base model municipal work trucks. Of course, there are a lot of white Taco SRs fleet vehicles running around also, but munis will not (cannot?) use them. In the end, I see more Ranger work trucks than private ones. I also see a lot more Taco work trucks that Rangers in total and more private Tacos than all others put together. Usually at least three other non-work truck 3rd Gens per short commute. Hell, there were three in front of me this morning.

 

Here's my order of preference
1 Tacoma - of course
2 Gladiator - comes with a manual tranny, and lots of Jeep parts to mod it
3 Ranger
4 Colorado - the ZR2 looks good anyway
5 Canyon
6 Frontier - has this thing changed in the last 15 years?
7 Ridgeline - not my style...

 

x2

 

I'll take the current Frontier any day over that hideous thing.

 

hilux looks identical

 

And it too is ugly.

Also looks similar to the Ranger. All the international/Euro/Aussie trucks have that goofy look.

 

Proud to be part of this demographic. Purchased my Taco in October 2019..no regrets!

 

I'd go with the Frontier as my 2nd choice and the Ridgeline as my 3rd. I think the Ridgeline is adorable

 

And the F150 sales dropped around 50K versus last year. So in reality, Ford netted about 40K new sales due to a Ranger offering cause you know the buyers are Ford loyalists that wanted to downsize.

 

This is the reason Ford got rid of the Ranger in the first place. Save a few, rare, “smittyheads”, every Ranger sold is one less F150 sold for Ford.

 

Who wants a mini truck that needs a DEF tank and has to have its DPF regen’d on the highway every week? Unless emission standards in North America change, a diesel mini-truck would be mostly annoying.

 

They really boxed themselves in, having to try to make the Ranger competitive in the mid-sized market but not have it hurt F-150 sales.

 

I recall reading, when Ford first ditched the Ranger, that it only cost them about $1500 more to build an F150 over a Ranger, but due to the market, they couldn’t price the Ranger anywhere near the F150. So basically every time they sold a Ranger over an F150, they lost something like $8000 in potential profit. The Ranger was losing the company money, overall, by taking away F150 sales.

This time around they seemed to have priced the Ranger where it maybe should be, but it ends up driving buyers back to the other options. Ford is in a bit of a pickle.

It goes to show how adept Toyota is at attracting buyers to the Tacoma. We get incandescent lamps, crappy frame paint, basic non-turbo motors, non-adjustable seats, and plastic bumpers.........but a lot of very awesome features as well, at a price point we all find mostly acceptable.