A big story around September sales was the volume of full-size pickup trucks, whose sales were up seven percent on the year, and up double-digits over September 2010. As it turns out, incentives drove the surge of sales. According to Edmunds.com’s True Cost of Incentives (TCI) metric, incentives on full-size pickups were up more than $1,000 – or 31% – over April, when incentives in the segment generally hit a low this year.The surge in incentives could be a reaction to concern over inventories as the industry heads into the final quarter of the year, with October and November traditionally slow sales months. According to, Edmunds.com’s Days To Turn (DTT) metric (the measure of how long it takes to sell a vehicle once it reaches the dealer), full-size pickups are taking longer to sell. Ford’s F-150 went from of 44 DTT in April to 55 at the end of August. The Chrysler Group’s Ram 1500 went from a DTT of 82 in April to 110 at the end of August. For GM’s Chevrolet Silverado, DTT climbed from 55 in April to 75 at the end of August.
For more detailed analysis on movement within the pick-up truck segment, please visit http://www.autoobserver.
For updated statistics on automotive sales, please visit Edmunds.com’s Data Center at http://www.autoobserver.
