Toyota Tundra Sales Up Again – February 2014
Tim Esterdahl | Mar 05, 2014 | Comments 7
The February 2014 Sales figures are out and the Tundra improved once again over last year. While the rest of the industry pointed to the cold weather as the reason for poor sales, the Tundra continues to gain.
The Toyota Tundra continued to show a sales increase for 2014.
For the month, the Tundra was up 8.4%. Toyota says this was their best February since 2008. While this is great for Toyota, it does leave me wondering about the impact of the 2014 version. Why? It was February of last year when the new Tundra was revealed.
| Rank | Model YTD Sales | YTD vs 2013 | YEAR-OVER-YEAR | MONTHLY SALES | MONTHLY CHANGE VS. 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Ford F-Series | 102,418 | +1.1% | Feb. 2014 Feb. 2013 | 55,882 54,489 | +2.6% |
| 2. Chevrolet Silverado | 65,510 | -15.0% | Feb. 2014 Feb. 2013 | 36,584 41,643 | -12.1% |
| 3. Ram Truck | 54,374 | +24.2% | Feb. 2014 Feb. 2013 | 29,303 23,289 | +25.8% |
| GMC Sierra | 25,350 | -6.0% | Feb. 2014 Feb. 2013 | 14,232 14,133 | +0.7% |
| Toyota Tacoma | 20,784 | -14.3% | Feb. 2014 Feb. 2013 | 10,942 12,644 | -13.5% |
| Toyota Tundra | 15,813 | +10.5 | Feb. 2014 Feb. 2013 | 7,923 7,306 | +8.4% |
| Nissan Frontier | 10,722 | +100.0% | Feb. 2014 Feb. 2013 | 5,791 2,736 | +111.7% |
| Honda Ridgeline | 2,306 | -9.7% | Feb. 2014 Feb. 2013 | 1,143 1,301 | -12.1% |
| Nissan Titan | 2,004 | -33.8% | Feb. 2014 Feb. 2013 | 1,117 1,634 | -31.6% |
- Did customers hold off on buying a truck in 2013 while waiting for the 2014 specs?
- Taking the above statement into consideration, are the 2013 sales comparables “weak?”
- With the cold weather, could the Tundra have sold more units with warmer weather like the others are claiming?
- Is the small increase doomed to flat line with Toyota’s well-known capacity issue?
The rest of the truck market was weak except for Ram. The Ram numbers jumped again and they look well positioned to catch up to the Chevy Silverado at their current pace. It doesn’t hurt Ram that they were named truck of the year and their dealers bought up the allocation of the new EcoDiesel in just three days.
There are really several “truths” right now in full-size trucks:
- Ford remains the leader
- GM screwed up the launch of their new trucks and the lack of incentives are killing them
- Ram’s improvement is nothing short of impressive
- Toyota continues to move Tundra trucks despite all the critics
- The Tacoma drop isn’t that big of deal when the entire mid-size truck market is in flux
- Nissan’s Frontier sales are more about a lack of inventor in 2013 than impressive sales
- The Titan and Ridgeline continue their dominance at the bottom of the rung
What do you think? How do you see the market?
Filed Under: Tundra News
I may be an old timer with a 2014 that is now 6 months old. So the “new” has worn off for me.
Is it a perfect truck? No it is not. Is it better than my former F150 EcoBoost? Yes it is by a wide margin.
Will I consider another brand? I might consider the RAM? I have no intention of ever going back to GM or Ford. If I do purchase a RAM the dealer would have to provide an iron glad warranty and prove they are willing to do that in writing?
Did customers hold off buying 2013 for 2014? Less than 1% would be my guess. Now with the 2014 over the 6 month mark that question should be settled. With the build limits at the factory at maximum, I expect the same 8-12% growth for the next 12 months.
I do not think 2013 sales are weak because of difference(s) from 2013 to 2014. There are many other factors at play.
I do not buy the Ford and GM lame excuse for slow cold weather sales. It is because more truck buyers are fed up with their low quality and failure of dealers to honor warranties. Did the cold weather reduce the RAM sales? No it did not.
Yes the increase sales will remain the same for the next 12 months IMO. Toyota is extremely cautious with the current geo-political environment. No question they could double the size of the San Antonio plant and still could sell every unit made. But they will not do this for the reason stated.
Randy,
Good points. And you are right in that as the months have gone by, we will start to see the 2014 stand on its own. We have about 7 more months of comps with the 2013 model.
-Tim
I think some people probably did hold off last year. It was no secret that the truck was getting an update or at least a refresh for 2014.
A 2013 looks like a 2007. If you waited, there is no mistaking that you’re driving the latest rig. I see used 2013s for sale for the price of a 2014.
I don’t get it, unless you really prefer the older styling.
Just as Randy said. Why did Ram sales go up? They weren’t affected by the cold. Then again we know why GM sales were down in the cold. Does a little fire enter in the program?
Main reason GM sales are down is for a very long time most of the winter and prior to winter, there were NO rebates. Now past 2 months there have been around 4250 in rebates since were not selling plus the fact that the GM trucks are VERY expensive msrp much more so than the tundra.
You can tell by somewhat decent increase in sales for 2014 tundra and for past 2+ months ONLY 500 in rebates for a DC and 1K for a CM, proves the tundra is either selling really well with very limited inventory or production is down and should be increased. Go look on a dealers lot there are 20 new silverados and ford trucks to 1 tundra. I think the reason is a little bit of both GM and Ford having more production capacity and much larger rebates finally for GM anyways. Another big reason I think GM is not selling is people like me still have a bad taste in their mouth about the bailout and the local GM closing of our GM plant in 2008 right before the govt. bailout left 1,000’s unemployed and economies ruined-no one has money.
Now Dodge is the big winner right now and although I still think their reliability to be subpar, they do make a very good looking truck with decent power and features most truck buyers want except for that stupid turn knob for a shifter on the dash. Plus their rebates are huge and if you don’t plan on keeping the truck much over 3/36K, it’s a very good truck to get into and drive.
GM trucks have my interest right now but have not driven one yet but will in next few weeks and after reading all the issues on the gm-truck.com forum, reliability is more than likely going to be an issue even if it is suppose to get 22 hwy. mpg of which I know it will not.
By the way, thanks for the number crunching much appreciated now I know why finally GM rebates are so huge right now and the tundra rebates are still so piddly small. Everyone needs to quit buying the new 2014 tundra in March so in April the rebates go up to a respectable 1750/2K in rebates so I can go buy one of them again – LOL.
oh yah, forgot about GM in 2014 vs. 2013. In 2013, GM was giving their old style trucks away with monster rebates with old body style and now in 2014 when they came out all new prior to winter, there were NO rebates for a very long time something GM has never done ever in my lifetime. GM thought their new truck would sell itself but us consumers knew better. I’m hoping come April to decide what to do and hoping the tundra DC rebates go up to 2K or close to it since I’m pretty sure the GM rebates on the trucks will continue to be 4K or more for a very long time since tons on dealers’ lots not selling. I can guarantee you one thing is I will do my darnest to get 27K trade in for my 2012 DC tundra from a toyota dealer since I got for my 2010 DC identical tundra 25.7K trade in and my new 2012 tundra cost me 2 grand more with nearly same rebate both bought at dealer invoice pricing. I don’t expect the full 2 grand back in increase in pricing for a trade in, but 1300 of the 2 grand more spent is reasonable especially since only now 24K miles vs. in 2012 had 30K miles on traded in 2010 tundra.
Just bought a white, two wheel drive 1794 edition. Truck is loaded and has all the amenities. I had to get the 1794 or the platinum in order to get the comfortable seats and to get full (8 way or more) power seats, including power lumbar support, for the passenger, my wife. I am 65 and my wife is 61. We NEED a comfortable interior with comfort amenities
GoBig, Toyota is pushing the sales of these upscale (read expensive) loaded models to increase profits. It used to be, even for 2013 that one could get many of the comfort amenities on less than the top-of-the-line models. But I have notice the trend, not just at Toyota, to push buyers into the most expensive models in order to get some features that are devoted to comfort only. For this reason, I almost bought a very low mileage 2012. One of the main reasons I got a 2014, no kidding, is that my wife insisted I get a brand new truck. I had sold my old truck and my 2000 Avalon has 165k miles. Since she got a 2012 Avalon Limited brand new at the time, I guess she felt I should have new toy, too. The 2012 Tundra had passenger power seats with power lumbar supports. I would have been quite content with a three year old used truck with less than 15,000 miles on it.
Having said that, I really like some of the new-for-2014 features on my 1794 edition,such as the parking assist proximity indicators on the front corners of the truck, the big screen rear view camera and the blind spot monitor/rear cross traffic indicators. I resent having to pay for a moon roof, included in the upscale models. With the roll down rear window to cool off the truck in hot weather, I have no use for the moon roof. But I understand real well why some people would like the 2013 better.
Oh yeah. Because of Toyota QRD, I kept my 2000 Avalon XLS with 165k miles. Just yesterday I turned down an offer to buy it from me. When I asked the guy why he was offering to buy a 14 year old car with that high a mileage,he told me that a Toyota that in that good a condition would last a long time. He has a Scion and would gladly buy an older model Toyota with no fear of any major problems because he knows Toyotas have no major problems and just don’t quit. The car has been well maintained and still looks good. It will be mine until it gets wrecked or one of my kids needs to borrow it for a while.