U.S. retail sales of Classes 3-7 trucks rose 5% in February to 15,970 vehicles, compared with a year ago, the third straight year-over-year gain, WardsAuto.com reported.
U.S. retail sales of Classes 3-7 trucks rose 5% in February to 15,970 vehicles, compared with a year ago, the third straight year-over-year gain, WardsAuto.com reported. Through the first two months of 2010, sales were up 5.4%, to 32,563 vehicles from 30,898, Ward's said.
Total medium-duty sales were up 5.8% in January from a year earlier and 7.7% in December, according to Ward's.
Sales last year were the lowest since the 1980s in both the medium- and heavy-duty markets, with only 216,592 vehicles purchased in Classes 3-7, compared with 410,417 during the boom year of 2006.
Despite the recent gains, Navistar Inc., which builds International trucks and is the market leader in Classes 6-7, was not ready to proclaim the recession over.
"The medium-duty market continues to be soft," Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley told Light & Medium Truck. "We're encouraged by the increase so far this year, but we don't know how robust the recovery will be, not only because of how long the weak economy will last but also because all new trucks are significantly more expensive this year to comply with new federally mandated emission standards."
Ward's reported that Class 7 sales fell to 2,771 vehicles in February from the January tally of 3,078 units.
"Sales of medium trucks are still very weak," said Kyle Treadway, chairman of American Truck Dealers and president of Kenworth Sales Co., Salt Lake City. "The increases in sales so far this year are coming from orders we took late last year that customers are picking up now."
International was the market leader in Class 7 in February, selling 1,219 vehicles. Daimler Trucks North America's two brands in this class sold 939 for second place, with Freightliner moving 922 trucks and the discontinued Sterling brand moving 17 vehicles from its remaining stock. DTNA ended Sterling production in March 2009.
Paccar Inc. was in third place with 282 trucks sold in these classes, 149 by its Peterbilt subsidiary and 133 by its Kenworth Truck Co.
Ward's also said Class 6 sales rose to 2,249 sales in February, from 2,109 in January.
International was the leader in Class 6 with 1,258 sold in February, followed by DTNA, Ford and Paccar.
Sales of Class 5s dropped to 1,513 in February from 2,061 in January, and Class 4s dropped to 947 from 1,263.
Class 3 sales showed the strongest growth in the month, rising to 8,492 from 8,082, Ward's said.
Through the first two months of the year, Class 6 sales rose 20%, compared with the same period in 2009, while Class 3 sales increased 14.5% and Class 5 grew by 1%.
Class 4 sales through the first two months were down 28% and Class 7 sales were down 6% compared with the same period in 2009.
As the year progresses, year-over-year comparisons of medium-duty weight Classes 5 to 7 will be more problematic as the remaining vehicles of General Motors and Sterling Trucks are sold.
GM's Chevrolet and GMC brands, for example, sold a combined 754 trucks, accounting for 21% of all Class 5 units sold in January and February of 2009. Those numbers dropped to 499, of 14% of Class 5 units for the same period this year, and will continue to fall as the medium-duty truck business is shut down.
Sterling accounted for 3.5% of Class 7 sales in the first two months of last year, but less than 1% this year.
By Frederick Kiel, with Jim Galligan, from Light & Medium Truck, May 2010