Pickup trucks garner the most repeat buyers
But you’ll be surprised which model is bringing back the most business
Pickup trucks are among the hottest items in the car business these days. According to the Wall Street Journal, consumers purchased nearly 2 million pickups through the first nine months of 2016, with full-size models accounting for the three best-selling vehicles of all types in the U.S.
This represents a 5.8 percent increase over 2015 sales and 15.1 percent of all new-vehicle sales overall, which is the highest concentration since 2007.
Not only that, pickup buyers are traditionally among the most loyal in the car business, with many truck owners dutifully trading in their trusted steeds every several years for new models.
According to a justreleased market analysis conducted by the car-shopping site Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, California, truck loyalty — defined as the rate of trucks traded-in for another truck — stands at an impressive 74 percent. That’s higher than at any other time since Edmunds started tracking trade-ins back in 2005. The next highest repeat buyers are owners of vans (we’ll assume this includes light-duty commercial models) at 52 percent, and compact SUVs, which have become the hottest segment in the auto industry, at 47.3 percent.
And this is despite the fact that the average transaction price of a new pickup truck — which Edmunds says it currently stands at around $43,275 — has skyrocketed by 46 percent since 2006, with some luxury-equipped models now cracking the $60,000 barrier. By comparison, industry-wide average transaction prices ($33,728 in 2016) have increased by a mere 23 percent over the same period.
“Truck owners are especially passionate about their vehicles, most likely because trucks offer hauling and cargo capabilities that you just cannot find in any other vehicle segment,” says Edmunds.com senior analyst Ivan Drury. “Today’s trucks are particularly appealing because manufacturers pack them with more luxury and technology features than ever before. It also doesn’t hurt that today’s low gas prices make truck ownership much more economical than just a few years ago.”
Now what may come as a surprise to some pickup fans is that according to Edmunds’ data, the sales-leading full-size Ford F-150 does not command the highest repeat business among truck-loyal owners, and neither does any of the other domestic-branded models. In fact, the pickup having the highest percentage of repeat business isn’t even a full-size truck.
That distinction would go to the compact Toyota Tacoma. Edmunds says that 75 percent of Tacoma owners that traded in their trucks over the first three quarters of 2016 bought another Tacoma. It no doubt helps that Toyota released a redesigned version of the truck this year just as the market for smaller pickups began heating up, and after the previous generation had languished for a dozen years without a major revamp.
What’s more, the study finds Toyota leading the industry in terms of overall truck loyalty, with both the Tacoma and the full-size Tundra lines accounting for
around 70 percent repeat business. This edges out the usual suspects including Chevrolet (at 69.5 percent loyalty) and Fiat Chrysler’s Ram brand (68.1 percent) on a percentage basis, though it should be noted that Toyota’s truck sales volume in the U.S. is far lower than its domestic rivals. Toyota sold just over 227,500 Tacomas and Tundras through the end of September, while Ford delivered around 595,600 Ford F-150s.
Still, repeat business is pure gold in any industry, so this could bode well for the brand’s fortunes moving forward in what is arguably the most profitable market segment in the industry.