In the first quarter, Ram outsold Silverado to take over 2nd place in pickup sales

While Ford Motor Co. retains its leadership in full-size pickups, a tectonic shift has been rumbling underfoot as Fiat Chrysler's Ram surpassed the Chevrolet Silverado for the first three months of the year, justifying its strategy of selling an outgoing model alongside the new.

As FCA launched its redesigned Ram 1500 last year, it continued to build the previous-generation model, dubbed the "Classic," to avoid any potential dips in production during launch — and to eat into Chevy's lead. The gamble appears to have paid off.

Ram sold 120,026 pickups in the first quarter, while Chevrolet dealers moved 114,313 Silverados. Wind the clock back one year, and Chevy's lead looked almost unassailable: 135,545 Silverados were sold in the first three months of 2018 compared with Ram's 103,964. Ford's F series, gunning for its 43rd consecutive yearly sales crown, barely changed, going from 214,191 in the same period in 2018 to 214,611 this year.

In addition to being the industry's top-selling nameplates, full-size pickups are crucial to U.S. automakers' profits. Ram displacing Silverado as the industry's second-best selling model is all the more remarkable when you consider that truck buyers rarely change brands.

"You've got a fairly high degree of loyalty in the full-sized pickup market, so you don't have a ton of customers who are in play in a given month," said Mark LaNeve, Ford's vice president of marketing, sales and service. "There's really a small part of the customer base that is susceptible to brand switching. With our leadership, that provides somewhat of a competitive moat around our business," he added.

IHS Markit, which studies loyalty data, doesn't yet have enough information to explain whether brand loyalties have changed. "It's just too soon to be sure if it's a loyalty shift or a production capacity issue, or a bit of both," said IHS analyst Stephanie Brinley.

At the corporate level, General Motors still owns second place thanks to its GMC Sierra, the Silverado's upscale cousin. GMC sold 40,546 Sierras in the first quarter, down slightly from the 41,465 sold a year ago.

While the Silverado was beaten by Ram, the raw sales numbers don't tell the whole story, said GM spokesman Jim Cain. First, he said, Silverado sales were impacted by the launch of the new version last summer, which GM has been ramping up one model at a time. GM, like Ram, has been offering two versions of its pickup, the last generation and the new generation. But the strategies behind doing that differ.

Ram has been increasing market share by heavily incentivizing the old truck, while GM kept some models of its previous-generation truck in production until the new versions arrived in order to hold market share.

In the first quarter, Cain said, Chevrolet added regular-cab and double-cab versions of the new model. He also said Ram outspent Chevrolet in incentives. In the super-heated Texas market, the nation's largest for pickups, some models of Ram trucks were being sold with incentives as high as $18,000 for Classic models and $14,000 for the current generation, while Chevrolet's highest Silverado incentive was just over $10,000, Cain said.

A Ram dealer in the northeast U.S. estimates the Ram Classic has been outselling the redesigned model at a 60-40 rate at his store, but he's not complaining. He says Ram's two-truck strategy is working well, with the Classic serving as a stepping stone to the newer truck.

The mix between the two models, he said, is starting to balance out. The two-truck strategy "is good because we have [consumers] who want the really good, basic, solid truck that we provide in the Ram [Classic], and we're able to stair-step them into the new body, which is a great vehicle," said the dealer, who declined to be named. The Ram brand set a March record as sales improved 15 percent to 51,822 pickups and work vans. The brand's first-quarter sales rose 21 percent.

Ram dealer Bill Menke, general manager and partner of Lee Auto Malls in Auburn, Maine, says the rebate on the Ram's hood helps close deals. "When providing a proposal to a consumer, if they can save five grand just by not having the upgrade, it's extremely important," he said.

At Ford, the return of the Ranger nameplate pumped up the brand's total truck sales in the first quarter to the highest level in 15 years, said LaNeve. The Ranger racked up 4,369 sales in March at an average transaction price of more than $37,000.

Sales of the F series held firm at 86,497 units in March, off less than 1 percent. LaNeve said the Ranger is not taking away sales from the F-150, the top-selling F-series model, but he does expect that to eventually happen on a limited basis as the full model lineup of the Ranger arrives in volume at Ford dealers. The Ranger went on sale in the U.S. in January and has racked up 9,421 sales.

The Ranger, reborn as a midsize truck, had been absent from Ford's North American lineup since 2012, when the old compact model went out of production.

"We saw a high degree of incremental sales. A lot of Ranger loyalists have been waiting on it. They are buying very well-equipped Rangers." LaNeve added that most Rangers went out the door with no incentives in March.

But the Ranger's time as the industry's newest midsize truck is already over. Jeep delivered its first 123 Gladiator pickups in the first quarter, and the only direction it can go is up.

The question then is which rival will the Gladiator wrestle sales away from: the Ranger, GM's Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon, or the Toyota Tacoma or Nissan Frontier.

Vince Bond and Jacqueline Charniga contributed to this report.