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Ranger Goes Over Colorado Peak but Faces Tacoma Woes, as Always

American brands have been scared for years to return to the midsize truck segment, but once they did it, clients rapidly (re)adopted the Ford Ranger, Chevrolet Colorado or the Jeep Gladiator nameplates. Still, winning the hearts of the fans does not translate into instant sales recognition, as clearly pointed out by their actual market performance.
Toyota Tacoma 11 photos
Photo: Toyota Motor Corporation
Honda RidgelineNissan FrontierChevrolet ColoradoChevrolet ColoradoFord RangerFord RangerJeep GladiatorToyota TacomaToyota TacomaToyota Tacoma
Just as we were sifting through the data concerning the full-size truck segment, where the Detroit Three are comfortably leading the race, our attention was caught up in the goodcarbadcar.net database by the performance of their smaller siblings.

Here the domination is a Japanese affair, according to both the data for the second quarter of the year and the overall figures after the first six months. Of course, there is always the caveat with the ongoing economic crisis triggered by the global health concerns.

But, overall, the midsize truck market is holding up well against the general decline of the overall market (a fall of more than 30% is being forecasted by CNBC). All the while, the Tacoma sales during the second quarter declined by 19.8%, while the Ranger surged by 68.1% and the third-placed Colorado fell by 37.3%.

In terms of sales, the Japanese midsize truck largely outperformed the U.S. rivals as well as domestic competition coming from the Nissan Frontier and Honda Ridgeline. Toyota’s Tacoma was taken home by 51,062 clients during the April to June period. It was followed by the newly minted second placed Ford Ranger with 25,007 units.

The Chevrolet Colorado fell to the bottom of the podium with 19,843 trucks – almost losing the third position to Jeep’s Gladiator and its 19,568-vehicle performance, just a couple hundred units behind the former. The Gladiator’s performance was more than satisfactory for FCA – it jumped 174.5 between the two quarters.

The Nissan Frontier (8,794 units, -54%) and the Honda Ridgeline (6,380 units, -23.2%) completed the top five. Overall, after the first six months of 2020 the Toyota Tacoma comfortably retains its leadership position (104,698 units), followed by the Ford Ranger (45,987) and Chevrolet’s Colorado (41,272).
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About the author: Aurel Niculescu
Aurel Niculescu profile photo

Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution.
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