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Fleet Sales Sink in November

Sales of vehicles from nine manufacturers to commercial fleets fell 9.9% to 54,384 in November after enjoying several robust months of sales but remain the strongest fleet segment with an 8.7% increase year to date. Sales to rental and government fleets fell in November as well.

Paul Clinton
Paul ClintonFormer Senior Web Editor
December 4, 2019
Fleet Sales Sink in November

Commercial fleet sales saw weakness in November after several strong months that bucked the overall sales trend.

Photos courtesy of Ford, GM, FCA, and Nissan.

2 min to read


Sales of vehicles from nine manufacturers to commercial fleets fell 9.9% to 54,384 in November after enjoying several robust months of sales but remain the strongest fleet segment with an 8.7% increase year to date.

In November, sales of cars, trucks, vans, and SUVs were all lower than an October that saw double-digit growth. Sales of cars fell 24.1% to 5,836, while sales of trucks, vans and SUVs fell 7.8% to 48,548, according to Automotive Fleet data.

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For the year, commercial sales have increased 8.7% to 734,012 on the strength of the truck category, which is 11.1% higher despite car sales falling 9.6% to 70,923.

Sales to government agencies and daily rental companies were lower again.

Sales to government fleets from five manufacturers fell 12.3% to 17,888 for the month. Truck-based sales fell 4.2% to 15,874, while car sales declined 47.2% to 2,014. Year to date sales have fallen 5.7% (to 232,761) with trucks down 3.2% (199,486) and cars down 18.6% (33,275).

Sales into daily rental declined 8.6% (to 112,521) in November with car sales down 19.5% (to 41,116) and truck category sales down 0.8% (to 71,405). For the year, sales are 2.3% higher (1.6 million) with trucks up 5.8% to 1 million and cars down 3.1% to 605,173.

Fleet sales in the three segments fell 9.3% to 184,793 in November with a 3.8% decline in the truck category (135,827) and a 21.8% decline in car sales (48,966). Through 11 months, fleet sales have increased 3.2% over 2018 to 2.57 million. Truck, van, and SUV sales are 6.6% higher to 1.86 million, while car sales are 4.6% lower to 709,371.

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