Nissan Buys The Truck Market In August

Posted by: David Kiley on September 12, 2008

Nissan’s light truck sales were up an astonishing 32.7% in August, according to autodata. Light truck sales for the industry were down 22%.

The Japanese company incentivized its dealers with $10,000 per light truck, say dealers. That was $5,000 in cash, and $5,000 in dealer cash provided the dealers hit certain sales targets. My sources tell me 92% of dealers hit the target. But dealers were buying down sticker prices with money they weren’t sure they would get if they didn’t hit the target.

Xterra and Frontier sales were healthy, up 77% and 56% respectively. Quest was also up a chunk of change. Titan was down 16%, and Armada SUV sales were down 26%. It makes you wonder why Nissan ever chased the pickup business.