Fiat Chrysler's Ram edges closer to Ford with monster sales

[NEW YORK] Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Ram pickup truck had a monster month that came close to the kind of business done by Ford's F-Series - the top selling vehicle in America of any kind for nearly four decades.

Ram's sales are insane: They nearly tripled from the first quarter. The 68,096 sales total in June - up 56 per cent - is just 3,441 trucks behind the 71,537 pickups that Ford averaged per month in the first three months of this year.

Ram has never been this close to Ford before. And that raises the prospect that Fiat Chrysler's hot truck could eventually topple the king of the road, a feat once thought unattainable.

There's no question the new truck is a hit, but this is about a lot more than a 12-inch touch screen and fancy leather seats. FCA has been flooring it on a two-pronged approach to winning share of the profit-rich truck market. It plans to keep making the Ram "Classic" - the bare-bones version on an older platform, through the end of this year at least, while its Sterling Heights plant keeps cranking out the 2019 version with all the luxury features.

It's also been heaping healthy discounts on both models. If you can conquest a truck buyer, that's a down payment on future truck sales, and the profit margins are thick enough to absorb the discounts.

BLOOMBERG