The Ford F-Series is not only the hottest-selling truck in America, but the best-selling vehicle of any kind. And it has been for decades.
This year, Ford is celebrating its pickup’s 40th consecutive year as the country’s best-selling truck, and its 35th as the best-selling vehicle of any kind.
In fact Ford has sold so many F-Series trucks – over 26 million since 1977 – that if you parked them all bumper to bumper, they would stretch over 90,000 miles. That’s enough to encircle the globe at the widest point (the equator) more than three and a half times.
The model line has come a long way over that time. 1984 saw the introduction of the F-150 to replace the smaller F-100 as the base model. In 1998, the Blue Oval automaker split the series into two, with the F-150 for light-duty use and the Super Duty models for commercial applications. It’s also given birth to such specialty models as the Harley-Davidson edition, the SVT Lightning, and the Raptor. All the while it’s ramped up the luxury factor with trim levels like the King Ranch, Platinum, and Limited models.
That all adds up to a storied history for America’s favorite truck – a position from which Ford does not seem ready to surrender. With the 2016 sales numbers coming in, Ford sold over 820,000 of its F-Series trucks last year – 5 percent more than the previous year, and far more than any other. GM sold less than 575,000 Chevy Silverados and 222,000 GMC Sierras – the combined total of which (at under 800k) still can’t touch Ford’s success.