Big pickups have carried U.S. auto sales to their highest level in three years.
Demand for full-size pickups jumped 16 percent in August, helping to make it the strongest sales month since August 2009. Overall auto sales increased 20 percent from a year earlier to nearly 1.3 million, according to Autodata corp.
The rising demand shows that businesses need to replace aging trucks and feel more confident about the recovery in U.S. housing – an industry where pickups are essential for hauling equipment and crews.
“Businesses don’t usually go buy a fleet of trucks unless they have good reason to believe that business will be ramping up,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence for the TrueCar. com auto pricing service.
Ford, GM and Chrysler, the biggest makers of full-size trucks, notched double digit gains in overall sales last month.