Toyota is one of the largest and most well-known automakers in the world, and it’s competing against a lot of great automakers in the American car market. One of Toyota’s rivals is another Japanese automaker, Nissan, and interestingly enough, the two companies share some similarities in terms of their lineups. Here’s a look at how Toyota and Nissan’s trucks are currently sharing the same trend.

Here’s how Toyota and Nissan’s midsize trucks are selling

GoodCarBadCar recently revealed the latest sales data for the year, and trucks in general are still doing very well. In Toyota’s case, the company’s famous Tacoma midsize pickup truck has been one of the best-selling cars of the year so far. In the first half of 2023, Toyota has sold nearly 117,000 units of the truck. That easily makes the Tacoma the best-selling midsize truck right now.

For context, almost every other midsize truck has sold about 20,000 to 30,000 units so far this year, which means that the Tacoma is selling nearly four times better than its segment rivals. Nissan’s midsize truck offering, the Frontier, is in second place in terms of segment sales. So far this year, Nissan has sold around 34,000 units of the Frontier. 

Although these are good sales numbers, the economy is catching up with the segment. The Tacoma’s sales numbers grew by 7.5% compared to last year, while the Frontier saw a nearly 21% drop in sales. With that being said, this isn’t the trend that the two trucks are following.

Toyota and Nissan’s trucks follow the same trend in terms of segment popularity

Like many other automakers, both Toyota and Nissan also offer full-size pickup trucks. The Tacoma’s bigger sibling is the Tundra, while the Frontier’s bigger sibling is the Titan. American truck shoppers seem to love full-size trucks since they offer better specs than smaller trucks like the Tacoma or Frontier do. 

Despite that, both the Tundra and the Titan lag behind their respective midsize truck counterparts in terms of sales.

Toyota has sold nearly 60,000 units of the Tundra so far this year, while Nissan has sold about 10,500 units of the Titan. In the case of Toyota, the Tundra’s sales are solid, but they’re almost half of what the Tacoma is selling.  On the other hand, the Titan’s sales are even worse as the full-size Nissan truck is selling about one-third of what the Frontier is selling.

That being said, both full-size trucks’ sales numbers are better in terms of how they’re doing compared to last year. The Titan saw a drop in sales of about 6%, which is much less than the Frontier’s 21% year-over-year drop in sales. The Tundra, meanwhile, saw a year-over-year sales growth of almost 35%, which is better than the Tacoma’s 7.5% growth.

This trend is different compared to what other automakers tend to experience

The fact that Toyota and Nissan’s midsize trucks are selling better than their full-size trucks is surprising. Those two Japanese companies aren’t the only companies competing in multiple truck segments. Ford, for example, has the full-size F-150, the midsize Ranger, and the compact Maverick. Chevy has the full-size Silverado and the midsize Colorado.

Unlike Toyota and Nissan though, Ford and Chevy’s truck sales follow the opposite pattern. Their full-size pickup trucks are far more popular than their midsize trucks, and it’s not even close. The F-150 is currently the best-selling vehicle in America as it’s sold 383,000 units so far, while the Ranger only sold 24,000 units this year.

This difference illustrates how dominant American trucks are in the full-size truck segment, as well as how dominant Japanese trucks are in the midsize truck segment.