The Freightliner Cascadia was, expectedly, the most sold used truck in United States in 2023. The Cascadia has been the market leader in the new truck space for many years, and its dominance with first owners has helped it proliferate across the used truck space.
Behind the Cascadia, the market is much more diverse.
According to newly released resale and auction data compiled by Price Digests, sister company of Trucks, Parts, Service, more than a dozen truck models across the OEM spectrum were the second- or third-most sold vehicle in at least one state in 2023. And competitiveness behind the Cascadia was steep. Every OEM had at least one truck model finish second in volume and third in volume in at least one state last year.
[RELATED: Auction volumes keep rising as dealers offload used equipment]
Additionally, while the Cascadia’s overall market volume dominance is not up for debate, its sales success last year was not a 50-state sweep. There is one region of the country where the highest volume truck was not the Cascadia, and by a somewhat healthy margin.
Cascadia’s dominance visualized
Freightliner’s Cascadia was not just the highest volume truck in 43 states last year (limited 2023 sales data from Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont and Wyoming removed them from our market analysis), in 40 states it earned more than twice as many sales as its nearest competitor. Price Digests’ sales data indicates at least 1,000 Cascadias were sold in 21 states last year — no other truck reached the 1,000 units in a single-state threshold.
Texas, California, Florida, Georgia and Ohio recorded the most Cascadia sales in 2023.
Three states on the Great Plains stopped Freightliner’s flagship tractor from universal market dominance last year. In Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota, Kenworth’s T680 was the highest volume truck last year.
Sales in Kansas were competitive between the two brands. In the Dakotas, Kenworth’s success was more pronounced. The T680 nearly doubled the Cascadia in sales in N.D. and sold five times as many units as the Cascadia in N.D. The T680 also finished just two trucks shy of tying the Cascadia for sales in Montana, showing a clear customer acceptance of Kenworth’s most popular truck in the upper Great Plains region.
Race for second is fierce
Competition for runner up in the used truck space was mostly a three-truck battle in 2023, with each model showing regional success.
Thanks to its success on the plains, the Kenworth T680 finished second in total sales in the U.S. last year, selling 562 more units than the Volvo VNL. But the VNL outpaced the T680 on a state-by-state comparison, selling the second-most units in 12 states. The T680 was runner-up in 11 states and International’s LT625 finished second in sales volume in 10 states.
Kenworth and International also had success with other models. Kenworth’s T800 and W900L were second in at least one state; International’s 8600 was runner up in New Mexico. Paccar’s other truck brand had three runner-up finishes with the Peterbilt 579 in Arkansas, Idaho and Montana.
The VNL had its best showing in the Great Lakes and Rust Belt region and the West Coast. International’s market coverage was strongest in the South, finishing second from Nevada east to Alabama.
Expectedly, the Cascadia also finished second in South Dakota and Kansas, and was third in North Dakota (one sale behind the T800).
Mack’s Anthem, Granite and Pinnacle also had runner-up finishes in at least one state.
Bronze medal battle
Sales volumes were equally diverse when looking at the third-most sold units across the country in 2023.
Volvo's VNL and International’s LT625 each finished third in 13 states, tops across the market. With a combined 25 top-three finishes, the VNL was the second most represented truck on a state-by-state basis last year. The International LT625 made the podium in 23 states combined. International’s 7600 also finished third in sales in Maine.
The T680 collected seven third-place finishes last year, finishing as a top three truck in 21 states.
Peterbilt's 579 followed its three runner-up finishes with third place in four states and the Peterbilt 389 finished third in West Virginia. Mack’s Granite also was third in Connecticut, enabling the OEM to finish second and third behind the Cascadia in the state.
Lastly, Kenworth's T800 and W900L again made the map with a combined trio of third-place finishes, and Freightliner’s M2 106 made its first appearances in the state-by-state top three with bronze medals finishes in New Mexico and Delaware.
This article is Part I in our three-part Price Digests used truck insights series regarding 2023 sales. Stay tuned next week when we release Part II addressing 2023 pricing performance. Part III of our used truck insights series will address sales volume and pricing in Canada.
Editor's note: This article was updated to correct a discrepancy error regarding Peterbilt's 579 and 375.
