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The Moment When Toyota Turns Into GM

Take a previously popular vehicle and continue to enhance it despite the fact that its time is over. Hey, Toyota, why not shove a V8 in there while you are at it. Oh, you did. Well, a V10 then! More! More! More!

We mentioned the Tundra was going to turn out to be a bad idea for Toyota, so why do they think the "more" 4Runner will do any better? Folks aren't interested in this sorta vehicle any longer, so why the spendy update?

Referenced articles
Autoblog: Despite market shift, Toyota confirms next 4Runner in development
Cars! Cars! Cars! Toyota's Albatross

Tundra Movin' On Up

We've been thinking a little more about Toyota becoming number two after we re-read these posts :

Kicking Tires reports: How Ford Lost The #2 Spot to Toyota.

Edmunds reports: 2007 Toyota Tundra: Best Year Ever.

We've speculated the Tundra was going to be Toyota's albatross and that still remains to be seen. According to that Edmunds link, Toyota was hoping to move 200k units of the Tundra (they sold 196k of 'em). That's a pretty significant number since these buyers had to come from the big three. In fact, let's take a look at the sales of trucks for 2007:

Ford F-series: 690,589 -13.2% over 2006
Chevy Fullsize pickups: 673,807 -2.8% over 2006
Dodge Ram: 358,295 -2% over 2006
Nissan Titan: 65,746 -9.2% over 2006
Toyota Tundra: 196,555 +54%

It looks like (with really no additional research) that Tundra sales are coming from Ford and Nissan folks. So, while Toyota has knocked Ford from the number two position, it sure seems like all big three should pretty concerned about the Tundra's movement upward.

Cars! Cars! Cars! Parking Lot

Read these:

Kicking Tires reports: First Drive: 2007 Saturn Aura Green Line. Build quality is off a bit? Crap!

Autoblog reports: GM intros incentives for full-size trucks. Incentives on the new truck? Crap! Well, yay for us buyers.

Terlit Time

CNN reports: Detroit's darkest hour. Alex Taylor eye eye eye explains why things ain't-a lookin' so good for Detroit

So the sales data reported May 1 that pickup trucks have hit the skids is seriously bad news - much worse even than you might think. Without these reliable profit generators, the business model for domestic auto producers in North American doesn't work. Passenger cars, under ferocious foreign assault, are a breakeven proposition at best and sales of formerly lucrative SUVs are falling faster than Spider-Man without his web.

Much worse? Gah! No Spider-Man web? Gah! Alison Krauss has released the hounds? Gah!

What we find even more interesting is that Toyota has now entered the full-size pickup truck market. Toyota has dropped nearly a billion ducats in that Texas plant (recent money) so we wonder how they are feeling now. Man, it's all about timing. See, we know how Toyota feels because this most recent trend of health awareness has totally scuttled our plans for Trans Fat! Trans Fat! Trans Fat! and its sister site Tobacco Health! Tobacco Health! Tobacco Health!

Customers Takin' Toyota To School

On the habits of truck buyers, that is. It's neat to see Toyota face problems already solved by the big 2 and 3/8. AutoWeek reports: It's All In The Mix.

Folks aren't buyin' into the whole Toyota big-ass truck thing until they can get exactly what they want -- heck, makes sense to us.

Buyers of Toyota's redesigned full-sized pickup are acting like buyers of domestic trucks. They demand specific features, colors and trim levels, says Jim Farley, Toyota Division's former group vice president of marketing. Late last week, Farley became general manager of Lexus Division.

It's a switch for a company whose customers typically accept whatever is available from lean inventories of the Camry and other popular models, Farley concedes.

Tundra customers "say, 'I want the off-road package with the black leather interior,' " Farley told Automotive News. "They have a build-to-order mentality that we are not used to at Toyota."

It's nice to see folks insisting on waiting for what they want rather than what the manufacturer has for sale.

The light-duty pickup market seems to be at its most competition right now with very refined products like the Silverado and Tundra going head-to-head. If we were in the market for a truck, those two would be the only ones on our list. Oh, wither the F-150 and Ram.

More Power to Warp Drive, Mr. Scott!

Fancy boys, Automotive News reports: Toyota races to match model mix of Tundra to the market.

Three months into the launch of its redesigned Tundra, Toyota is scrambling to revamp its model mix and make a series of other fixes on the run.

Toyota executives admit they have made missteps in their first venture into the full-sized pickup fray.

We were pretty sure Toyota wasn't going to have a smooth ride of this. While they've proven they can build the truck America wants, they themselves aren't totally buying it. How do we know?

"The 5.7 has been 70 to 80 percent of our mix, and we thought it would be 50 or 60 percent," Farley said. "The 4.7 (V-8) and V-6 are not as popular."

Big, big, big. Power, power, power. That's America's truck buyer. Now Toyota might have been sitting back saying, "We know most Americans don't haul and/or tow as much as they think, so we'll offer the truck that will fill their needs rather than their wants." Wrong. You crazy hippies, Americans want big.

On the flip side, the basic two-door model has missed its sales goals, even though it was expected to account for only 10 percent of the mix. Typical basic-truck buyers don't want a lot of extras, even when extras are rolled into the basic sticker price.

Americans are often cheap, too. So, it's either big and bad to the bone or basic shite that makes you go, "Who wants this piece of shite?" We wonder if the regular cab/V-6 will be deliciously priced soon. Maybe a great end of year buy?

For the record, Automotive News is having a free trial week. Check it out, you lugnut!

Toyota: Crap!

Autoblog reports: Yikes: Another $1,000 off on Toyota Tundra. Toyota's pilin' it on the Toyota Albatross. We were pretty sure this bird wasn't going to fly very well -- at least at the start. The thing that should worry Toyota is that they've been aiming at this... crap, we can't use "bird" since we just called the Tundra a bird... stupid, stupid! Anyway, Toyota's been trying to scale up its trucks (size-wise) starting with the T-100 which was, what, 5/6 full size? Then the previous Tundra was 7/8... now we finally have a full-size dealie and GM goes and makes a really, really decent Silverado. Shite!

It's particularly a bummer because Toyota just went and built that fancy-ass manufacturing plant down in the Lone Star state.

Think the Tundra will bounce back?

Will Toyota Grab Truck Sales?

Good Mr. Farago disagrees with us about the upcoming mo' bigga Tundra. We don't think Detroit has too much to worry about when it comes to pick-up sales. General Motors Death Watch 98: The Last Redoubt. It's a hard point to argue against -- Japan did come in and win over (and is still currently winning over) U.S. customers in the car market. Why wouldn't trucks be next?

What do you think? Is Mr. Farago right? Will the new Tundra grab sales from Detroit?

Will They Sell?

The Detroit News reports: GM ready for Toyota trucks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know this is a car site. But, come on, it's fun to write about the impending doom of Detroit.

But we don't think this will be it. The new, mo-bigga Tundra, that is. We're very confident that Ford and GM will be able to hold onto the majority of their marketshare of full-size pick-ups. We don't yet feel that consumers have given up on Detroit's trucks.

Toyota spokeswoman Denise Morrissey agreed the market will decide, but said the automaker expects to sell 200,000 Tundras next year, up from about 126,000 in 2005. Through October, Toyota has sold about 100,000 Tundras.

Toyota will not sell 200,000 Tundras in 2007.

That's a snap of the 2007 Toyota Tundra which, from that angle, doesn't look so bad.

EXT Still The Stupid Of Trucks

The Detroit News reports: EXT still the Cadillac of trucks. We're well aware how dim we are, but isn't calling an item "The Cadillac of (whatever)" supposed to mean it's the best at what it is meant for? As in, "The new MacBook is the Cadillac of laptops" or "Google is the Cadillac of search engines" or "Alison Krauss is so smokin' hot we'd fake our own death, move to Tennessee, and change our name to be with her." Anyway, are aren't trucks meant to carry stuff? You could say it's the most luxurious pick-up truck made. And you can't say "By saying Cadillac we meant luxurious" because you can't equate Cadillac with luxury anymore since it's been trumped by many.