The Truck Wars are Back
After watching the pickup truck segment for the last six months, it's no wonder the rest of the automotive media is beginning to understand what's happening here: Truck Wars are back.
If there was one theme to come out of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it was that everyone understands that the truck segment has a lot to be excited about. Even the casual observer could see there were many more pickup trucks on the show floor than in years past, and each of the big manufacturers were talking about the entire segment making a strong comeback in the next six, 12 and 18 months. In fact, some have predicted that when the final 2012 sales numbers for pickup trucks are in, the segment will have grown more than 50 percent when compared to 2009 numbers.
Bloomberg News also notes that several of the big prognosticators see the rise in new home starts and the housing market in general as good lead indicators that the truck segment is likely to outperform the car segment in the coming sales year. Of course, that's good news for Ram truck, GM and Ford, which own more than 90 percent of the U.S. truck market. And let's not forget, for example, for a company like Ford, it's been reported that 90 percent of its global profits are made from its personal-use and commercial truck sales.
Due to a number of economic and circumstancial issues, the spotlight on pickups has been dim at best for the last several years. However, if the floor of the 2013 Detroit auto show is any indication — as well as all the attention aimed at the Ram 1500, new Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, and the huge showing the Ford Atlas concept received — things are about to get a lot more exciting for anyone who loves pickups.
For crying out loud, even the guys at Autoweek magazine are trying to figure out what it is about pickup trucks that the rest of us inherently understand — they're practical and fun. Check out this dirty little video they just posted, as they try to learn how to slide around in the mud.
Comments
Remember those Chev Truck commercials which lambasted the Ram for having a heated steering wheel?
Both GM pickups now have them.
yeah but it was howie long so noone cared lol
OH and heres to hoping they add a heated wheel to the 14 tundra. i have heated and cooled seats but not a heated wheel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY2V4W9ER24
Funny, that GM commercial probably did more for Ram than it did for GM.
Guy watching the GM Truck commercial: "Ram has a heated steering wheel? My hands won't have to be cold for the first 10 minutes of my 15 minute commute? SOLD!"
GM: "DOH!!!"
Out of the 3 Amigos pictured above I would have to say that the truck in the middle gets the ugly duckling award. Easily the homliest HD truck on the market. Ford has lost it's way when it comes to trucks these days.
The truck in the center takes the cake for 2013 HIDEOUS TRUCK OF THE YEAR!!! How much uglier can Ford make this POS???!!! But we know the Ford nutswinging GIRLY GIRLS love them and will buy them up like hotcakes!!! LMAO Silly blind GIRLY GIRLS.
I forgot to say this on my last post:
When it comes to looks on trucks FORD LOSES AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET IT BE WRITTEN....LET IT BE DONE...FOR I HAVE SPOKEN.
Truck Wars are Back?? They haven't left! They've been ongoing for decades!
man the super poopy looks freaking ugly! look at what they call a front bumper on it. looks like ford got so cheap they had to cut a bunch of metal outta of it talk bout cheap!
Most of the "focus" I'm hearing about Silverado and Sierra amounts to "ho-hum." So long as GM insists on building an ugly truck, their sales are going to continue to underperform.
I saw the new GMC & Chevy trucks and a local autoshow this past weekend.....WOW they are UGLY! Especially the GMC, they ruined it with the fender indentations... and the chevy's grill is so big and flat, the front end looks out of proportion with the rest of the truck, the truck looks like a brick. I have never like the current chevy/gmc trucks, but after seeing the new ones, I really like the current gm trucks. I bet Ram & Ford are going to be getting a lot of new customers in the near future! Way to go chevy & gmc designers, your one step closer to ruining your brand! Keep up the good work GM!
Looks like the front of the super duty sits lower then even the GM trucks with that big ugly looking air chin hanging 2 inches off the ground, guess they put that on to keep you from seeing that front axle pumpkin that will get it stuck easy
Dare I say that Chevy looks better than the new one. Especially from the sides. And this is an HD. The new 1500 is damn near the same size or larger. Either way, it will shake down to Ford being number one, Dodge taking over number two and Chevrolet rounding out the pack at number three. No doubt in my mind. Chevrolet's new obsession with monster bulge saddlebag fenders have ruined their chances of doing much.
Funny, that GM commercial probably did more for Ram than it did for GM.
Guy watching the GM Truck commercial: "Ram has a heated steering wheel? My hands won't have to be cold for the first 10 minutes of my 15 minute commute? SOLD!"
GM: "DOH!!!"
-Exactly. Howie was always such a pansy idiot. And Chevrolet was just making excuses as always for things they didn't have. You'll hear even more excuses for things they don't have in the future. Only to see it show up the Next time.
I do hope the US is coming out of it economic malaise.
It doesn't really matter where to jobs are, as long as jobs are created.
I would like to see the export, manufacturing and construction sector driving up vehicle sales. That would mean a healthier an more sustainable economic recovery.
To the kids (and some adults) that post crap, I hope the US economy does improve, this is to provide opportunities like our generation had in improving your life and realising your dreams.
Take a step back and look at what you are posting.
I like the current Sierra commercial that says they don't need a v6 to get good fuel economy, marketing guys must not talk to the engineers hahahaha
The Superduty grille may be obnoxious and a little ugly, but it's the only one of the three that's instantly recognizable as being HD. Chevy and Dodge, you pretty much have to poke around and look for the badge.
I like the styling of the chevy,vs the gmc,the ram is okay,but the ford is butt ugly.I am not 'brand loyal'.I have, at different times,bought new ford pu's,as well as dodge and chevy.The last two were Silverado reg cab Z71's.I use my trucks off road to haul light mining gear up old logging/mining trails here in southern Oregon.Hands down so far,dollar for dollar the chevies work the best for me.The auto-locker in the rear diff works really good,much better then a LS diff.The whole off road pkg that GM offers is,in my opinion/experience,works the best for me.Jmho and worth what ya paid to read it.....
I would take a Ram or Ford over the twins anyday on looks. Ram is the best looking hands down but at least the Ford still looks like a truck and has the underpinnings of a truck compared to the weak twins. I mean come on the GM/Chevy has the looks that only a mother could love or a guy named Bob. That giant ugly front bumper, those huge wheel wells that could also serve as emergency shelter for most farm animals, sheet metal that is so thin that closing the hood is a challenge, the low slung frame that gets stuck in 6 inches of snow with drifts and the number one reason that you can not consider a GM a truck... no solid front axle. Boy you can tell that GM surely is a goverment run operation these days!
There are a couple missing from the photo.
Or did the industry already make up its mind about this one? Maximum of 3 players in this game.
Ford really needs to do something with the Super Duty other than a new grille and trim packages. Their drivetrains are good (or will be good if the get that TorqShift transmission sorted out), but with that C-channel frame Ford will never match GM and Ram in towing capacity.
We need a new Super Duty more than a new F-150.
No solid front axles?On the 1/2 tons? You do know none of them have used a solid front axle in many years.....don'tcha? As for the twins getting stuck in 6 inches of snow? You really don't know what your talking about,and it looks like you might not have ever owned a 4 wheel drive pickup irregardless of make by the way your talking.You obviously don't have any experience with rear lockers either.
No solid front axles?On the 1/2 tons?
-Hell, Chevy hasn't had them on their 3/4 tons and up since 87. That's one of the many reasons why they suck now. Morons. You Don't take the SFA out of your heavy duty trucks. Low slung frames and torsion bars suck.
but with that C-channel frame Ford will never match GM and Ram in towing capacity.
- Thick C-channel is Far better than brittle box. It can flex with the load and you can mount things to it. Dodge had to learn this the hard way. I swear it's a bunch of Howie Long jock dickheads that make Chevy trucks now.
mean come on the GM/Chevy has the looks that only a mother could love or a guy named Bob. That giant ugly front bumper, those huge wheel wells that could also serve as emergency shelter for most farm animals
- You could smuggle an entire family from Mexico across the border in those massive square wheel wells on the Chevy's now. They've looked like SH%T since 2007.
@ToxicSludge. I'm looking at the same pic you are bud. Now go crawl under any Heavy Duty Chevy or GM and tell me where is the SFA? Those trucks in the pic are not 1/2 tons btw... just in case you didn't know what you were looking at. The old Chevys were not bad looking. My buddy has a 99 that still looks nice. These new twins are just horrible. Looks like someone rummaged through a parts bin and just slapped it together. As far as the frame goes, one does not need a solid box frame for towing or heavy haul. If that is the case then why does every dump truck and 18 wheeler use C channel frames then?
Fords are the best truck, if they had a Cummins noone would buy a chevy or a ram. Fords superduty is the payload king, and it could be a better truck, im sure but fords are the best truck, Rams and GMs are good to,
From the pic above,they look like 1/2 tons to me.The chevy I can see a Z71 decal on the rear quarter,that is it.I assumed from the above article they were talking about 1/2 tons.
"However, if the floor of the 2013 Detroit auto show is any indication — as well as all the attention aimed at the Ram 1500, new Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, and the huge showing the Ford Atlas concept received — things are about to get a lot more exciting for anyone who loves pickups."
Xin Loi....
I WANT SOMEONE TO COME MEET ME!!!! I want a FORD GIRLY MAN to meet me!!!
I will be at the YMCA in the only Silverado. You can't miss it, it has a rainbow sticker on the window.
Ford not Abel to catch dodge they have no frame end suspention and thei ford concept look like the front end gmc all terrain
Here we go with that again.
MEET ME SOMEWHERE!!!
@Michigan Bob - this is a pickup truck site, NOT A pick up site.
Try E-Harmony.
I'm sure that out of the 7 billion people inhabiting this planet, there is one who might find you interesting.
Trucks Wars?
I can see the George Lucas movie now.
Silverado 3500 to Colorado - I'm your father.......... even though you were concieved in Brazil and was born in Thailand.
Lets invade the Ford Galaxie to get rid of those enemies of the state.
But we must not forget about the Fiat Federation. They could interfere with our plans of global domination.
Lou, I don't even know you, but let's put an end to this. MEET ME SOMEWHERE!!!
LOU,
Meet me somwhere!
BBK, go take some engineering classes and get back to me. I got a feeling that the next gen. Super Duty will have a competitive boxed frame.
CHRYSLER TRYING TO REDUCE FLEET SALES FOR MORE PROFIT. Sergio Marchionne promised to wean Chrysler off its reliance on fleet sales, shortly after taking over leadership of the company. Despite increased commercial-vehicle sales, Chrysler finished 2012 with 74% of its U.S. sales going to retail buyers, rather than fleets, an improvement over 2011, when 72% of sales were retail. General Motors also sold 74% of its cars at retail, while Ford sold just 70% on the retail market. That makes Ford the fleet-queen leader for 2012. Imports tend to have nearly all their sales in the retail market, though part of the difference may be having fewer truck sales. Nissan has the largest fleet share at 15% (85% retail), possibly partly due to the success of their commercial vans, but likely because of the Versa’s popularity in rental fleets (it combines a low price with a relatively large interior). Toyota was 90% retail, Honda 98%, and Hyundai-Kia 90%.
Read more at: http://www.allpar.com/news/index.php/2013/01/chrysler-relying-less-on-fleet-sales
Good thing the Dodge truck offered a heated steering wheel because their heater was not good at all.
I think it will be an intersting battle brewing among the pickup sector....GM hasn't shown their full hand of cards even though I'm unimpressed with their latest format still if they fixed a few minor things like fender bulging & proportioned the front end of the truck to flow better with the rest of their design It actually wouldn't look far from a home run...I have left chevrolet for RAM because the Hemi's have alot in common the old style 350ci V8's obviously the Hemi= 3.45ci & chevy= 350ci...also, the handling is much more remenicent of older pickups in general a more heavier feel solid ride...very intersting to find out what RAM improved on with GM's vintage 3 linked-coil rear suspension VS. RAM's 5 linked muilti-coil rear suspension. I also, am paying attention to FORD's 5.0 but, its displacement is much smaller at 302ci if FORD would go for more ci they would probably blow Hemi's away with an even more updated 5.0...the 2014 chevy's I hope at least have something interesting under the hood! for godsakes at least live up to the reliablilty category!!!
On the off-road video of the F-150:
Why is he driving it so hard and fast? Good off-roading (not Baja style), the goal is to reduce wheel spin as to not disturb the terrain called tread lightly.
The real test would be crawl speed off-roading in low 4 not high 4 which is for snowy paved roads or graded roads.
This guy does not have much off-roading experience!
And I was laughing when he got hung up on the frame! Yeah it's called break-over angle!
oxi, Do you have any video of yourself off-roading? Can you put it on youtube?
@Hemi V8 - all of the USA car companies are around that 70-75% retail figure. Police, fire, and ambulance units are all fleet sales. Same thing applies to utility companies and government. If you make commercial vehicles, you have almost no choice but to sell to fleets (unless you want to give all of your business to the competition). Profits on fleet vehicles are usually realized from the parts and service end of things. If a fleet buys trucks with a warranty, they have no choice but go with authorized parts and service.
Machionne saying he wants to wean himself off of fleet sales is just posturing. Is Chrysler willing to walk away from selling over 76,000 trucks per year to fleets?
Killing fleet sales could be a cheep way for Chrysler to meet retail demand and not hire more employees.
Think about that for a moment!
Transfer that 76,000 ++ units to the retail side and piss on hiring more UAW.
Would you rather see Chrysler keep fleet sales and increase capacity by 36,000 units and hire another 1,000 employees?
The only reason you made that post was an attempt to make Ford look bad, but if you analyse the situation, what are the results of Marchionne's comments?
They can satisfy the retail market without investing in USA factory infrastructure and without hiring more employees, and make more money at the same time.
Fiat wins and the USA looses (jobs and infrastructure).
@HemiV8 - one other point, if Fiat were to wean off of fleet sales, don't you think that Ford and GMC would take advantage of that fact in their advertising?
Ford already has the "We own work" commercials. GMC could take the "Heartbeat of America" ads to a whole new level. I can see Howie Long now, "We Build America, what does Fiat build?"
Ram would loose product credibility, aren't pickups meant for work?
One needs to look at the implications of a story, not just the opportunity to make another brand look bad.
@oxi,
You think you can off-road better than me? Meet me somewhere!
You're talking sh#t on the net about off-roading down in the baja; meet me somewhere! And I'll end this punk sh#t!!
I will challenge you off-road anywhere, I will swear, I will smoke your azz on the trails!
MEET ME SOMEWHERE!
@Bob
Enter this into your GPS "90 degrees North latitude".
See you there ;)
Oxi: you said something about the test driver getting hung up, on the breakover angle, I am sure he would have done no better, in fact a lot worst in a tundra, all the tundras I have seen have so little ground clearence, and I don't mean under the front crossmember, or the rear diff, but the "breakover angle" it is awfull on all the tundras I have seen, in factory stock trim, as compared to the FX-4, or even any Z-71 for that matter, I can not even crawl under a tundra, but I can crawl under my Z-71, and F-150, and change the oil with or without a creaper, yes toyota claims more ground clearence under the frontend and rear diff. but that has nothing to do with your breakover angle, in fact the only tundra I have been able to crawl under in my cousins reg cab 4x4, but not with a creaper, and all I have had to do with my Z-71 since I crawled under it before, is add the Rancho 2" leveling front end spacers, between that and the airbags in the rear, I have all the breakover angle I will ever need, as I never go rock crawling at all, just beach running, and the typical mud bog, and have never been hung up yet, or stuck, with either my Z-71 ext cab, or F-150 reg cab 8'bed, also with the Rancho level kit.
Chrysler finished 2012 with 74% of its U.S. sales going to retail buyers, rather than fleets, an improvement over 2011, when 72% of sales were retail. General Motors also sold 74% of its cars at retail, while Ford sold just 70% on the retail market. That makes Ford the fleet-queen leader for 2012.
So more poeple personaly buy GM trucks then Ford trucks. The only reason Ford leads in sales is because of low ball fleet sales.
I think it will be an intersting battle brewing among the pickup sector....GM hasn't shown their full hand of cards even though I'm unimpressed with their latest format still if they fixed a few minor things like fender bulging & proportioned the front end of the truck to flow better with the rest of their design It actually wouldn't look far from a home run...
@Jospeh, I most certainly agree on all points actually. There's no way GM is showing their full hand of cards. Just no way. I'm likewise unimpressed with the new trucks for the same reasons. Fender bulges and out of proportioned front end. I actually agree as well that if they fixed those things, they really wouldn't be that far off if at all from a grand slam home run. As is, it won't sell much. I also think they're holding back on their interiors. Surely they have many other higher trim packages coming. Composite bed options I assume would be there too. They really need to fix those sides and spruce up the front though. Especially on the Silverado since that's the biggest competitor to the F-150 and Ram.
You guys are dumb. Take away Ford's fleet sales and their retail sales still outsell the competition's fleet + retail combined. If a more businesses use and trust Ford trucks for work, that is a plus to me. You wish you had the work trucks like Ford.
http://www.ford.com/trucks/superduty/weownwork/#/
@Dave, Dead on.
work trucks > grocery getters
So more poeple personaly buy GM trucks then Ford trucks. The only reason Ford leads in sales is because of low ball fleet sales.
Posted by: johnny doe | Jan 22, 2013 9:36:06 AM
This. Ford loses and GM wins again!
Go RAM...GO!!! Retail sales is where it's at. GM is next AND then on to Ford!! Isn't it FUNNY how Ford pads their sales numbers with fleet sales! LOL.
GUTS
GLORY
GOING AFTER THE RETAIL SALES LEAD
CANNOT BE STOPPED
RAM!
Wow, I don't know why I read these posts. Childish behavior, you clowns actually own and drive trucks? Very disapointing.
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