News by the Numbers: Vanishing Full-sizes
By Editors of Truck Trend
The summer selling season got off to a miserable start this year. Fuel prices hammered most pickup sales, driving General Motors to talk about plant closings (Oshawa, Ontario; Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wisconsin; and Toluca, Mexico) and consider selling/dropping the Hummer brand or merging it into another, casting doubt on their "prestige" brand dealer concept of Cadillac-Hummer-Saab. Ford wasn't immune, either, as the F-150 was dethroned as the best-selling vehicle for 15, 17, or 22 years, depending on who you ask. Although it didn't soften the blow, at least Ford could still claim the best-selling pickup prize since cars were responsible for knocking it off the pedestal.
According to industry consultants AutoPacific, the first four months of 2008 saw pickup sales drop 17 percent, and they predict 2008 will see small pickups off by eight percent and large ones by 20 percent. Against the first four months of 2007, sales of every pickup were down except the then-new Tundra (up 25 percent) and the essentially 15-year-old Ranger (up 12). The biggest losers were the Titan and Dakota (down 42 percent), Escalade EXT (39), Avalanche (34), and Sport Trac and Canyon (27); only the Tacoma (down nine percent) and the Ridgeline (six) didn't suffer double-digit drops.
As a result of that and ever-increasing gas prices, on May 1, virtually every pickup inventory measured by "days supply" was up from April 1 except the Ridgeline (the flexible manufacturing plant cut production by about a quarter early this year), and the Ranger was in short supply, with about one-fourth days supply of other trucks and in the same hot-selling status as Minis, Civics, Kias, the new Cadillac CTS, and a surprise run on Ford E-Series vans. Also bucking the trend is Lexus, with truck sales that stayed relatively constant, no doubt buoyed by the hybrid RX and new LX, while their cars dropped 15 percent to start 2008. Big truck transactions are down, too, with International closing in on Ford for top sales. Only a few Class 4-6 models from certain brands are up, and the only big-time gain came at Sterling with the addition of the rebadged Ram 4500/5500.