Ford, GM and Chrysler; Are they still the big three?

In the early 1990s, the light-duty truck market experienced something it hadn’t seen before: Asian competition; something like.

While Japanese manufacturers had made a number on the big three in the small truck market as they had in various car segments, the full-size truck market was still red, white, blue, and green $$. Then came the Toyota T-100. While the initial entry into Japan’s full-size market didn’t have much of an impact on the North American work truck market, it should have been a wake-up call.

Although the T-100 fell short of the work truck mark in many ways: low gross weight, tin-foil-like sheet metal, paltry powertrains, low towing capacity, and styling best described as a Camry with an 8 foot box, accomplished one thing. He gave Toyota a platform to experiment, gather feedback, and learn. It wasn’t exactly heavy duty. But by the T-100’s third year of production, it claimed the title of Best Full-Size Pickup in JD Powers’ initial quality survey and had begun to erode notions that only American manufacturers could build full-size trucks. complete.

Since then, the T-100 has become the Tundra and has amassed just about every quality award and press accolade known to man. It has also grown. Regular cabs have grown into larger than domestic double cabs, and power and displacement have increased from the initial 3.0 v6 to today’s vvt-i V8 making nearly 300 hp. But a more important event occurred when the T-100 became the Tundra. It went from a Japanese truck built in Japan by Japanese workers to an American truck built for the American market by American’s. Why is that important? In the world of big trucks, it’s everything. When it comes to high-revving sports cars, compact economy cars, or even lawnmowers, we’re happy to defer to any European or Asian company that has a better idea. But when it comes to trucks, Americans are picky.

We know what we want and what we don’t want. I own an American truck and I can’t describe it but I get it. We all get it. So regardless of whether or not it makes financial sense for Japanese auto companies to build trucks here in the US (it does), it makes a lot of sense from a design and marketing standpoint. The best and fastest way to deliver what a market wants and needs is to be immersed in the culture. That switch from the T-100 built in Tokyo by Toyota’s Hino division to the Tundra built in Indiana by American forever blurred the distinction between foreign and domestic trucks. Foreign vs. Domestic just doesn’t have the same meaning in the 21st century as it did in the decades after World War II.

The impact of this event has not fully developed yet, but it will for years to come. Full-size trucks were the last undisturbed market the big three had. Now, not only is there foreign competition, it’s not even really foreign. When Toyota opens its new truck plant in San Antonio in late 2006, it will employ more than 2,000 workers and have on-site suppliers employing an additional 2,100 people. All of them Texans. It’s hard

imagine an American truck more American than one built by Texans.

Now, with the introduction of the Nissan Titan built in Canton Mississippi, the writing is on the wall. Through October of this year, Nissan has sold nearly 74,000 Titans. Add that to the more than 100,000 Tundras pumped into the market, and we’re talking serious numbers. That’s more than a quarter of a million annual sales that would have gone to Ford, GM or Chrysler just 13 years ago. But the numbers are more ominous for the Big 3 than that. The Titan and Tundra only compete in the 1/2 ton market. Toyota and Nissan don’t produce a model to compete with the heavy-duty Chevy HDs, Ford Super Duty, or Dodge Ram and Power Wagons; EVEN.

Can’t imagine Nissan and Toyota building serious work trucks? Remember, Toyota already owns Hino and Nissan and you are one in the same. Hino and UD own a significant share of the Class 3-6 medium-duty truck market in the United States. Those are the segments just above Super Duty, Power Wagons and HD.

They may not be called Nissan and Toyota, but that’s not important. What’s important is that they have the dealer network, the distribution chain, the corporate infrastructure, and over 20 years of selling quality trucks to commercial buyers in the U.S. All that remains is to close the circle around the collective neck of the big three.

For work truck buyers, three factors are critical. Initial cost, operating cost and reliability. Nissan and Toyota are masters at entering market segments and in a short time having higher quality products, better efficiency and in many cases lower prices than their competitors. Forcing the big three to catch up at their own game. Cadillac and Lincoln haven’t caught up with Lexus yet. If GM, Ford, and Chrysler don’t come to an agreement quickly, Nissan and Toyota will start building 3/4-ton trucks, and the game will be over before they even realize it’s started.

So how prepared are the Big Three for serious foreign competition?

This year, if Toyota had been inclined, they could have offered a platformless Tundra with a twin-wheel rear axle underneath, added one of the Hinos diesels, and outsold Dodge’s cab and chassis. How? Dodge hasn’t offered a true cab and chassis since the 2003 Ram redesign, which literally gave Ford and GM the market for more than three years. That kind of slow adaptation will spell disaster for companies like Toyota and Nissan. Not to mention Honda and Mitsubishi, who may also become players.

Based on recently introduced show vehicles like the Toyota FTX (which has a built-in folding work box and ramps that slide out of the box), Nissan and Toyota are going to be bigger and heavier. While Ford wastes time putting Super Duty truck beds on International chassis, Toyota and Nissan are refining their product and winning over the hearts and minds of American truck buyers.

Will history repeat itself? It already is. Oh, and by the way, the Chinese are coming.