Pickup truck drivers are still brand loyal, but that’s dwindling, Car Gurus says. Market Watch
March 28, 2019
By: Claudia Assis
As pickup truck prices escalate, some are considering switching to cheaper vehicles, according to a survey by online used-car marketplace CarGurus Inc.
Brand loyalty among pickup truck owners is beginning to decrease compared with the same survey done a year ago, CarGurus CARG, +0.26% said Thursday. This year, 70% of truck owners said they would switch brands if their preferred brand raised pickup truck prices by $10,000, compared with 64% in 2018.
“While truck owners still have strong brand and category loyalty, the challenge for car manufacturers and dealerships is that loyalty is increasingly less reliable as a driver of sales,” said Madison Gross, director of consumer insights at CarGurus.
Toyota Motor Corp. 7203, -1.65% TM, -1.62% pickup truck owners were the most brand loyal, it found, with 41% not willing to consider another pickup truck brand. Owners of General Motors Co.’s GM, +1.23% Chevrolet pickups were the least brand loyal, with 28% not willing to switch brands.
The T1XX trucks are absolute rubbish, and will stain GM's reputation in the truck market until they are replaced, which will hopefully happen ahead of schedule.
The Chevy is ugly, both are massively overpriced, both have a terrible interior, and both somehow are not as safe as they should be, according to the IIHS's most recent small overlap test. Just a total disaster, and one that GM had to have saw coming.
They need an emergency refresh for the twins, similar to the 2014 Malibu, stat.
Particularly interesting to me was this little tidbit:
Article said:
Toyota Motor Corp. 7203, -1.65% TM, -1.62% pickup truck owners were the most brand loyal, it found, with 41% not willing to consider another pickup truck brand. Owners of General Motors Co.’s GM, +1.23% Chevrolet pickups were the least brand loyal, with 28% not willing to switch brands.
So GM decided to cheap out on the new trucks by giving them an awful interior, overprice them, and make them... unconventional looking. The poll says that Chevy truck drivers are least loyal to the brand, so it'll be interesting to see if the polled percentage will translate to large chunk of buyers.
Hopefully I won't, but if I were in the market for a new pickup, I know I wouldn't be buying a Chevy Silverado. Not with that face, interior, and price tag. Not in a million years.
Let's see how the market responds. Silverado sales were down big last month, and down over 8% YoY. Hopefully this is a wakeup call to GM to make the trucks better via either refresh, or by pulling ahead their replacements' SoP date.
Since none of the three major brands are raising prices by $10,000 the question is irrelevant.
A better question would be, how will rising prices affect your decision to buy your next truck:
a) No change, I get the truck I want.
b) I would cross shop the competition's trucks.
c) I can't afford the payments on new trucks anymore.
d) I would switch to buying 12 month old trucks.
I am a straight line GM truck buyer (and car buyer for that matter). When they no longer make a truck or car that meets my needs or expectations, then I will cross shop. A GM product nor GM themselves has yet to do me dirty, so they have earned my loyalty. As for price, I will pay what it costs to get what I want. That of course can change, but for the last 25 years that has been the case and hopefully continues.
It is dubious. Big thank you to AMERICA 123 for the details in post #5. Here is a summary of CarGurus' methodology for this "survey"; the flaws are quite evident:
CarGurus said:
"In February 2019, CarGurus surveyed 1,067 current and former pickup truck owners. Among them, 581 currently own at least one pickup truck and 486 had owned a truck previously, but no longer do. Among the current pickup truck owners, 195 own a Ford pickup truck, 154 own a Chevrolet pickup truck, 106 own a Toyota pickup truck, and 101 own a Dodge/Ram pickup truck. In January 2018, CarGurus surveyed 489 truck owners as the inaugural survey of this annual benchmarking study. More information is available by contacting pr@cargurus.com"
It's a sheer fact that pickup truck prices ARE going up because people are dumb enough in this country to buy them at ever increasing prices. Even with all of the markup, these very same buyers are more willing to pay for a lot more profit for GM than they would for an Impala, Cruze, Volt, etc.
You want to know why cars are no longer sold by US car manufacturers? Because American people prefer buying American pickup trucks--not cars. Something about harking back to the "good 'ole days" or something like that...
The only reason why this article exists is for blogs like this to stir the natives into a frenzy. They are just stirring the pot.
It's a sheer fact that pickup truck prices ARE going up because people are dumb enough in this country to buy them at ever increasing prices. Even with all of the markup, these very same buyers are more willing to pay for a lot more profit for GM than they would for an Impala, Cruze, Volt, etc.
/QUOTE]
There is a portion of the truck buying public that relies on a pickup truck. Not buying one is not an option for those buyers (of which I am one). I don't consider myself "dumb". I am a HD truck buyer, when someone builds a car that can pull 30K, and carry what I need to make a living and do it cheaper, I would gladly entertain the competition. As it is there are 3 OEMs to chose from (maybe 4 if you want to consider IH with their medium duty offering) This market isn't like the car or SUV market with numerous options and enough competition to keep pricing under control (not that seems all that effective in that market either). Let me know when I can buy a Prius that can meet those specs, until then I will have to continue to be "dumb".
"My Daddy always drove one" doesn't cut it anymore.
Bail Out, Exodus from Canada US, and building an "All New Truck" that has just caught up (if) are all the things that lead to "Well maybe We should look at a Ram/Ford/Tundra."
Also let's face it. 50% if not more, of the Trucks out there are merely Cars.
Which is obvious with 24% of Toyota Owner Not buying another truck. The strange number is Ford Owners being 2nd on that list at 19%. At the same time, Ford being the Highest Switch to Brand of all Brands.
We'll have Q1 sales shortly but the first two months, Silverado was the only large truck
seeing around 16,000 drop in sales, Ford and GMC were flat and Ram was up 12,000.
New Silverado looks to be harder to sell, maybe buyers were convinced to buy more in March...
Really going to need a lot of popcorn if the Silverado lays an egg, especially when the March sales are reviewed for Fleet/Retail and how many "Old" Silverados were sold in March.
Silverado is taking the biggest hit due to the fact it's customers are the most price sensitive (something very few on this site want to admit), GMC buyers can handle the price increases, yet GM continues to "starve" the brand so we'll see how it all plays out soon.
As I posted in the High Country thread, the GM twins aren't even competitive with the outgoing Ram, let alone the new one. We bought a truck this week, as many of you know, and went to Chevy first, Unfortunately, the truck sucked and was an extremely poor value, to boot. Wound up driving home in a 17,000 mile 2016 Ram Laramie Longhorn, priced in the low $30k range, and with every option except air suspension. This was a far better deal than the lightly-equipped 2019 Silverado LT we looked at that $8k+ on the hood.
Here's it is:
Yes, it's a total cowboy truck, but I'm rapidly becoming an old man, so it fits.
It used to be easy to spend $32k on a new, decently equipped truck but when you're asked to spend $52k your mind starts to wonder about what else you can spend that money on.
My Loyalty decline has more to do with GM's failure to focus on making the GMC brand more than it has been in the past and not giving the Denali Trim the updates it must have to remain at the top of the segment.
I will be making a decision in a few months whether or not to buy my Sierra, turn it in and walk away or get another Sierra and not sure what I am going to do yet.
One thing I will be doing that I have NEVER done before, I will be test driving both the Ford 150 and RAM 1500 and am leaning more towards the RAM since they seem to actually understand what buyers really want, and might buy/lease a Dodge Challenger to go with the new RAM for the same reason. FCA knows the Pony Car market better than GM ever will and is showing the same with it's new Jeep and RAM products. Ford is a possibility, but leaning more towards the RAM although I am not that interested in the 12" display that I think will be more distracting than useful for my use and am more interested in GM's H.U.D. as something I would find more useful.
We'll have to see what the Ford, GMC and RAM test drives reveal and what kind of deals are offered......
It's ALREADY BEEN POINTED OUT MULTIPLE TIMES.... that all companies are giving 10-12k off their trucks. The bad thing is the value is still better on the Ram due to the way they option things and package the trims.
I was seriously considering Titan at one moment because they are blatantly more for the money now. Lightly used examples have 4wd free compared to the Detroit three asking prices.
The biggest reason I went Ford for my last truck was simply the interior room. Specifically the back of the crew cab models. I also got the Platinum trim. Lots of great tech that I use, but it still boiled down to the room in back. I’ll be sure too check out the new Silverado 2500 when it comes out. It’ll be a HC trim because that’s the only grill combo on them I like so far. Also, the black/umber two tone interior looks nice. Sure, it doesn’t have as many shiny pieces as the RAM, but it looks nice and well laid out. To me, the Ford is laid out well also, so no complaints there. My current interior is all black, so the only contrasting interior color I have is the grey strips in the seats and aluminum trim on the dash and console. Not sure I’d do black interior on anything again as it shows dirt and dust way too easily. The dark Marsala interior is nice, also. The new Sierra 2500 looks good except for those wheel well lights and reflectors. I can deal with the shape of them more than those orange lights on a wheel well, but I need to see them in person if they flow with the color and rest of truck.
I'm not in the market for a new truck, but my parents only buy trucks and my Dad just bought a leftover new '18 GMC 1 ton dually Denali. Got a great deal on it, loaded out with the Duramax, etc. Driveout was cheaper than a '19 1/2 ton Sierra Denali strangely enough. He's planning on selling his '12 GMC 3/4 ton Denali now and buying Mom a 1/2 ton. They are looking for a leftover '18 High Country or Denali as they can't stomach the new '19s. Way too bizarre looking in their opinion. I'm hoping GM realizes their mistake and does a refresh of the exterior and interior VERY SOON.
The NG GM trucks are a complete embarrassment...at any price. I am convinced a big piece of the failure is directly related to the exodus over the past several years of the experts who really understood trucks. The collective memory of how to do them right is totally lost on the younger designers/marketers. Much of the old timer knowledge was in their heads, not written down. And it all got broomed in the massive head count reductions in the name of cost cutting. This dilemma is no doubt affecting all the other brands as well. Smacks of a cut and paste culture at the Tech Center and Ren Cen with no real visceral knowledge of what it really takes. The cake was left out in the rain, recipe lost.
The facts don't support your argument......completely. Where I agree is GM's reluctance to really put the money into the interior on the top trim lines. The HC and Denali should be more plush. People have been buying what they have offered. The Denali trim level chosen at rate that is surprising high, however I think the competition namely Ram just embarrassed them. GM should have seen that coming, they went to the same well one too many years and got caught looking stupid.
That aside, lets talk about where your wrong. GM finally is coming to play in the HD market. They have for years been 7K or more behind in tow capacity of either Ram and Ford. They are offering some tech the others don't(great cameras, HUD and so forth), and tow capacities above them both as well. If what you say were completely true they would have rubber stamped the 2020 HD trucks. They have spent time and money making a class leading product in ways they never have before. So to whomever is running the HD division, thank you for finally participating fully in the HD market.
A 6% difference from the 2018 survey to 2019 = "dwindling"? What was the margin of error again?
- - - - -
• None of the Big 4 (+2 lil 'uns) are going to increase their pricing by $10K in one year- never happen. As it is, envoy showed the graphic that the top Ram & top Silverado start only $105 apart.
• Where this should be a HUGE red flag is for EV trucks, which are projected to be anywhere from $25K to $40K higher! Rivian pick up is supposed to be around $70K to start, if 70% would consider jumping away from a $10K increase, a $25K must mean 100% would consider another than a Rivian. Not a good sign.
And then there's people like me,who haven't been brand loyal in over 4 decades,and love it. When I shop for a truck I shop for what suits my needs,and my wallet. I don't care if it's ford.ram/chebby. It won't be a toyota and probably not a nissan. Why? Because they don't have anything that remotely interest me. As it stands right now,were I to buy a full size 1/2 ton,it would be a new Ram. As it stands right now,if I were to buy a new midsize,it would be a choice between the colorado z71 diesel,or maybe the ranger lariat fx4.The full size fords and chebbies ,(especially the chebbies) are too big,and to ugly. The Ram is big,but it sure is a sweet ride and looks even better than any other new truck on the market,in my eyes. I get a kick out of the battle of the brands from the loyalists,lol.
This not about to happen. Someone who knows very little about trucks wrote this. GM is in great shape and Ford is not. Why would GM want to merge when they'd gain very little. GM is way ahead with EV's and Ford isn't. GM is on it's way of being great again, and Ford is slowly going down the drain. Some will say the Ford trucks are more durable but that's a fairy tale. Ford uses powerful small engines and that's where the problems lies. A small engine has less pistons and has to work much harder then a bigger engine therefore wears out faster. They are many other reasons why this won't happen.
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