MARK PHELAN: Toyota rolls out beefier mega-truck
But Tundra isn't a knockout
February 10, 2006
CHICAGO --To the amazement of many, Toyota failed to reinvent the pickup truck Thursday. The 2007 Tundra -- the biggest and most powerful pickup Toyota has ever built -- has all the features and capabilities to be a formidable new competitor for warhorses like the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge Ram when it goes on sale early next year.
The company's U.S. sales boss dubbed Tundra's debut at the Chicago Auto Show as "the most important product announcement we've ever had." But it revealed no revolutionary new features that would redefine what consumers expect in a big pickup.
"It's not the breakthrough I expected," said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific, an industry consulting company based in Tustin, Calif. "It'll be a good seller for Toyota, but it doesn't change the landscape."
Instead of a breathtaking new idea -- like the under-bed trunk the Honda Ridgeline wowed buyers with last year -- the Tundra will hit the road with the same virtues that have made Toyota the most formidable automaker in the world -- "the time-tested quality and durability of Toyota," company U.S. sales chief Jim Press said.
That will certainly win it buyers, said Rebecca Lindland, an auto industry expert for Global Insight, a Lexington, Mass., consulting company. But it's likely not enough to lure owners away from Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge, which dominate full-size pickup sales.
Toyota says it expects the Tundra to keep some of its current owners from moving to those brands, however.
It did not reveal specific price, power or payload figures for the Tundra, but top models of the new truck will feature a 5.7-liter V8, six-speed automatic transmission. The Tundra's key dimensions are very similar to corresponding models from Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge.
Toyota expects to sell about 200,000 of the new Tundras during the pickup's first full year on the market and around 300,000 annually once production gets up to speed at the Princeton, Ind., and San Antonio plants that will build it.
That compares with about 100,000 sales a year of the old, smaller Tundra and a record of just over 126,000 in 2005.
"The incremental sales will come from people who want a pickup for the weekend," Lindland said. "I don't think the hard-core pickup buyer is going to abandon Ford, Chevy and Dodge."
However, the traditional Detroit carmakers have a much bigger problem with young buyers who grew up with Toyotas and have no allegiance to the F-150, Silverado or Ram.
"That sound you hear is Toyota eating Detroit's lunch with Generation Y," she said.
Toyota started developing the new Tundra seven years ago with the painstaking approach that has made many of its vehicles benchmarks for other automakers.
Toyota has tried to crack the full-size pickup market for more than a decade with little success, and Nissan didn't even dent the Big Three's sales when it introduced its Titan pickup.
The size, power and specifications for the new Tundra were set in 2002, and executives signed off on the aggressive and unique design in January 2005.
Continued... http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006602100423
But Tundra isn't a knockout
February 10, 2006
CHICAGO --To the amazement of many, Toyota failed to reinvent the pickup truck Thursday. The 2007 Tundra -- the biggest and most powerful pickup Toyota has ever built -- has all the features and capabilities to be a formidable new competitor for warhorses like the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge Ram when it goes on sale early next year.
The company's U.S. sales boss dubbed Tundra's debut at the Chicago Auto Show as "the most important product announcement we've ever had." But it revealed no revolutionary new features that would redefine what consumers expect in a big pickup.
"It's not the breakthrough I expected," said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific, an industry consulting company based in Tustin, Calif. "It'll be a good seller for Toyota, but it doesn't change the landscape."
Instead of a breathtaking new idea -- like the under-bed trunk the Honda Ridgeline wowed buyers with last year -- the Tundra will hit the road with the same virtues that have made Toyota the most formidable automaker in the world -- "the time-tested quality and durability of Toyota," company U.S. sales chief Jim Press said.
That will certainly win it buyers, said Rebecca Lindland, an auto industry expert for Global Insight, a Lexington, Mass., consulting company. But it's likely not enough to lure owners away from Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge, which dominate full-size pickup sales.
Toyota says it expects the Tundra to keep some of its current owners from moving to those brands, however.
It did not reveal specific price, power or payload figures for the Tundra, but top models of the new truck will feature a 5.7-liter V8, six-speed automatic transmission. The Tundra's key dimensions are very similar to corresponding models from Chevrolet, Ford and Dodge.
Toyota expects to sell about 200,000 of the new Tundras during the pickup's first full year on the market and around 300,000 annually once production gets up to speed at the Princeton, Ind., and San Antonio plants that will build it.
That compares with about 100,000 sales a year of the old, smaller Tundra and a record of just over 126,000 in 2005.
"The incremental sales will come from people who want a pickup for the weekend," Lindland said. "I don't think the hard-core pickup buyer is going to abandon Ford, Chevy and Dodge."
However, the traditional Detroit carmakers have a much bigger problem with young buyers who grew up with Toyotas and have no allegiance to the F-150, Silverado or Ram.
"That sound you hear is Toyota eating Detroit's lunch with Generation Y," she said.
Toyota started developing the new Tundra seven years ago with the painstaking approach that has made many of its vehicles benchmarks for other automakers.
Toyota has tried to crack the full-size pickup market for more than a decade with little success, and Nissan didn't even dent the Big Three's sales when it introduced its Titan pickup.
The size, power and specifications for the new Tundra were set in 2002, and executives signed off on the aggressive and unique design in January 2005.
Continued... http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006602100423
Take that Toyota Chevrolet is going to kick your a** .
