If you build a better mousetrap, people will buy it.

In the case of the popular four-door configuration, Toyota was late to the party and missed a big opportunity to lure domestic truck owners when it finally arrived in late 2003.

Toyota found that more than half the customers who rejected the Tundra said it did not offer the configuration they needed or that the dealer did not have the right model in inventory.

Another major reason for rejection was the Tundra's low towing capacity. The new model, with more configurations and higher towing capacity, will address both those concerns, Bastien says.

Toyota also loses some rural customers because it lacks a nearby dealership. Toyota has about 1,200 dealerships, compared with 3,800 for Ford, 4,100 for Chevrolet and 2,900 for Dodge. Toyota is adding rural satellite dealerships to appeal to farmers and ranchers. But that plan is expected to add a couple of dozen stores at most.

Then there's the matter of overcoming generations of brand loyalty to Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge, observes Leonard Northcutt, who owns Toyota and GM dealerships in Enid, Okla.

"There is a large cultural difference between Toyota and GM customers," Northcutt says. His Tundra sales are predominantly to Toyota loyalists.

Toyota builds the Tundra in Indiana and Texas. But, Northcutt says, "Buy American" sympathies are less important than product attributes.

Toyota could start a price war. Its profits are so large, around $10 billion a year, that it could give away free every big pickup it could build and still come out more profitable than what the Detroit companies earn together a typical year, not a year like last year, when GM lost $8.4 billion.

Toyota could start a price war.

Its profits are so large, around $10 billion a year, that it could give away free every big pickup it could build and still come out more profitable than what the Detroit companies earn together a typical year, not a year like last year, when GM lost $8.4 billion.

About one-quarter of trade-ins for Titans are domestic full-sized trucks, said Gene Brown, senior manager for truck model line marketing for Nissan North America Inc.

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Although Power Information Network data show Titan transaction prices as lower than those of the competition, Brown says Nissan's per-vehicle incentives costs for the Titan also are lower.

"We're not going to buy share," Brown says. "We're not going to break the bank to get volume."

Early Ridgeline sales were almost entirely to Honda loyalists, says Tom Peyton, Honda Division marketing manager. But Hondaphiles now account for fewer than one-third of Ridgeline sales, the company says.

Honda is aiming for upscale buyers. Most conquests are young families coming out of an SUV or a minivan, Peyton said.

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"Going after Ford or Chevy is not my primary focus."