Well i assumed this would be coming withing the next year, didn't realize it would be this quick.

17+ Year reign finally gone.

 

I'm sure they will still be number 1 for the year... this is just one month....

people may be waiting for the 09's to hit the lot before they buy.

 

Yeah, but it's not because there not a well built vehicle, it's all about the gas right now.

 

Oh I know its the gas but how long can this truck remain number one when $4 gas is the norm.

 

I think things are going to go back to the way they were 20 years ago. You bought a truck as a work vehicle and not as a means of daily transportation, save for smaller trucks like a Ranger. Maybe this means we'll see the return of real work trucks onto the dealer lots. You know, ones with vinyl floors instead of carpet, crank windows, manual door locks and a basic AM/FM radio.

 

Its still #1 in my books for sure yeah its all cause of the mental gas prices

 

I doubt it. The Escort was a pretty good little car and always sold well, but they dropped it anyway because they didn't make enough money on it. Work trucks are the same way--not enough profit margin. Ford pretty much threw the low end of the market away, the only shot we have of a basic work truck today is if Kia starts building one.

 

The year is going to be brutal. The 2009 F-150 will arrive with a "thud", worse than the new GM trucks did last year. Titan and Tundra sales are slumping, too. The difference is that those companies did not get lazy and rely totally upon truck and SUV sales for profits, but a balance of cars and trucks. Honda, who looked a bit lame for only offering the Ridgeline and not "real" trucks, is getting quite a laugh right now. Because it is based on a car-like platform, they rapidly converted an assembly line back to passenger cars.

Jim

 

I recall an acquaintance car salesman once saying "I'm not a car salesaman. I'm an options salesman. Nobody makes any money from the sale of the base car. It's the options that rake it in."

 

I couldnt have said it better myself. The gas prices are going to force people to ask themselves if they really need a truck or if they just want one.
A lot of people are going to realize they dont really need a truck and are going to pick a car for the gas milage.
Thats the way it used to be and IMO, as long as gas is over $3 a gallon, thats what its going to go back to.

 

Detroit delivered the kind of vehicles that people wanted. We Americans love our fullsize trucks and SUVs and back when gas was $2 a gallon we didnt mind that those vehicles only got 10-15 mpg. Now that gas is up around $4 a gallon, you are seeing people taking a real hard look at what their needs are and many of them are chosing gas milage over what is "cool".
You cant blame Detroit for delivering the vehicles their customers wanted, its the same thought that Nissan and Toyota had in mind when they came out with fullsize trucks and SUVs.
Detroit will adjust their lineups and will offer vehicles that are more fuel-efficient and that will cater to what their customers want.
Ford has plans to increase the production of their more fuel-efficient vehicles and GM recently announced plans to totally revamp their small car lineup.
Dont think that the gas prices are going to be the end of the Detroit 3. They will adjust their lineups and they will survive.
Its going to be more a matter of turning public perception. The Detroit 3 (namely Ford and GM), need to exploit the fact that they get just as good of gas milage and their quality is just as good as anything from Asia. A lot of people still think that if you want quality and gas milage you must buy Japanese and thats no longer the case.

 

Selling more cars instead of more trucks will certainly put a big dent in the profit margin of any OEM, especially Ford. Many car models have been loss leaders for Ford and GM.

 

Ford didn't get caught with thier pants down this time. They are already big into the crossovers and they have a vast supply of small cars to pool from in europe. There just scaling back truck prodution and increasing small car and crossover production. There bringing the fiesta back to help out. There are rumors flying that it could be the end for the hummer from GM.

 

While it's true that the demand was in trucks and SUVs, Detroit put out some real crap up until just a few years ago. Even the trucks and SUVs had quality problems and the cars were nothing to write home about.

Now Detroit is putting out some good stuff, but the damage has been done. Asian brands have a very good reputation in the general public's mind and domestics do not. It will take a long time for people to turn around and warm up to Detroit again.

What's worse is that Asian brands are still putting out quality vehicles that people want and are familiar. Everyone knows what a Camry, Corolla, Civic, or Accord is. Few know the difference between Fusion, Millan, Focus, Cobalt, Malibu, 500, Taraus (other than the old ones), etc. So the same people that love Toyota or Honda for example are going to keep buying them until something sours them on that brand.

Mike

 

You could say that the notion that the Asian brands are still putting out quality vehicles is debatable. Toyota has had a lot of issues with the transmissions on the Camrys. Not to mention all the issues that the Tundras and Tacomas have had. Lets not even get into the increase in recalls that Toyota has had lately.
Every year, the domestics are narrowing the quality gap. Ford has tied Toyota is 2 recent initial quality surveys and Chrysler recently beat Toyota in an efficiency study.
IMO, the Asian brands aint what they used to be.