GM to intorduce new Midsize truck line

[Richard L]

FoxNew.com

it's David vs. Goliath with all-wheel-drive.

General Motors has announced plans to introduce a new line of midsize pickups next year, returning to a segment recently abandoned by the Detroit Three.

Meanwhile, Ford is expected to unleash an all-new full-size F-150 around the same time that's based on the massive Atlas Concept unveiled at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show.

The trucks from Chevrolet and GMC are likely to be powered by fuel-efficient six-cylinder and possibly diesel engines, while the F-150 will surely feature a turbocharged EcoBoost V6 along with a couple of more traditional honking V8s.



GM says its replacements for the out of production Colorado and Canyon will be able to do 95 percent of what a big truck can do with much better fuel economy, while today's six-cylinder F-150s get better mileage than V6 Rangers did, and deliver 100 percent of what a big truck can do.





Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/04/22/new-f-150-and-gm-midsize-pickups-set-to-face-off-in-2014/?intcmp=features#ixzz2ROZriPYK

If GM has any success, I bet Ford and Dodge will also jump into the game with their own line of Midsize trucks....So maybe the Sport Trac is not dead and may be resurrected in a newly named model?



...Rich

 

[Bob McDonald]

while today's six-cylinder F-150s get better mileage than V6 Rangers did, and deliver 100 percent of what a big truck can do.

That quote just irritates me. It strikes me as arrogant. I don't care if it can do 100% percent of what a big (full size) truck can do. I'll be damned if I will let you bully me into buying a truck I don't want, or need, just so you can continue to brag about how 'best selling' your line of truck is.



I hope the GM offerings are very successful so Ford will pull it's head out it it's butt and offer what the public wants.

 

[Richard L]

Uncle_Bob,

I agree with you 100% It appears that someone is not doing their marketing research and want's to steer eveyone to what their corporation finds most profitable...for them !



...Rich

 

[Ed C]

You also pay 100% of what you pay for a full size truck, actually more if you get the EcoBoost V6.



I just don't want to spend $46K on a truck just to get mulch from Lowe's occasionally...

 

[blksn8k]

Not to derail the conversation but this one has already been discussed a bit:

 

[blksn8k]

Does anyone know if Ford actually reads any of these forums? If not then we are just preaching to the choir. We need to have a voice with Ford.



Most true enthusiasts sites share the same opinion as you folks about Ford not offering anything but HUGE light trucks. There are some exceptions though. I used to frequent blueovalnews.com but not so much anymore. I got sick of reading their corporate fan boy babble. In most of their members' opinions Ford can do no wrong. It doesn't matter if they abandon entire markets like small/midsize trucks, RWD sedans, etc. There is no profit in those markets so therefore Ford is completely justified to ignore their loyal customers in those markets. I call them corporate bobbleheads. They wouldn't recognize enthusiasm if it smacked them in the face. :sad:

 

[Jackson Ellis]

Here's what happened to the Sport Trac. These numbers are for the Explorer. Ford didn't break out the Sport Trac's contribution, but says "20 to 25%" of the Explorer's sales were Sport Tracs. The Sport Trac started in 2000, which could account for the peak that year for all years of Explorers since 1990. By 2010, you can see the model is dying, and 25% of 60K means only 15 thousand Sport Tracs. Ford clearly had to take the Explorer to a car-based SUV to align with where buyers were going. You can see in 2011, sales immediately more than doubled. The Sport Trac didn't fit well with the new platform.



I don't think truck-based SUVs are coming back, so a mid-sized truck with independent rear suspension would have to be it's own animal.



1999 428,772

2000 445,157

2001 415,921

2002 433,847

2003 373,118

2004 339,333

2005 239,788

2006 179,229

2007 137,817

2008 78,439

2009 52,190

2010 60,687

2011 135,179

2012 158,344

 

[Gavin Allan]

Doesn't Dodge still sell the Dakota?

 

[Duane Foster]

Those numbers alone don't tell the story. The falling sales correspond to the Explorer getting larger, and the introduction of the Escape has to be considered. How do Explorer + Escape sales compare to Explorer sales before the Escape?

 

[Bob McDonald]

Another thing to consider was the almost complete lack of any marketing for the Sport Trac other than when it was introduced.



There, again, it was ford's conscious decision to try and bolster the F150 sales at the expense of any potential Sport Trac sales. I couldn't begin to count how many times I had discussions with strangers about my Trac after they saw one for the first time and were amazed that such usefully sized truck was available.

 

[Mark K 2]

An F-150 engineer did an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. I got 187 karma points for proclaiming to him, "Bring the four-door Ranger to North America." :banana:

 

[Jackson Ellis]

The numbers do tell the story. Whether it's from competition from the Escape (Ford was also selling the Edge and the Flex during some of those years) or other car-makers, it doesn't matter; we're talking about the sales of the Explorer and they were dropping like a rock. Sales of the Explorer cut in half three times, and buyers were going away from truck-based SUVs. It seems like every soccer mom in my neighborhood drives a cross-over now.



The Sport Trac was a niche vehicle, being based off an SUV (which started out being based off the Ranger). It doesn't look like a four-door pick-up (at least not to me), and thank God, it didn't look like the Honda Ridgeline. I've said before, that the Nissan Frontier four-door was the only other truck I was considering when I got the Sport Trac, and one Frontier test drive sealed the deal. Those are my opinions, coming from a car guy. I traded in a BMW 335i when I got my Sport Trac. If the Sport Trac weren't around, I probably would've gotten a truck-based SUV, and it most likely would've been a Grand Cherokee, four-door Wrangler, or Nissan Pathfinder.

 

[Larry Logan]

 

[Duane Foster]

My point about the sales numbers was - did Ford hurt Explorer sales by making the Explorer bigger than it's market base really wanted causing some to buy Escapes, Edges, and Flexes?



In the same line of thinking, will Ford hurt it's overall truck sales by offering only full size trucks that are bigger than many people want or need, forcing those who want a smaller truck to go to other brands? In the case of the Explorer, Ford offered other models that bled off Explorer sales. By killing the Ranger and Sport Trac and not offering small alternatives, those buyers will go to the competition.

 

[Richard L]

Duane,

Sometimes you just can't rationalize a rhyme or reason why Ford does some of the things they do?.....I'm not even sure that Ford always knows what they are doing? It might be their selection of models, EcoBoost Engine technology, or something less tangable, but whatever they are doing, it seems to work well. Perhaps its simply the fact that they did not get or need taxpayers bailout money?



...Rich

 

[Duane Foster]

Overall, Ford does seem to be doing well, but they have a long history of increasing the size of a given model resulting in declining sales of that model. The T-Bird, Falcon, 3rd Gen Mustang, Fairlane/Torino, all out-sized their original predecessors. On the plus side, all those models/nameplates had a good long run, aside from the Falcon, and even it lasted 11 model years. The truck situation is different in that they just quit making the small trucks. Even the full sized trucks are much bigger and upscale than they used to be. Around here you can find all the highly optioned 2013 F150 SuperCrews you could ever want to see. But you'd be hard pressed to find a decent selection of stripped down "farm" or fleet type work trucks.



I think Ford will have to bring back the Ranger/Sport Trac in a couple of years, and it will have 4 doors. When I started looking for a truck to replace my '94 Explorer several months ago, I was originally looking for an '01-'04 Super Crew until I walked up to one on a lot and realized how big it really is. They had an '01 Sport Trac too. That's when I realized the Sport Trac was what I was looking for. Didn't buy that one, but the same dealer has another lot down the street where I eventually bought my ST. A lot of people are like me and don't want/need a bigger truck.

 

[blksn8k]

There are a few facts that people like to ignore when talking about Ford's marketing strategies. First of all, if you want to cause a market segment to decline you would be hard pressed to do a better job than Ford did. If you never make any significant updates to a vehicle over a period of eighteen years as in the case of the US Ranger you should not be surprised if sales decline. The Sport Trac did not suffer from lack of updates to the same degree as the Ranger but Ford also did not advertise the ST which also led to declining sales. It should be painfully obvious that Ford wanted to sell F-150s, not Rangers or Sport Tracs. To say there is no market for smaller than full-size trucks is ludicrous. All I have to do is look out my window and see a Ranger in four of my neighbors' driveways and a Sport Trac in a fifth.

One of Ford's excuses has been that the world Ranger that is sold in over 180 other countries does not share a platform with any other US market vehicles. So what? That vehicle is being built in three countries. You can't call that platform sharing? Really? What ever happened to "One Ford"? I guess that doesn't apply to trucks? How can Ford justify selling a few thousand Flex each year? Oh, I guess that's because it shares some chassis parts with the Taurus. Big deal. We are talking about a company that sells about 50 (only a slight exaggeration) different size CUV/SUVs but can only justify one size truck. The silly argument that the world Ranger is 90% the size of an F-150 doesn't hold water either. You can also say that a Fiesta is 90% of a Focus, a Focus is 90% of a Fusion, an Escape is 90% of an Explorer, etc., etc., etc. One size does not fit all in those markets so why should it in the truck market?

 

[Richard L]

I don't know if you can call it poor marketing strategy? I think that Ford tends to market the vehicles that have the most competition, like their full size trucks. Their biggest competitors now seems to be Dodge, CM and Toyota. Advertising is expensive, so if the Market is not in selling midsize trucks, why spend a lot of money on advertising something that nobody wants, and even your competition has dropped their midsize trucks. The Ranger has had a long profitable run in the US and the longer you can avoid retooling for a new model the more profit you get. Car makers know exactly how many vehicles of a particular model they will have to sell to make a profit on that model, and often times it requires several years of sales to start making a profit.



The Ranger continues in other parts of the world, and may eventually make it back to the US if the US market shows interest in GM's or Dodge's new midsize trucks...Ford may want a slice of that pie. Also, the fact that Ford has not announced a midsized truck for the US market does not necessarily mean that they won't have one....Who knows, they may suprise both GM and Dodge with quickly bringing a version of the Ranger back to the US market while GM and Dodge are still talking about a new model?



...Rich