Well the Detroit 3 know how to do at least one thing right, and that's building and selling pickup trucks.
The Detroit automakers completely dominate the pickup segment with 91 percent of the sales.
While Americans are beginning to move towards smaller vehicles, a staggering 20-percent of the Detroit 3's sales are pickups. With foreign automakers capitalizing on small-car sales, if Detroit seeks profit, it needs to fully exploit the full-size truck segment. Pickup trucks, which generally sell for over $30,000, allow automakers a much larger profit margin than small cars.
The full-size truck segment was the most affected by the slowed economy and higher fuel costs. However truck sales are beginning to rebound as the housing market is beginning to rebound, prompting contractors to buy work vehicles. "As a segment, full-size pickups are very dependent on the level of construction and new housing starts," said George Pipas, a sales analyst at Ford.
With industry sales down almost 24 percent, truck sales have suffered even more greatly with a 31-percent decline. U.S. Automakers have been forced into offering over $4000 in incentives to move trucks of dealer lots. That may soon change, as industry analysts are predicting an upswing in truck sales for 2010.
Excited about the upcoming Fiesta, Pipas affirmed that the F-series trucks "will be Ford's best-selling vehicle for years and years and years to come." The F-series has been the number one selling vehicle in America since 1982.
Pickup trucks, through November, have accounted for a 10.8-percent of the total passenger vehicle market share. That figure is down from 15.2 percent, when pickup truck sales peaked in 2005.
source: automobilemag
