In Cartersville, Ga., Ford dealer Eddie Cochran has just a few new full-sized trucks left on his lot. Dealer incentives are a big reason. (Patrik Jonsson/The Christian Science Monitor)
A hybrid? Forget it, say rising number of pickup buyers.
Sales of trucks at some dealerships jumped by more than 30 percent in December.
By Patrik Jonsson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor/ January 22, 2009 edition
Reporter Patrik Jonsson talks about a Montana writer who drives a pickup truck, but wouldn't mind something more fuel-efficient.
Reporter Patrik Jonsson
Cartersville, Ga.
In these days of climate change and personal penny-pinching, US automakers are showcasing their new, socially conscious wares: smaller, more fuel-efficient, and hybrid vehicles, designed for a greening economy.
In Cartersville, Ga., Donald Ray, a shiny Bluetooth earpiece clashing with a scraggly beard, has other plans. “I’m a truck guy,” he says, inspecting a used Chevy Silverado short-bed rumbling in idle at a lot here.
Thanks in large part to $10,000 dealer incentives and (relatively) cheaper gasoline, buyers are creeping out of the deep woods and urban jungles, emptying dealer lots of a gritty, gas-guzzling American icon: the full-size pickup truck.
With all other car-sales categories as flat as a mall parking lot, sales of trucks at some dealerships jumped by more than 30 percent in December – usually the slowest month of the year. In fact, dealers reported sales matching or surpassing figures from late 2007 – before the Wall Street meltdown, the freezing of credit markets, and the federal bailout of Detroit’s Big 3.
Hope for the economy
The return of truck buyers represents at least a glimmer of hope for a battered economy – a cautious sign of rising consumer confidence among rural mud-jumpers and urban latte-haulers. But it also presents a paradox for a country that, post-auto-industry bailout, has a social and financial stake in the survival of domestic car companies: Can Detroit afford to ignore the apparently enduring appeal of what country singer Shane Yellowbird lovingly calls “my old pickup truck”?
“The problem isn’t as much the people who need the truck for work, but it’s the people who haul lattes home from Starbucks who have been the prized customers of Detroit,” says Daniel Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign in Washington, which lobbies for higher fuel-efficiency standards. “These are people for whom the pickup is a vestigial piece of the past – it’s a lifestyle choice, not something they need.”
“There are two real crosscurrents here,” he adds. “There’s a tendency in Detroit to want to do things the way they’ve always done them, and that’s brought them to the edge of bankruptcy. The risk is that they take a dip in gas prices as a signal that they needn’t change their ways.”
Along with Thailand, where the modified pickup known as the songthaew is a major people-mover, the US is the world’s pickup-truck megapower. Created in 1925, the pickup has come to embody not only America’s self-reliance and work ethic, but also the pastoral longings of suburbanites. The truck’s evolution from work vehicle to suburban cruiser, in fact, is what brought trucks like the Ford-150 to the top of the US sales charts.
F-150 still reigns
That love affair hit a rough patch last year. But even with Ford delaying the rollout of its 2009 truck models, the venerable F-150 still topped the overall sales charts for 2008, followed closely by the Chevy Silverado. Market share for large pickups started at 12.3 percent at the start of 2008, fell to 9.3 percent in May as gasoline became expensive, and rose to 13.8 percent in November, as fuel slipped back to 2001 prices. In January, large pickup trucks led all other categories in consumer consideration, as gauged by searches on Edmunds.com.
“The pickup truck is a uniquely American invention, so for those with an impulse toward nationalism it’s kind of a natural way … to endorse American consumerism in a tough environment,” says Allen Jones, a Bozeman, Mont., novelist who uses “every square inch” of his 2001 Dodge truck for hauling stuff from hay bales to boat trailers.
Conclusion: From the potato plains of Idaho to the edges of the Barnett Shale gas reserves in Texas, American workers are still betting on their trucks. Here in Cartersville, Troy Cline, a grocery store clerk and freelance landscaper, has owned trucks forever and currently captains a faded 1986 Ford F-100. But the sight of a used Silverado brought him to a dealer lot this week for a potential upgrade.
“The economy is tough out here, but there’s still construction going on and people are still working,” he says. As for his own search for a new vehicle, he says, “Owning a truck is kind of a guy thing. It’s sitting up high, above the fray.”
Mr. Cline has plenty of company.
“I have several customers that I’m trying to find trucks for right now: a farmer, a realtor, and a local businessman,” says Keith Watkins, general manager at Heritage Chevrolet in Lugoff, S.C.. “They’re willing to start spending their money again, and that’s really exciting for us.”
And in Wichita Falls, Texas, Patterson Auto Group CEO Paul Tigrett notes a trend: Instead of trading in their trucks, many consumers have added a fuel-efficient car to their personal fleet. About 60 percent of his customers use their trucks for work, he estimates.
“If you’re a plumber or in the air conditioning business or whatever along those lines, you’re not going to show up at a job site in a Yugo,” says Mr. Tigrett. “You’ve got to have a truck.”
Role of incentives
Economists, however, caution against reading too much into the truck sale surge. For one, Detroit is practically paying customers to take bloated inventories off their hands, relieving pent-up demand.
What’s more, the fundamentals of the auto industry overall point to a continued slowdown in sales this year.
“Incentives and lower gas prices suggest that there’s still some life in the truck market, but it is still swimming against these overall national and global trends,” says Martin Zimmerman, Ford’s former chief economist and now a business professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Then there’s the crux for Detroit: How to balance investments in smaller, more-efficient cars against the American love affair with the big ride? In the past, Washington has been leery about imposing stricter fuel-efficiency standards on Detroit automakers and higher fuel taxes on drivers, lest they dampen enthusiasm for the high-profit truck series that has largely sustained US automakers.
But that conventional wisdom is likely to be challenged under President Obama, who has argued for tougher fuel-efficiency standards to reduce carbon emissions by 10 percent in 2020. Moreover, the Washington bailout raised the political and social stakes inherent in the survival of the Big 3.
The recent spike in truck sales is “a major reason why we have not tried to rely on gas prices to move cleaner, more-efficient vehicles into the fleet,” says Mr. Becker, in Washington. “[Automakers] work for us now, and they need to be much more concerned about the air we breathe and the atmosphere our children grow up in and the oil addiction that their vehicles promote. They now have a social responsibility that they failed to recognize before.”
But trying to use tougher federal or state emission standards to force Detroit to build vehicles that Americans ultimately may not want is likely to be counterproductive, says Jeremy Anwyl, CEO of Edmunds.com in Santa Monica, Calif. Offsetting a higher gas tax with federal rebates for purchasing high-efficiency vehicles, he argues, would be far more likely to wean Americans from their love affair with big trucks.
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Comments
3. David Skogley | 01.23.09
Americans have to get used to driving smaller vehicles (and to driving less). I’ve lived in Germany for almost 20 years and have seen how well people cope with smaller cars and trucks, and to using public transportation. It’s not necessarily a sacrifice. The government has to play a more active role in curbing people’s appetites for gas-guzzlers, especially as the fuel prices will not stay low for long. And I don’t believe it’s right to put all the blame on the car companies for building big vehicles and not looking to the future. They were building what the consumers wanted. Maybe Americans will only buy smaller vehicles when the big ones are no longer available.
4. Justin Newman | 01.23.09
Personally, I think those who think Detroit should “make smaller cars” are missing the point. The cars that *really* sell well are cars like the Hybrid Escape: those that may not be the largest on the block, but are healthy in size, let people haul all the stuff they bought on credit, and don’t involve too much of a vehicular trade-off.
5. Ian C. | 01.23.09
There is a glaring oversight in the medium to small truck market both as developed by American automotive companies and imported from overseas. While it remains true that many people utilize large trucks, there are many others who could happily suffice with a smaller model. Many truck owners, especially of the “hard working American” variety will quote adamantly about using the “right tool for the job”, yet in many cases they are forced to buy a large truck due to its hauling or towing capacity. In much of the rest of the world, these same requirements are met by providing more options across the whole line of trucks, and in many cases vans. One notable example of this is the absolute dearth of medium to small diesel trucks since the 1980s, while both American and other companies sell a number in Europe and elsewhere. Also, the phasing out of work vans like the Chevrolet Astro and the Ford Aerostar, while both still in high demand, production has ended leaving many with no option but larger work vans.
Some would argue that both of these choices on the part of the American automotive companies may be due to lower profit margins or government regulations. Whatever the argument, they have resulted in an overwhelming use of a larger, more expensive and less efficient tool for many doing smaller jobs.
6. jcoleman | 01.23.09
try putting a 6′2″ frame into a honda and driving for any distance, american’s are a physical larger people than most, the real problem to all of this,is the surpession of technology to improve fuel econ or to even replace gas as a fuel. try buying a 3 or 4 cyl diesel, tubro charged or not these vehicles( cars as well as trucks) exceed 50mpg, NOT ONE MANUFACTURER OFFERS THESE HERE, in europe and the rest of the world, a group of college students at berkley used all off the self parts and technology, and constructed a vehicle that is very drivable, styleish and exceeds 100 mpg. now if a group of college kids can do that, with current tech why can’t detroit BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT TO. vw Rabbit diesels got in excess of 55 mpg back in 88 and now they want u to believe they can’t do better. which is why were heading down this road now. Even the hydrogen cars their making still require gas, we need to get away from petro fuels all together, on top of helping or stopping the warming trend going on in the world, it would help many trouble spots by reducing or stopping all together the flow of monies to some very bad people and force countries to build eceonmies, instead of drilling holes in the ground for their funds.
7. Dave Wesely | 01.23.09
I can fit a 4×8 sheets of plywood or drywall (in fact I have fit 4×10 sheets of drywall and 16 foot long lumber) on my small SUV. I could even do it with my car. It’s called a trailer. When I’m done with it, I unhook it, fold it up and roll it into a 2×5 spot in my garage. The trailer works better than a large pickup bed because it is completely flat without wheel well humps. And it only cost me $250, not $30,000.
8. James | 01.23.09
Re: “When you can fit a 4×8 sheet of plywood in a smaller truck, call me.”
OK, what’s your number? I routinely haul 4×8 sheets - plywood, insulation, siding, etc - in my ‘88 Toyota, not to mention loads of firewood & such. Worked construction for years, doing the same with a ‘78 Datsun & ‘74 or so Toyota. Take a good look at your bloated-on-steroids “full-sized” pickup some time: the bed’s maybe a few inches wider, but no longer than the smaller imports. It’s often shorter, if you’ve got a crew cab. Face it, most “full-sized” pickup buyers are just spending their money for sheet metal as testosterone replacement therapy.
9. Coyotefred | 01.23.09
Bradford | 01.22.09
When you can fit a 4×8 sheet of plywood in a smaller truck, call me.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
You know I hear they make this really cool thing called a TRAILER in various sizes that can be used to haul such things by a variety of vehicles and can even be folded away for storage!
10. Amy S | 01.23.09
What Detroit needs to offer when it comes to pickups is a good light duty hybrid truck with a full sized box. I loved my little Ford Escort but it is hard to fit a queen size mattress or plywood in it or to haul an appreciable amount of cement blocks in it. And it might be easy to drive less in Europe where countries are the size of states and there isn’t a real rural landscape. In Iowa only the big cities or college towns such as Council Bluffs, Ames, Sioux City and Des Moines have any bus systems. Trains used to connect all the small towns but the tracks were ripped up in the 50s and 60s. You can’t use public transportation until it is available.
11. Jon | 01.24.09
Tom Friedman is the same guy who said Steve Jobs should run a car company. He lives on some planet, but it’s not earth.
12. Zac in CA | 01.24.09
Justin, I think you’re close - the problem here is not making smaller cars, but moving away from needing cars altogether.
Cars are, by nature, less sustainable than something that doesn’t run on oil, or coal, or what-have-you, so what we’re eventually going to see is a car-free existence if we’re ever going to *really* get past the economic and environmental short-sightedness of our culture.
This is going to take a while to do, of course, but I bet you that Wal-Mart has about fifty years of life left in its current state, at the very, very most. When cheap oil doesn’t exist anymore, trucking is going to be very different, if it exists at all anymore, and so big-box national stores like that won’t exist anymore.
13. cameron greer | 01.24.09
Given that most contemporary pickups, especially the four-door models, are really little more than a crowded 3 or four passenger sedan with a larger than usual open trunk and the delusion that a lot of suburban buyers have that they’re actually getting a “truck” this story is not surprising. In terms of actual truckness I’d put my old ‘72 K-10 Chevy four wheel drive with its manual four speed up against any of them except of course in ride comfort, air-conditioning not of the 2/60 kind, power windows not of the armstrong variety, leather upholstery or a mobile home sound system.If anyone wanted a description of one of the major dysfunctions in this country this story illustrates it as well as anything I can think of.
14. Knarf | 01.24.09
Uhg… the stereotypes. I’m a latte hauling suburbanite I guess, funny, I use my truck all the time as do most of my neighbors who have them. Ever visit a Lowe’s or Home Depot on a Saturday?
I guess I should not buy coffee, then I’ll be Ok as a truck owner?
Maybe some day when I’m rich I can afford a fleet of purpose specific vehicles and a huge place to store them. Until then, one needs to serve lots roles which my truck can.
15. Oped Klark | 01.24.09
Congress has always had the ability to force high mileage cars on people. Raise the gas tax to $2 per gallon as it is in much of europe. People would demand better mileage. But of course this would be seen as a recessive tax and would never happen.
16. William Brand | 01.25.09
The solution is to produce plug in hybrid pickup. The chervolet volt project should a replacement for the silverado! Pickups are able to hold a heavy weight. Let that weight be a large battery located under the bed. The low end torque pattern of electric vehicles should match the load carrying pattern of commercial vehicles. Larger pickups are also good candidates for the hydraulic hybrid design.
17. Paco Verin | 01.25.09
Why hasn’t cylinder shutoff technology been applied to trucks?
When the bed is empty, or no trailer is attached, it could run on 4; when real work needs to be done, it could run on 6 or 8.
Bring it on, already!
18. BEN | 01.28.09
I enjoy my diesel truck. Look at the facts, less greenhouse gasses than a gasser. Since 07 they are cleaner than you could imagine. I will own my diesel forever because biodiesels availability will become a reality in the near future. Close the door on ethanol and lets invest in a real solution to homegrown fuel, biodiesel. I also get 21 mpg on the highway. Thats pretty good for a truck that can pull 20k lbs when I need to. Also, I have to be honest, I will never give up on driving a truck. Its just a bad addiction I can’t quit.
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1. Olivia | 01.22.09
Suggestion: Everyone who is in the market for a new car — or truck — might want to read Tom Friedman’s “Hot, Flat, and Crowded” first.