When it comes to compact pickups, several automakers are getting ready to rumble over the small but growing demand for these lifestyle-oriented trucks.
In this corner: the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon—GM’s traditional compact, body-on-frame pickups—continue to grow sales and increase market share. And in the other corner, the unibody Honda Ridgeline is expected to continue its cultlike status with an all-new 2017 model and pent-up demand after being out of the market for two years.
In training for a shot at the title: the anticipated return of the Ford Ranger in 2018 and a Jeep Wrangler-based pickup due about the same time. Still on amateur status awaiting green lights are Hyundai’s Santa Cruz and a Ram compact pickup.
There are the perennials: the belt-holder Toyota Tacoma and the Nissan Frontier. And over in Europe, Mercedes-Benz is developing a pickup—yes, Mercedes-Benz—but it is a commercial vehicle with no current plans to step into the ring here in North America.
The midsize truck segment, which had almost been given up for dead, is undergoing a resurgence in the U.S. market. The Tacoma, Colorado, Canyon, and Frontier accounted for almost 40,000 U.S. sales in April. That’s only a drop in the bucket compared with 194,000 full-size pickups, but it was an impressive 26 percent jump in demand. Through the first four months of the year, small pickups garnered 135,000 sales compared with more than 700,000 full-size trucks, but demand for small trucks is up 17 percent while demand for big trucks, which have more entries, has only increased by single digits.
The compact-truck segment should continue to grow with new entries, although no one is quite sure where the ceiling is for customer demand.
And at the heart of the comeback is the debate over whether these trucks should be traditional body-on-frame construction or switched to a unibody truck on a car platform. Two very different fighting styles.
Let’s review the card.
Toyota Tacoma
The Tacoma, Toyota’s contender in the U.S. since 1995, took the title from Ford in 2005 and has kept the belt ever since.
Toyota introduced a redesigned Tacoma for the 2016 model year to keep GM’s new fighters at bay. The third-generation truck got a stronger body and frame, a new 3.5-liter V-6 engine, a new six-speed automatic transmission, more room in the bed, and greater towing and hauling capability.
Sales hit almost 180,000 in 2015, easily outselling Toyota’s larger Tundra. Tacoma sales are up 14 percent so far this year at 62,700, and the truck had a strong April with more than 18,100 sold, a 16 percent increase.
Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon
GM made the two nameplates for the U.S. from 2004 to 2012 and brought back new versions for the 2015 model year.
“People said it was stupid to go into the segment,” said Mark Reuss, GM’s product chief. “We did the math.” They saw sales potential for a smaller truck that fits in the average garage, has a shorter turning radius, and offers a way to make inroads on the West Coast—where GM saw a lot of Toyotas and Nissans on the road while it struggled.
Now the Colorado is going for the title with April sales of almost 10,400, up an impressive 26 percent. Canyon tossed in another 3,000 monthly sales. So far this year, GM’s decision to return to the segment for the 2015 model year netted 43,600 sales.
Being the first domestic brand back in the market is a huge advantage, said Alan Batey, president of GM North America. “There is a lot to be said for first-move advantage,” he said. “We have a window of opportunity to capitalize on.”
Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, has said he is not surprised by how well GM’s midsize trucks are doing. “I’ve always been bullish on different-size vehicles.”
The Colorado, which starts about $21,000, was Motor Trend’s Truck of the Year for 2015, and the Colorado diesel took the award in 2016.
The Canyon gets a top-end Denali version this fall.
Ford Ranger
This could be the biggest challenger. After staunchly denying it would ever bring the Ranger back to North America, news leaked out of the UAW negotiations last fall that the Ranger is coming back starting in 2018, and its home gym will be the Michigan Assembly Plant.
Ford knows how to win this bout: It sold almost 350,000 Rangers in 1999 and held the segment title for 18 years—until 2005, when Toyota’s Tacoma scored the knockout. Ford retired its aged fighter in North America in December 2011 after 29 years in the ring. A new-generation Ranger continues to sell well in the rest of the world.
Ford is mum on details, but the expectation is that North America will get the next-generation body-on-frame Ranger. The dimensions could be different than the truck sold elsewhere in the world (the Ranger Wildtrak is shown here).
When GM’s Reuss heard Ford was bringing the Ranger back to the North American market, he was not surprised. “I knew it would happen, but they would be late to it,” he said, knowing it took GM two and a half years to redesign their global pickup for sale in North America.
Nissan Frontier
Don’t give up on this fighter yet. Sales were up 29 percent in April to 7,500, and they are at 29,000 year-to-date. Not bad for the old guy in the group. We are anxious to see what the next-generation truck can do and when it will bow. With a new full-size Titan on the market, the Frontier can’t be too far behind.
Honda Ridgeline
After taking two years off, the 2017 Ridgeline is back on the card, and its fans couldn’t be happier. This is the second generation of the car-based unibody truck with a plastic bed that made its debut as a concept at the 2004 Detroit auto show and was deemed sacrilege by the Big Three big-steel truck makers. But among a segment of buyers, its design and concept were ultracool.
The new Ridgeline looks much more trucklike but still provides the handling and fuel economy its buyers like as well as clever truck bed storage. It comes with a 3.5-liter V-6 engine and six-speed automatic transmission and is now offered with front-wheel drive as well as all-wheel drive.
Honda is proud of the niche the Ridgeline occupies. It is a lifestyle truck that can still be on a construction site, “but it’s the architect driving it,” said Jeff Conrad, Honda’s general manager.
Built in Alabama, it goes on sale with a starting price above $30,000.
Jeep Wrangler pickup
Jeep brand chief Mike Manley has wanted a pickup back in the Jeep lineup for as long as we can remember. He is more than pleased that after Jeep introduces the next-generation Wrangler in late 2017, a pickup will follow.
“It shows you can continue to revisit these opportunities, and when the time is right you get the resources you need,” he said. “I think we will get significant volume from the pickup truck. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Jeep made pickups from 1947 to 1992 and has teased its fan base with a number of concepts over the years, including the Crew Chief 715 concept shown here.
Ram compact pickup
Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, said in March that the Ram brand needs to expand into the compact pickup segment. FCA has been without a compact fighter since the Dodge Dakota was retired from the card after the 2011 model year. What is not decided is if the brand needs to return to body-on-frame construction or revive past plans to create a unibody lifestyle truck.
It is an idea with a long history. Chrysler showed the Dodge M80 pickup concept at the 2002 North American International Auto Show, and the automaker even started construction of a plant in Windsor, Ontario, to build it. But FCA financials went south, a business plan to sell it for $16,000 proved elusive, and the truck program was killed in May 2003. The shell of the unfinished assembly plant in Canada has since been razed.
But the idea has lived on, and somewhere in Auburn Hills is a stack of feasibility studies from past years. In 2009 Chrysler explored replacing the Dodge Dakota pickup with a small, car-based lifestyle pickup designed to be affordable and fuel-efficient. It never materialized. The idea has come up many times since Marchionne became CEO.
And the business case is being vetted yet again. Marchionne said he is considering a return to the midsize Ram pickup. “We’re looking into it,” Marchionne said. “I have a keen interest in getting it done. The big question is whether it should be body-on-frame.”
Hyundai Santa Cruz
Hyundai showed the Santa Cruz lifestyle pickup concept at the 2015 North American International Auto Show to test the waters for a small, unibody-construction truck. Reaction was overwhelmingly positive to the concept that came out of the Ann Arbor R & D facility, and engineering work continued. Hyundai North America CEO Dave Zuchowski is waiting for official news out of Korea that the truck is a go. It would ride on the underpinnings of the new Tucson, and combined volume might be enough to justify a North American assembly plant to build the two models. The Santa Cruz would be priced to compete in the $20,000 range. If it can be done, Zuchowski thinks Hyundai can sell 50,000 to 70,000 a year. Development time is three or four years.
Mercedes-Benz pickup
Mercedes-Benz has been working with Nissan to develop a pickup based on the Nissan Navara. It’s to be built in Spain and Argentina and go on sale in South America, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Europe as early as late 2017. Although spy photographers have snapped the camouflaged truck—which might be called the X-Class—we expect a proper unveiling in the fall at the Paris auto show. Initially it appeared the body-on-frame would be a work truck with no plans for sales in North America, but Mercedes executives have made a few coy comments that suggest it is not impossible that a higher-end version makes its way here someday—perhaps built in Mexico in order to dodge tariffs.
The post From Ford and Jeep to Mercedes and Beyond: More Compact Trucks Getting Into the Ring appeared first on Motor Trend.
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