Texas Car Reviews

Toyota Now 3rd Largest Truck Maker in US

Posted on 25. Feb, 2009 by TJ Houghton in Toyota Truck

Combined sales of the Tundra and Tacoma surpassed Chrysler in 2008.

According to 2008 sales numbers crunched by PickupTrucks.com, Toyota edged out Dodge in total pickup sales and is the country’s third-largest pickup retailer.

The PUTC numbers show Toyota totaling 281,904 units sold in 2008. That includes Tundra and Tacoma sales. Dodge was credited with 271,884 units between Ram and Dakota sales.

GM led all manufacturers with 743,346 units followed by Ford at 586,016 units sold in 2008. According to PUTC, overall pickup sales totaled 2,003,294 units, which is down 26.5 percent compared to 2007 numbers. Total industry sales came in at 13,240,294 units, which is down 18 percent from the previous year. Penetration by pickup trucks slipped from 16.88 percent of the market in 2007 to 15.13 percent in 2008.

Leading the Toyota charge was Tacoma, which sold more than twice as many units as its nearest market-segment competitor. Tacoma’s 2008 sales totaled 144,655 units to hold a stunning market share of 36.84 percent. Following Tacoma were the Ford Ranger at 65,872 units (16.78%), Chevrolet Colorado at 54,346 units (13.84%), Nissan Frontier at 44,997 units (11.46%) and Honda Ridgeline at 33,875 units (8.63%).

Ironically, the Ford Ranger used to outsell Toyota compact truck 2-to-1 in the ’90s. Now Tacoma has reversed the trend to dominate the compact/midsize market. Overall compact/midsize sales were down 24 percent from 2007 numbers while Tacoma fared much better with a 16.5 percent drop.

Full-size pickup sales plunged 27.1 percent in 2008. Tundra’s market share held up better than Ram or Titan, both of which lost nearly 1 percent share. Tundra’s market share slipped only 0.37 percent.

In other late-breaking news, General Motors says Pontiac will not sell the 2010 G8 ST car-based pickup (see Approach Angle #203). The ST would have been built on the Australian Holden VE Ute platform. GM was showing the ST as late as the San Diego Auto Show in December before making the announcement in early January.

Also, Automotive News reported in early January that Mitsubishi will stop selling the Raider pickup after the 2010 model year. The Raider sold only 2,900 units in 2008, down almost 65 percent from 2007. The Raider was built by Chrysler for Mitsubishi and based on the Dakota platform.

Jim McNatt Toyota
4100 S. I 35 East
Denton, TX 76210
940-239-6401

To learn more:
http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2009/01/2008-year-end-t.html