All that, and as mentioned, Toyota's Tundra has not proven to be any more well-built or reliable than GM or Chevy... in fact, as mentioned ENGINE PROBLEMS plague the Tundra V8's, and the usual laundry list of squeaks/rattles, poorly designed or built trim pieces, etc.

For instance, my friend w/ the 2002 Tacoma 4x4 had to get the factory-installed fender flares replaced 4 times, and each time they warped again. Trivial? Perhaps.... and GM and Ford have these minor issues too....

My point being, don't buy a Toyota truck thinking it's more reliable or somehow better built than a GM or Ford. All you'll end up with is a truck that cost as-much or more, is smaller, has less power, and will be a slower seller on the used market....

Ask any used car dealer in the United States and they will universally tell you that the fastest selling vehicle on a used lot is a Chevrolet Truck. That says even more about buyer brand loyalty than even new car sales do.

-Michael

 

Not to worry, I can't pronounce "guion"

(BTW, it's "sigh-on".)

 

Just think "Dion", but with a Ge (not Gee) instead of "De".

Oh, hell. Maybe "Guy" is easier.

 

Toyotas aren't perfect, but they sure have a lot of people convinced. The Tundra was far from perfect - no detents for door hinges, early electronic transfer case difficulties - but it's a decent product. Moreover, people who've had good experience with lesser Toyotas are "movin' on up," and the Tundra keeps them in the fold.

The Nissan Titan is a far bigger threat though. Nissan is following a brilliant strategy by offering only extended and crew cabs. They chosen to ignore the "Farmer Bob" market by not offering a stripped V6, 2WD regular cab value leader. Why make low buck models when you've got limited production capacity?

Moreover, they're going to be the first manufacture to offer a factory bedliner, and first with available stability control. For all of the people who've been complaining about the lack of the 6.0 V8 in non-HD half ton Chevys, the big-5.6-liter-DOHC-only-V8 Titan is the answer. It be worse for the domestics when the Titan based SUV drops in another year or two. It will be replacing the Nissan Patrol, a Land Cruiser type vehicle that's currently sold just about everywhere except the U.S.

It seems like Nissan has learned from all of Toyotas mistakes, hence the bigger motors, bigger vehicles, etc. My advice to GM is to move the product cycle forward for their cash cow full-sized trucks and SUVs. It's fine and dandy to redesign the Grand Prix in 2004, and then again 2-3 years later, but there isn't any money in it. If vehicles like the Tahoe and Silverado loose market share, you can kiss the development budget for a F5 Camaro goodbye.

 

When do the new Gen IV V8s for trucks come out?

 

GM is going to kick the ever-loving **** out of the Nissan truck.

On volume alone GM can offer much higher feature content for much less money.

Toyota, although they don't know it yet, is in for a 12 pack of whup-***. Their home economy is in shambles, GM is making money hand over fist in the US, and they simply can't compete in the rebate wars.

So, this American engineer says:

"Bring it on, bub."

 

Take the rose-coloured glasses off. Margins are high enough in the pickup truck market that Nissan can still make a profit even with a higher unit cost than Chevy or Ford. This will allow them to establish a beach head from which they can learn the nuances of the market and expand their share. They have no place to go but up. Remember that GM's only source of profit is trucks, whereas the imports are very profitable selling cars. Trucks will be gravy to them.

As for Toyota, they made far more money in North America than GM did, even at less than 1/2 the market share and a far higher proportion of supposedly lower-profit cars. They choose not to compete in the rebate wars because they've been increasing market share while still offering but a fraction of GM's rebates.

I wouldn't be surprised if Toyota is the world's largest automaker in 15-20 years' time.