Sens4Miles

Toyota Camry: Can it Beat the Ford F-150?

After years as the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., the F-150—and other pick-ups—will soon cede top spots to cars like the Toyota Camry

Could the Toyota Camry become the best-selling vehicle in the U.S.? It could happen, if sales keep falling for large pickups, and cars keep climbing up the list of Top 10-selling vehicles.

The Camry is already the No. 1-selling car in the U.S. market and has been for 10 of the past 11 years. The one exception was Honda’s (HMC) "Accord") in 2001, according to Automotive News. But for all that time, full-size pickups from General Motors (GM), Chrysler, and Ford (F) outsold the Camry and every other car by such a wide margin, it seemed that pickups could never be knocked from their perch.

Above it all, the Ford F-150 and its ancestors have been the best-selling vehicles in the U.S. for 26 years in a row, and the best-selling truck for 31 years in a row, according to George Pipas, Ford’s U.S. sales analysis manager.
Closing the Gap

But as the big domestic pickups have fallen and Camry sales have slowly improved, the Camry has been closing the gap. For the month of April, the Camry outsold the perennial No. 2 overall, the Chevrolet Silverado, something that’s never happened for a full year. The Camry has outsold the Dodge Ram pickup since 2006, at first by only a few hundred units in a full year, but this year by more than 50,000 after only four months.

Nobody until recently thought Toyota Motor (TM) would outsell General Motors worldwide, either, yet that happened last year.

In the U.S. market, gas prices, the housing meltdown, and changing consumer tastes have all combined to drag down sales of large pickups. The same high gas prices have made fuel-efficient cars more attractive, especially gasoline-electric hybrids like the Toyota Camry Hybrid. The hybrid model accounts for the entire 2008 improvement in Camry sales overall. The all-hybrid Toyota Prius isn’t in the overall Top 10 yet, but it’s knocking on the door, and it was a Top 10-selling car last year. On May 15, Toyota reported for the first time that it had sold more than 1 million Priuses.

As recently as 2004, the year gas prices started to spike, Ford sold more than 900,000 units of the F-Series pickup, outselling the Camry by more than 2-to-1. In 2008 the F-150 continues to outsell the Camry, but only by about 30% through April. That’s still a lot, but if the present trend continues and the F-150 stays in free fall, those lines cross within the next couple of years, and the Camry will outsell the F-150.

Fighting for the Top

Ford is going to do everything it can to keep that from happening, starting with the launch of a redesigned F-150 this fall, for the 2009 model year. And Ford has had some success of its own in other product segments, including the revived Ford Focus small car, which has reached the Top 10-sellers list this year.

The Focus was redesigned last fall for the 2008 model year, just in time to take advantage of the U.S. market’s move to small cars and away from big trucks. The trouble for Ford and its domestic rivals is that it takes several small cars to make up for the revenue and profits from one big pickup.

Besides the switch to smaller vehicles, consumers are opting for smaller, less powerful, more efficient, and less profitable engines as well, said Mark LaNeve, vice-president of GM North America vehicle sales, service, and marketing, in a May 1 conference call.
Small Is Beautiful?

"In the last few months, when a customer has a choice of a 4 [-cylinder] or a 6, a 6 or an 8, we’ve been seeing a shift to the smaller engine. It was particularly sharp in the month of April," he said. For instance, he said the 6-cylinder model mix is higher for the Cadillac STS.

LaNeve said GM would stick to its strategy of trying to keep a lid on incentives and fleet sales at the risk of losing market share. Ford has made similar comments. LaNeve said pricing for full-size pickups and SUVs is "inelastic." That suggests demand is so low that only the most drastic incentive would work, and GM doesn’t want to go there.

"The full-size truck market seems very inelastic. We’re not going to try and buy it [sales volume]. We’re going to try and stay competitive as we can," LaNeve said.

"Two of our biggest segments are full-size pickups and SUVs. We’ve got great product, great brands, we’re gaining share, and our dealers know how to sell them," he said. "But we’re losing volume, and that makes our numbers tough."

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyl...516_263921.htm

Stormwind

It should be able to do so very easily now with gas price going at $4.11 premium and diesel at $5.22 locally, and looks like it is going to keep going up.

SoCalSC4

I could never understand American's love for the pickup. Okay, I get it, we all used to be farmers and live in the sticks - but do that many people really need a truck in this day and age? Everyone wants to drive a big-rig, I guess. "What's your twenty, come on back?"

I'm assuming fleet sales are included in the F-150s sales numbers? It's just so strange, we seem to see more Chevy/GM pickups here in SoCal than Fords. A friend of mine bought a new F-150 a year ago and a few local friends were giving him crap because the Chevys (the older body style at the time) have more power and seem to get equal if not better economy. The 4.6 V8 Ford uses in the F-150 is a gutless turd!

Most of the modified pickups (lifted/lowered) seem to be of the GM variety, almost nobody does anything to the F-150s... a few guys lift the F-250s (and bigger), but not the 150s. Maybe there are so many I just don't notice them?

Of course, now new & used truck sales are in the toilet, so it will be interesting to watch resale values and new sales trends.

SLegacy99

I must say that I am impressed with the Camry hybrid. What a great product, especially since gentle driving can get you 40+ HWY MPGs.

I definately think Camry will be more popular this year than last year. I have a friend who's parents have not one, but TWO Tahoes. They are looking to dump one an exchange it for a 4 cylinder Camry as they do quite a bit of commuting between PA and Iowa. Too bad no one wants the Tahoes now.


I never understood either. I love my fuel savy, sporty, agile, AWD sedan. Not fan of the truck or SUV. If I need space Ill get a wagon.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

If someone has never lived in a semi-rural or rural area, and has any amount of land (an acre or more, say) they probably won't "get it".

And that's why most F-150's have the 5.4L V8 which is plenty powerful enough. But I think my V8 Explorer has the 4.6, which with 300HP is plenty powerful enough to get around. I've no need or desire to drive the Explorer like a Porsche.

I would rather have a root canal than sustain the boredom of the scenery and a 4 cylinder Camry from PA to Iowa.

Again, if you don't have land, or live in a rural area, you probably don't need more than a wagon. Even when I lived in a 'nice suburb' my wife had to bring home dozens of bails of pine straw and (shudder) we jammed a bunch into our (then) RX300! Poor thing. In our (now) F-150 we can throw dozens of bails in the back, although where we are now (on some acres in a rural area) we just have a nursery FILL the back bed with pine bark mulch and then shovel it out when we get home. Try doing that in a station wagon.

Again, if someone's on acreage they may well have a trailer and have to tow a heavy mower or tractor, or in my wife's case, a horse trailer. Forget it in anything but a full frame pickup, if you value your vehicle and safety.

You city slickers...

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

I've never had any issue renting a truck when I (very rarely) needed one. If I'm going to buy an occasional use vehicle, I'm going to buy something fun, not utilitarian. That's why I still have my Supra. I've also driven from Baltimore to Sacramento in a 4 cylinder Camry. It was none too quick up the hills, but it got awesome gas mileage - nearly 500 miles on a tank.

Bean

iTrader: (1)

Do they have a stat that shows the percentage of fleet sales the F150 numbers comprise of?

ISF84

Definitely the biggest reason for this is because of the increasing gas prices...but I think also a big reason for this drop in ranking is because American car manufacturers have greatly improved the quality of their cars in recent years, so maybe the trucks are lasting longer now, thus resulting in fewer re-purchases. ::two cents::

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

OK, lemme splain this a bit more...

Where I live we don't have trash pickup. We have a place nearby you take trash too - 2 giant compactors and I guess daily or whatever they haul away these huge dumpsters to a landfill. Beyond just 'garbage' though this place is neat cuz they have loads of recycling dumpsters too for cans, bottles, batteries, metal, etc., etc. They also have a place for big stuff (appliances), yard waste, and other stuff.

Anyway, the point is, we go there twice a week I'd guess. Gee, for obvious reasons we don't want to take garbage and all the rest of that in a CAR or SUV! So in the back of the F-150 it goes. No problem. The trunk bed is has a spray on linex liner, so it's no problem whatever we throw back there.

Can't rent a truck each time we need to do that!

My wife has a horse and we also have 2 dogs and a cat. Horse eats a BUNCH so wife brings home bales of hay now and then plus HUGE bags of feed (also bags of feed for dogs and cat), plus bags of shavings for the stall, and other assorted stuff. Yep, that evil truck comes in very handy for all this!

We have a lot of trees. Occasionally I have to trim said trees and I'm always amazed at the VOLUME of the branches, leaves and twigs once I've trimmed even just one tree. Guess what, we take all that lot in the truck bed to the place I mentioned above. Tried burning it before but can get a bit wild, especially right now since it's UBER dry. Sometimes it's many truck loads and ain't no way I'm going to rent a truck for this. Besides I expect a truck rental place is probably 20 miles away.

By the way, I don't live in complete wilderness - I'm 9 miles from interstate I75 where the main 'town' is and there's stuff (stores, businesses) closer than that of course.

People who live in homes in the burbs or condos / apartments can't relate because they don't have to 'haul' stuff very often, but there's MILLIONS of people like me who do. Between those and the MILLIONS of businesspeople that need a truck for work, well that explains why a lot of trucks are still sold. And I bet sales are down more because of weakness in business than gas prices - businesses are just hanging on to their old trucks longer.

SLegacy99

My parents take their trash in my mom's RX.

Stormwind

Problem solved. And the only emmision is plant food.

Faraaz23

I understand Bit's point about living in a rural area. However, with this styling coming on the redesign:



I am not sure if they are going to keep sales up. We may see defectors of the non-loyalists to other brands. Heck, I even know Ford Truck guys who say this 2009 one is Ugly.