Outdoor enthusiasts and urban cowboys get some love from Ford this year in the form of the Blue Oval's first-ever Cabela FX4-edition F-Series and the latest Harley-Davidson tie-up -- the first time ever the Bar and Shield logo has appeared on the heaviest-duty F-450 model. Apparently, Ford has found that 76-percent of F-Series buyers hunt and fish, hence the newly expanded relationship between the automaker and the outdoorsy retailer. Consisting mostly of a paint and badge job, the Cabela buyer gets his or her choice of five two-tone paint schemes: Ebony, Oxford White, Forest Green Metallic, Royal Red Metallic and Silver Metallic -- all with Sterling Grey Metallic lower accents along the rocker panels, running boards and wheel arch moldings. For the twelfth iteration of the Harley-Davidson edition, Ford will put blue-flames along the length of the vehicle and on the black leather seats. Also included are large chromed vents just aft of the front wheels. Expect plenty of Harley logos all over the truck, though a photo has yet to appear. Along with these two new models, the Super Duty trucks receive an optional spray-in bedliner from the factory, an integrated trailer brake controller, the new Ford Work Solutions suite, Voice-Activated Navigation System with SIRIUS Travel Link and the heavy duty trucks first application of SYNC.
If HUMMER had a theme song, it'd probably be the Allman Brothers' Whipping Post -- the one that goes "Sometimes I feel, sometimes I feel, like I been tied to the whipping post..." The brand has been the go-to effigy when something needs to burn on the altar of eco desecration. But HUMMER doesn't have a theme song, it has the tagline "Like No Other." It also has a new pick-em-up truck we had the chance to drive recently in the High Sierras: the H3T.
The Volkswagen pickup codenamed "Robust" has been caught testing again, this time in the U.S. They aren't too different from these spy shots, both sets showing that VW is not going for any kind of flash with its newest pickup. At one point, the regular cab version was speculated to have buttresses, but we'd be surprised if there was that much difference between it and the dual cab. This hauler is about nothing other than good, solid -- and probably cheap -- transportation. Even the name "Robust" will be changed by the time it's introduced, probably to something like Plain White Pickup.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently performed side crash tests for the first time on small pickups. Their sampling included the Toyota Tacoma, Dodge Dakota, Ford Ranger, Nissan Frontier and Chevy Colorado. The results were published today and they indicate that small pickup owners might want to start wearing helmets while driving.
The IIHS has only three grades for its crash tests: Good, Marginal and Poor. The Dakota, Ranger and Frontier all earned Marginal ratings, while the Colorado could only muster a Poor rating due in part to the moving barrier actually coming in contact with the dummy's head during the simulated crash. The Tacoma, however, was the only vehicle to earn a Good rating. It was also the only small truck tested with side air bags, which are an option for 2008 but will be standard equipment on 2009 Tacomas.
If side airbags are an option, the IIHS will, as a rule, test a vehicle without them unless an automaker wants to rerun the crash test with a model that has side airbags and is willing to pay for the cost of the vehicle that's crashed. Not unsurprisingly, the archaic Ranger was the only small pickup that doesn't offer side airbags at all, though it was surprising that none of the other automakers requested their models be tested with side airbags. The IIHS also tells us that small pickups have the highest driver death rates of any vehicles on the road, which makes these tests all the more significant.
The full-size pickup truck woes continue to worsen, leaving even mighty Toyota little choice but to slow production of its Tundra model. In fact, Toyota's brand new plant in San Antonio that was built just for the Tundra will be shutting down a total of 14 days between now and October. Full-time workers at the plant will be able to use vacation days, take the time off unpaid or find something else at the plant to do while the assembly line is halted.
Unfortunately, temp-to-hire workers aren't so lucky. Two-hundred employees who were hoping to land full-time positions at the plant will be laid off this summer. Toyota spokesman Mike Goss says, "We have a very long-term view of that factory in Texas. We're trying not to overreact. We're trying not to shut it down." Whoa... back up. Shut it down? We hadn't heard any such thing until it was spoken by Goss. Sounds like things are just as bad for Toyotas with beds as they are for pickups from Detroit.
Another victim of the downturn in sales of full-size pickup trucks was revealed today as Dodge will be closing its Saltillo plant in northern Mexico for a period of two weeks. The plant produced nearly 170,000 Ram trucks last year. Yesterday, Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli indicated that Ram production would need to be adjusted to reflect weak customer demand, and this seems to be the adjustment. According to reports, the plant was idled on Monday and its two-thousand workers are set to return to work on June 23. Last month, sales of the Ram fell by an alarming twenty-five percent. We'd imagine that the last thing Chrysler wants is a large stock of unsold 2008 Ram trucks as it readies the 2009 model, which will thankfully get somewhat better fuel mileage.
Dodge is certainly not the only automaker finding it tough to move large pickups off dealer lots. Both Ford and GM have placed large incentives on their pickups and Toyota, Nissan and Honda have or will shift truck production to passenger cars at plants capable of making the switch.
Audi went through it in the '80s. Jeep went through it a couple years ago. Other makers have been accused of it, and now it's Toyota's turn: the NHTSA is considering investigating Tacoma pickup trucks from 2004-2008 due to claims of unintended acceleration. In one instance, a man said he turned off his cruise control to exit the freeway, and the truck surged on him, forcing him to dodge a few vehicles -- even as he had his foot on the brake pedal.
Toyota says there is nothing wrong with the Tacoma's drive-by-wire system. The trucks that have been inspected have not shown the error codes Toyota would expect if the throttle and accelerator pedal were out of whack. The company wrote to the NHTSA and said, "Toyota believes that it is likely that many of the consumer complaints about the general issue of unwanted acceleration ... as well as many of the complaints about this subject that have been received by Toyota, were inspired by publicity."
We can't comment on the claims of unintended acceleration, as we have no idea if they are true or publicity driven. But we can wonder out loud why the brakes suddenly don't work. No matter what a car does -- even at full power -- the brakes should still do their job. After Audi's debacle, the NHTSA conducted a 2-year investigation of the issue and found nothing wrong with those cars, and everyone who sued Audi lost in court. Perhaps the folks in Tokyo should make time for a call to Ingolstadt.
We've been waiting for General Motors to step up to the plate with its own incentives now that Ford has offered employee pricing on its F-Series trucks and Dodge has offered $2.99 fuel to go along with its various incentives for the Ram. It seems that GM has finally anted up and increased the incentives for the Silverado, Avalanche and Sierra trucks, along with the Tahoe, Yukon, Escalade and Suburban. The pickups all get $2,000 in customer cash to go along with an extra $3,000 if you already own a GM product for a total of $5,000 total off the sticker price. Those shopping for an SUV will even get an extra grand. In what may be an even larger sign of the times, for the first time ever GM's hybrid Tahoe and Yukon get $4,000 off, but only if you already own a product from the General.
If you want to get in on the savings and don't mind guzzling some gas, you have until June 7 to make it to your nearest Chevrolet or GMC dealer. No rush, we doubt there'll be a line.
It looks like the fuel crunch is starting to hurt Ford's pickup sales too. We already heard that GM is about to close plants and is considering killing spinning off HUMMER because of lower demand for trucks, and now we find out that Ford is dropping their prices to help move some trucks. Our By The Numbers post for May showed that the full-size Ford F-150 recently slipped from its perch at the top of new vehicle sales for the first time in 17 years! In fact it fell to fifth place behind Accord, Camry, Corolla and Civic, so it appears that it's time for some incentives. Rather than fuss with rebates, Ford is bringing customers into the family and extending employee pricing on all new F-Series sold in June. Actually, you can still use the existing rebates on top of the new lower base prices, which makes it a great time to buy one if you really need a pickup. Starting today, all F-Series trucks in the program should be sporting new MSRP addendum stickers showing the new lower prices. The offer covers F-150, F-250 and F-350 models excluding the Harley Davidson and chassis cab models.
Could the reign of Ford's F-Series atop the sales charts in the U.S. come to an end? Some believe that it could indeed happen, and it's not even another pickup truck that is threatening the Blue Oval's bread-and-butter full-size pickup, it's the Toyota Camry. Let that sink in for a moment... alright, let's continue. The Camry already posted better sales numbers than the Chevy Silverado, the perennial second-best seller to the F-Series, for the month of April. In fact, the Silverado suffered a sales drop of 24.7 percent to 37,231 units while the Camry grabbed 40,016 sales in the same month. Still, even after the Camry's great sales month, the Silverado holds the edge when the entire year-to-date sales numbers are compiled, and the F Series still sits atop the list for now. Consider too that the Ford truck will get a major redesign for the upcoming model year. So, while high gas prices will likely continue to put pressure on full-size pickups, let's not jump to hasty conclusions just yet.
