Autoblog

While the big news story surrounding 2007 sales is that Toyota passed Ford as the No. 2 best-selling automaker in the U.S. last year, there were plenty of interesting battles happening between individual models, as well. The truck segment, though shrinking, is still the most competitive in the U.S. market, and 2007 saw the most serious challenge yet to the domestics' market dominance with the introduction of the 2007 Toyota Tundra.

While the F-Series pickup retained its title of Best-Selling Truck for the 31st year in a row (also the Best-Selling Vehicle in the U.S. for the 26th year in a row), its sales fell 13.2% to 690,589. And to think, the F-Series' best-selling year ever was just three years ago in 2004 when it sold 939,511 units. Give the F-Series credit, however, for retaining its No. 1 position despite a brand new Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra on the market. GM's new GMT900 trucks did help the automaker mitigate a similar sales slide, with sales falling only 2.8% to 618,257 for the Silverado and 1.2% to 208,243 for the Sierra in 2007. The Dodge Ram also did well despite the shrinking market, with sales off just 2% at 358,295.

The Toyota Tundra, however, is the story the year...

Follow the jump for more analysis and the raw sales numbers for trucks sold in the U.S. last year.

[Sources: Ford, GM, Chrysler LLC, Toyota, Nissan]

Earlier this year, the CBS show Cane was the seventh most searched new fall show. Since then, we haven't heard anything about it, neither good or bad. That changed this week when someone at CBS had a Homer moment ("D'oh!") and ran a story-spoiling commercial before the plot had run its course on the show.

On the show, cut to: Jaime taking off in a Chevy Silverado into a cane field, being chased by his father, Alex (Jimmy Smits in the lead role), and getting caught in a fire set by a rival. Fade to black. Cut to commercial: a Chevy Silverado bursting through a wall of flames, and a narrator asking "Did you think that stunt with the Silverado was hot?" Cut to viewers asking: "Uh, what the...?"

But come on -- was this really a plot spoiler? Because you really thought it possible that the main character and his son were going to die in a fire in the show's first season? Really? CBS, in fact, did get one angry call. And with that, probably lost the one ardent fan of Cane.

[Source: Winding Road]

Promising the best possible fuel economy for whichever type of vehicle its customers choose, GM's Bob Lutz and Ed Peper trotted a full lineup of green vehicles from their arsenal. The Aveo5, Impala E85, Malibu Hybrid, Tahoe Hybrid, Silverado Hybrid, Volt, Equinox Fuel Cell, Beat and Groove were used to show off that Chevy will be the brand carrying the greenish flame most prominently into the future for GM. Lutz talked about having a whole range of options available to meet future trends, from hybrids, to flex-fuel burners, to fuel cells, to electrics like start/stop technology and good old-fashioned economy cars that get great fuel economy.

Click the image above for more "Big Red"

Even though Chevy denies buyers a Z71 version of the Silverado 2500HD, it wants you to know how cool it could be. Say hello to "Big Red," powered by a 6.6-liter Duramax diesel backed by a six-speed Allison transmission, it combines a number of GM performance accessories with Rancho shocks and an "Earnhardt Red" paint scheme similar to that found on last year's NASCAR-legend inspired offering.

Chevy's full press release is posted after the jump.

GM has bucked the domestic trend of consistently giving up market share to Japanese automakers for the past couple months, and with a new round of incentives, the General is hoping to keep the trend going. The Silverado and GMC Envoy are among the vehicles receiving an additional $1,000 in rebates during the entire month of October. GM is using targeted incentives on trucks and SUVs, but the incentives don't apply universally throughout the lineup.

Although GM's sales improved year over year in September, incentives were actually down $240 vs. August, to an average of $3,089 per vehicle. That's still $800 more than the industry average, but better than GM's incentive spending in years past. With GM's market share stabilizing, incentives closer to industry average, a competitive labor contract, and some interesting products in the pipeline, GM may have turned the barge faster than we expected.

[Source: Bloomberg]

General Motors had a good August, bucking the industry trend with a year over year sales increase. A big part of that success came with zero-percent financing on the Silverado and GMC Sierra, and the General is looking to ride the wave by extending free loans through October first. GM isn't stopping with pickups either. Several 2007 models are getting an additional $1,000 on the hood, including the Yukon, Impala, and G6.

GM has done a pretty good job of staying off incentives through 2007, but the last few months have been brutal. Even some automakers from across the Pacific, who traditionally shy away from cash on the hood, have felt the pinch. GM hasn't announced additional production cuts, but if the incentives don't work, the Detroit-based automaker may have little choice.

[Source: Detroit News]

Even with two all-new models on the market, pickup truck sales have been dragging for a few months now. The battered housing market and high gas prices have been blamed for the slump, but incentives seems to be remedying the problem in quick order, and have resulted in a great month of sales for August. Sales of large pickups last month accounted for 14.89% of the overall market according to this report, a 20-month high in market share for these work horse vehicles. J.D. Power and Associates reports that automakers spent on average $4,500 per truck in incentives last month, the largest amount since July 2006. This tells us that truck buyers are getting hooked on incentives, and the pickup truck segment as a whole is becoming more and more reliant on the sales practice to move its metal into buyers' hands.

[Source: JD Power & Associates]

Click image to enlarge

We have no information on this other than the image you see here, but pictures say a lot, and this one says that ROUSH is about to spread some of its performance pickup love over to General Motors in the form of the ROUSH Silverado. A poster at the CamaroZ28.com forum snuck a cameraphone shot of an official sketch and published it on the website. As you can see when you enlarge the photo, there's a pretty concise legal disclaimer at the bottom, and if we had to guess, someone is definitely going to get fired for this rather significant security breach. Either that, or ROUSH has deftly embraced viral marketing. Here's hoping for a blown 6.2L under that domed hood.

UPDATE: We have spoken to ROUSH, and they can only confirm that the Silverado depicted above is "a project that we are evaluating."

Thanks for the heads-up, Josh.

[Source: CamaroZ28.com via TheGMSource]

The housing crisis is being blamed for decreased truck sales. In light of the credit crunch, fewer loans are being disbursed and fewer construction workerss are actually at work. With GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado sales taking the hit, GM has decided to cut a shift at its Oshawa, ON plant in Canada. In a factory that employs 3,000 people, that's a direct loss of 1,000. The indirect job losses won't be known for a while, as GM's suppliers and the businesses around the plant make cuts of their own. It represents the first time the plant has run just two shifts since the early nineties.

The move is more regrettable news for the CAW following Ford's closing its Windsor plant and Chrysler's plan to shed 2,000 union jobs in Ontario. With 85% of the Oshawa plant's output coming south of the border, the 7% drop in sales for the two trucks has made them especially susceptible. The potential light on the horizon is that GM plans to build a state-of-the-art factory next to the Oshawa truck plant to build 500,000 cars per year -- but only after closing one of the two car plants that are currently there. It's quite a fall for the region; GM's Oshawa Plant No. 1 was the most efficient plant in North America in 2004.

Thanks for the tip, Peter!

[Source: Report on Business via Auto North]

Vehicle sales are slow throughout the US right now, and a slumping housing market coupled with high gas prices means that trucks and SUVs are being hit extremely hard in particular. Large truck and SUV sales are down 9% through July year over year, and GM has halted overtime at six locations to help keep its large vehicle inventory under control. Workers from Flint; Oshawa, Ontario; Ft. Wayne, IN; Janesville, WI; Arlington, TX; and Silao, Mexico will need to punch out after completing eight hours work. GM wants to be sure inventories of its all-important large trucks don't get too high, which could necessitate higher incentives if available stock gets out of hand. GM looks very serious about keeping cash rebates in check, even with the possibility of a strike looming next month.

[Source: Freep]