Autoblog

If you've been holding your breath in anticipation of General Motors redesigning its trucks and SUVs, you're probably going to pass out so start breathing again. According to reports, it's gonna be a while. GM has announced that it's postponed any planned redesigns of its pickups and SUVs to a future date sometime beyond their previously planned 2012 redesigns. What'll it do with the extra time and money? Pouring over its entire product lineup to provide the most fuel efficient vehicles possible to a demanding public. The General announced the move in response to this drastic consumer shift away from trucks and SUVs.

GM isn't the only automaker to make product decisions based on the current vehicle market, as Toyota, Honda, Ford and others have all announced that they are shifting their lineups to include more fuel efficient vehicles. If you haven't noticed, $4-a-gallon gasoline seems to have changed the auto industry in a big way overnight. Thanks for the tip, Mike!

[Source: Yahoo]

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.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Following the lead of Japan's other two big-time automakers, Toyota and Honda, Nissan has just announced that it too will be cutting truck production to focus on cars. At its Canton, Mississippi plant, Nissan will cut in half the number of shifts for workers assembling Titan pickup trucks and Armada full-size SUVs. On the flip-side, the automaker will add a third shift for production of the Altima mid-size sedan, which should allow it to keep its workers on the job. This move is not surprising, as passenger cars have been outselling their truck brethren handily in these days of record high gasoline prices. Ford, which has a new F-150 set to go on sale shortly, has offered employee pricing for its trucks, while General Motors recently announced that it would be idling four plants that produce trucks and SUVs and may rid itself of the HUMMER brand entirely. Dodge, for its part, is offering cheap gas and big incentives as a ploy to get consumers interested in its pickups. Unfortunately, it's not as easy for our domestic automakers to switch plants from producing trucks to passenger cars as many are older facilities that weren't built with flexible production in mind.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

If there were any doubt left that the gas-guzzling truck market was laying an egg, we have proof that it's ready to hatch two. A truck market-savvy bird has declared a lifted, red 2008 F-150 as its new home, and the feathered creature left two eggs on the truck's cowl as proof of residence. The avianic animal likely chose to put its nest at the base of the windshield of a jacked-up pickup to keep said offspring away from predators, but little did it know that the pickup will probably not be leaving the lot anytime soon. Ford of Orange County has roped off the truck, and the environmentally friendly dealership isn't accepting any orders for the pickup until the eggs have hatched and the youngins have flown the coup. There you have it, the full-size truck market is officially for the birds (rim shot). Check out more pics at the source below. Thanks for the tip, Kevin!

[Source: OCRegister, Photo: JOSHUA SUDOCK]

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.

[Sources: Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota, the Auto Channel]

A tight credit market, slumping construction, an economy on bed rest, an end-of-model year, and high gas prices mean one thing for pickup trucks: lots of brand new trucks waiting for buyers. Dealers trying to shift their 2008 Dodge Rams before the 2009s arrive are taking as much as $13,000 off the bill to try and convince buyers to come forth. That means you can get a Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab SLT 4x2 for $19,995, instead of $32,795.

With consumers being more picky about what and when they buy, it also doesn't help that dealers really don't want trade-in trucks either, since they can't do anything with them. What Dodge dealers hope for now is that Chrysler will manage the build-out of the 2009 models to give them a chance to get rid of the 2008s. Chrysler says it has a plan that will keep it competitive and keep the changeover orderly. For now, the Ram is the most heavily discounted vehicle out there.

For a dealer in Ohio, the matter of 120-day inventories really comes down to gas prices. "Until we get gas under three bucks a gallon," he said, "these pickups are not going to move." We're sure that no one wants that to be true, because if it is, there will be brand new 2008 Rams on showroom lots for a long time.

[Source: Automotive News, sub req'd]