[Rhodes22-list] New Tow Vehichle

[Slim]

For years I've been knocking around the idea of getting a pickup with a
camper.  I've noticed they seen to have fallen from popularity as I see
fewer and fewer of them on the road.  Why?  Has anyone out there ever had
one?  If so, what did you like or dislike about it?

As further evidence, we have a Ford plant in St. Paul that produces F-series
pickups.  They are presently furloughing workers and have plans to shutter
the whole plant within two years.

Slim

On 8/2/06 7:22 AM, "Brad Haslett" <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> For any of you who may be considering a new tow vehichle for your Rhodes-22,
> now is an excellent time to upgrade.  Here is an article from yesterday's
> Wall Street Journal.  I've been out kicking tires at dealers for a
> replacement for our tired and ragged Ford F-450.  We've decided
> to continuing nursing along what we have until the next tax year but there
> are some great deals out there.  Good luck at the pump!
> 
> Brad
> 
> [image: Search Results for Selected Items]
> August 1, 2006 DOW J... Loadi...
> Loading results
> [image: loading]
>  [image: The Wall Street Journal] <http://online.wsj.com/home>
> 
> August 1, 2006
> 
> 
> By *NEAL E. BOUDETTE* and *JEFFREY C. MCCRACKEN*
> August 1, 2006; Page B1
> 
> 
> ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Carl Babcock, a home builder in this prosperous college
> town, has wanted to upgrade his small pickup truck to a bigger Ford F-150
> for more than a year now, but the thought of filling up with $3-a-gallon
> gasoline has stopped him. And now with higher interest rates slowing housing
> starts, he figures it is better to wait awhile.
> 
> "I would love to go out and buy a new truck, but I will probably just drive
> the one I have into the ground," Mr. Babcock says. Because of gas prices and
> interest rates, he adds, "it doesn't make much sense to buy one right now."
> 
> The Big Three U.S. auto makers, which are already facing plenty of
> challenges, now have another problem on their hands: Sales of big pickups
> are slowing down.
> 
> The pickup-truck business is critical for *General Motors* Corp., *Ford
> Motor* Co. and *DaimlerChrysler* AG's Chrysler Group. Some 2.4 million
> full-size pickup trucks were sold in the U.S. last year -- one of every
> seven new vehicles -- and they generated $67 billion in revenue for the
> industry.
> [image: [Needing a Pickup]]
> 
> Ford and GM typically sell 900,000 or more full-size pickups a year, and
> Chrysler about 400,000; each gets a big chunk of its profit from this
> segment. On average the U.S. auto makers earned $4,000 to $5,200 in gross
> profit on each big pickup last year, the University of Michigan
> Transportation Research Institute estimates. Truck buyers have also remained
> fiercely loyal to Detroit, even as car buyers have defected in droves to
> foreign brands.
> 
> Sales of full-size pickups had been holding up despite higher gasoline
> prices, in part because GM, Ford and Chrysler have raised incentives and
> rebates. Another factor: about 75% of all pickups are sold to contractors,
> builders and other businesses that can't make do with smaller vehicles.
> 
> But now Detroit's cash cow is looking wobbly. In the first half of 2006,
> large-pickup sales fell 10% to 1,104,983. In 2005, pickups made up 14.5% of
> total vehicles sales in the U.S. But that dropped to 13.7% in the first
> quarter and to 12.5% in the second quarter -- a sign that buyers are leaving
> pickups for other vehicles.
> 
> GM's full-size-pickup sales were down about 20% in the first half; the
> company is hoping for a boost when it launches a redesigned Chevy Silverado
> this month. *Toyota Motor* Corp. and *Nissan Motor* Co. have seen declines
> of 10% or more in their full-size-pickup sales, but they are less affected
> because trucks make up only a small portion of their total U.S. sales.
> 
> Ford's F-Series sales are down 2% so far this year, but fell 6% in May and
> 10% in June, drops that forced Ford to speed up a six-month-old
> restructuring program that is slated to close 14 plants and eliminate 30,000
> jobs by 2012.
> [image: [Bumpy Ride]]
> 
> "Clearly the pie, at least in the quarter, for the full-size-pickup segment
> is shrinking," Ford North American head Mark Fields said last week in a
> conference call.
> 
> Auto makers believe "personal use" truck buyers -- suburban cowboys who like
> driving pickups but don't necessarily need them for work -- are now shifting
> to cars or other more fuel-efficient vehicles. Tom Libby, senior director of
> industry analysts for J.D. Power's Power Information Network, noted that 64%
> of pickup owners bought another one when they traded in or sold their
> vehicles in the second quarter. A year ago, according to PIN, the figure was
> 70% and three years ago it was 77%.
> 
> The Federal Reserve's string of rate increases also appears to have slowed
> home construction enough that some contractors are using older trucks longer
> and delaying purchases of new ones.
> 
> Mr. Babcock, the builder in Ann Arbor, says he has enough work but has seen
> other contractors shut down or scale back the number of work crews they
> have. "It's not a good time to pile on additional debt with a new truck," he
> says.
> 
> Because the large-pickup business is so big and lucrative, even a mild
> softening can have major consequences for Detroit. "The domestic brands
> haven't developed strong enough car businesses to carry their brands," says
> Earl Hesterberg, chief executive of Group One Automotive, a large
> auto-dealership chain based in Houston. He says that full-size pickups "are
> the heart of the Ford and Chevy businesses."
> 
> A drop of 10% in large-pickup sales this year would translate into 250,000
> fewer vehicles than in 2005. That is the equivalent of a typical plant's
> annual production. Because Toyota will soon start production at a new truck
> plant in Texas, the industry could end up with significant excess
> manufacturing capacity in pickups, which could force some manufacturers
> either to cut prices or cut production.
> 
> Mr. Libby says the move of buyers away from full-size trucks could be
> "unsettling" for the Big Three because they are likely to move to smaller
> vehicles that generate far less profit, or turn to foreign brands. Some data
> collected by PIN suggest pickup buyers are moving to midsize or compact cars
> -- segments where foreign brands are stronger. Any big move of buyers out of
> pickups "would mean that all of a sudden the whole industry is wide open,"
> Mr. Libby says.
> 
> Ford, which has lost $1.3 billion in North America so far this year, has cut
> its North American truck production by 45,000 for the third quarter of this
> year, largely because of sales drops of the F-series and larger SUVs like
> the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Navigator. That production cut will take a
> chunk out of Ford's earnings and revenue in the third quarter, a period that
> is already the toughest for auto makers because of summer shutdown and model
> changeovers.
> 
> Maintaining robust F-Series sales is crucial to Ford's goal of restoring its
> North American operations to profitability by 2008.
> 
> Ford will launch an even bigger "Super Duty" version of the F-series early
> next year. However, the F-series isn't scheduled to get a full makeover
> until late 2008, meaning it will be one of the oldest pickup trucks on the
> market the same year that Ford has pledged to finally become profitable in
> North America again.
> 
> *Write to *Neal E. Boudette at neal.boudette at wsj.com1
>   URL for this article:
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