America is going truckin’.
From mothers who use their mini-vans to lug kids around to executives who enjoy the image of a pickup, all seem to be pursuing a mix of utility and style that only trucks satisfy. Americans’ love affair with the automobile is fast being supplanted by its passion for trucks.
Consider the evidence:
– For the third year in a row, five of the top 10 selling vehicles in the U.S. are trucks, including three of the top five.
– Last year, light-truck sales more than doubled those of cars: nearly 13 percent compared with 5.6 percent.
– Mini-vans, pickups and sport-utility vehicles are selling so fast that their sales record set in 1993 was shattered in the first 11 months of 1994.
Trucks account for more than 40 percent of all U.S. vehicle sales, up from less than 25 percent in 1983. Surging truck sales allowed automakers in 1994 to post their best year since 1988.
“I think there’s a bit of rebellion in the mass of people buying automobiles,” said Arvid F. Jouppi, auto analyst at Keane Securities. “It started with the mini-van, and now the latest trend is the sport-utility vehicle.
“The four-door sedan is a symbol of the old automobile industry,” he said. “Trucks are replacing a lot of what we would call the standard automobile.”
The crossover of car buyers into trucks is not new; it has been happening for more than a decade. But product enhancements, demographic changes and new kinds of buyers have rid trucks of a blue-collar image.
“A lot of the old notions that the truck is some kind of work vehicle is now a stereotype,” Ford analyst Joel Pitcoff said.
Trucks include compact pickups such as the Chevy S-10, mini-vans such as Chrysler’s Dodge Caravan and compact sport-utility vehicles such as the hot-selling Ford Explorer. All are defined as trucks by federal regulators, based on their chassis, weight and towing capacity.
Even the traditional full-size pickups, such as the Ford F-Series, aren’t just the workaday trucks prominent for most of this century. Comfort is in.
Automakers have redesigned truck interiors to make them more car-like, with features such as cupholders, compact disc players and cellular phone outlets. Softer rides and air bags also have made trucks more acceptable to more drivers.
“While they are still trucks, they certainly don’t act like it,” said Jim Wangers of Automotive Marketing Consultants Inc., a Detroit consulting firm.
With trucks looking and driving like cars, it’s no surprise they have been redefined from a blue-collar need to a mass-market want. A 1993 Ford study showed that 70 percent of truck buyers never used their vehicles for work.
The crossover market has been led by Baby Boomers. In the early 1980s, they spurred the growth of compact and subcompact car sales. But now as their children grow older, Boomers are more interested in the roomier and more versatile mini-vans, Pitcoff said.
Take the Hays family of Wilmore, Ky. With two children in high school and both playing sports, the Hayses needed something with more space to haul the kids and their equipment. So they traded in their Mercedes-Benz for a Ford Aerostar mini-van.
“I miss some of the luxury of the Mercedes,” said Dr. Barry Hays, who operates animal clinics in Nicholasville and Danville. “But the Aerostar lends itself better to our needs than the Mercedes.”
With more than 1.2 million sold, mini-vans represent more than 20 percent of the light-truck market. But the mini-van boom has shown signs of slowing, analysts said.
The hottest segment of the truck market is the sport-utility vehicle, led by the Explorer. Ford also has the top-selling compact and full-size pickups in the Ranger and F-Series trucks, respectively.
“We love trucks,” Pitcoff said.
The attraction of the sport-utility vehicle can be traced to Americans’ longing to return to their Wild West roots, said Gerald Celente, founder of the Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y. The trend parallels the rising interest in country and western music.
“People who are buying these vehicles are making a much more emotional than practical view,” Celente said. “You don’t need these things to traverse rough terrain.”
Fueling this appeal has been truck ads’ liberal use of Old West symbols. Also, take a look at the names of these vehicles: Explorer, Blazer, Yukon, Laredo, Cherokee, Pathfinder. They evoke images of adventure and the frontier.
This appeal is not limited to men. Nationwide, auto dealers report seeing more female truck buyers.
Truth is, most truck buyers, men and women, don’t go anywhere or do much with their trucks that they couldn’t in a car. They love the idea that they could if needed.
Melissa Patrick of Salyersville, Ky., owns a 1995 Chevy S-10 Blazer and says she sees her truck as more of an all-around vehicle. She can carry more passengers or go off-road when she has to.
Safety is critical to Mary Sue Huffer of Lexington because she hauls around her 19-month-old son. “This will be the only vehicle I drive for a while,” she said.
The crossover market still hasn’t matured, analysts say. That means trucks should continue to set sales records. Wangers predicts trucks will become 50 percent of the new-vehicle market within two years.
“The truck business is on fire,” Wangers said.
