After a wreck in her small car, Debbie Horowitz went shopping for something different. She wanted a sense of safety as well as space for camping gear and dogs Zoe and Floyd–though nothing so tanklike that it would be a war to maneuver in South Florida gridlock.
She bought a Kia Sportage. It fills the bill, says the claims examiner, “plus, it looks sporty.”
The sturdy but stubby Sportage is a hybrid, among the newest species in the continuing evolution and popularization of the most macho of American vehicles–the truck. And buyers such as Horowitz are helping shape the kinder, gentler, cuter overhaul.
“Clearly, we’re seeing the female buyer driving the market,” says Robert Maling, Toyota national vice president, which sells the RAV4, one of the hottest truckish vehicles. Automakers are beginning to make design changes with women in mind and some are targeting models to them. Even the rolling symbol of good ol’ boyness, the pickup, is broadening its appeal to good ol’ gal.
Men still drive most of America’s trucks but since 1986 industry records show the percentage of women behind the wheel has slowly but steadily climbed to a record 25 percent last year from 15.
Automakers define light trucks as pickups, vans and truck-car hybrids called sport-utility vehicles, such as the popular Ford Explorer and Chevrolet Blazer and the newer Sportage and RAV4.
Some growth is explained by family mini-vans, with women in 42 percent of them last year. But sales of those have cooled since 1992 while other trucks have stayed hot. By 1995, women made up 34 percent of sport-utility drivers and 16 percent of small pickup drivers. Each year, thousands more women are choosing trucks over cars.
There’s a temptation to interpret the trend as a symbolic upshift in America’s socio-sexual transmission–tougher vehicles for today’s tougher women. Certainly, the rugged image appeals to some. But automakers and dealers view it more as evidence of other trends that have made trucks and sport-utilities attractive to a broader range of buyers, regardless of gender.
It’s not women as much as the trucks that have changed, says Mike Maroone, president of the Maroone Automotive Group, which sells Chevrolet, Geo, Dodge, Oldsmobile, Isuzu and Ford in South Florida.
Trucks have been making in-roads from working vehicles to personal transportation since 1960, when they comprised just 12.5 percent of vehicles in U.S. driveways. In the last decade, they took off as automakers, adapting to a new breed of buyers, began making them more carlike and civilized with CD players, leather seats and rides softened from the old butt-bruising standard.
“I think they’ve taken the macho out of some of these products,” Maroone says.
It’s worked. Through July, trucks accounted for a record 44 percent of all personal vehicle sales in the U.S. If the trend continues, truck buyers could outnumber car buyers in three to five years.
“We view it more as a psycho-graphic as opposed to a demographic shift,” says Toyota’s Maling, meaning trucks appeal to “the young at heart,” a marketing-speak spin on the age-denying attitudes of Baby Boomers who have fueled much of the growth.
Trucks, and particularly sport-utes, also offer that rugged image as well as versatility, says Joel Pitcoff, market analysis manager for Ford.
“They are what I would call car surrogates,” he says. “They’ll do everything a car will, plus something else.”
Nationally, women have begun to dominate some truck buying, particularly with sport-utilities. The woman exec behind the wheel of an Explorer has become almost a Yuppie cliche. The Jeep Grand Cherokee, one of the most expensive models offered, has a 55 percent female ownership.
The RAV4 boasts 60 percent woman buyers, compared to 35 percent for Toyota’s regular trucks and 20 percent for full-size ones, says Maling, who oversees trucks and sport-utilities for the automaker. The mini-sport utilities aren’t much bigger than compact cars and drive like them. They also have more interior space than cars and often come with four-wheel-drive, rough-and-ready feel and look. Truck Lite.
The mix persuaded Amy Hanson of Boca Raton, Fla., a hospital patient advocate, to buy her first truck. With a new baby, she just gave up the prototypical family sedan, the Camry, for the RAV4. There is room behind the back seat, which gives her a place to put Bailey, the Labrador, while safely ferrying around infant Andrew.
“I don’t want her tail whipping the baby in the face,” Hanson says. She’d also looked at vans but there was something about that look that was just too, well, mommyish.
“I’m still young,” says Hanson, 31, “at least in my opinion.”
Hanson and Horowitz reflect much of what automakers hear from woman buyers of truck and sport-utilities: they like the sporty image, versatility and the sense of safety.
Whether trucks are safer is a subject of dispute, but they do provide a solid feel and commanding view of the road.
“It’s a security thing, that’s my own opinion” says McDevitt, “When you’re in a truck you sit up so high, you can see the road better. Especially down here, you have a lot of traffic and a lot of people that really don’t know how to drive.”
Recognizing a new market, automakers have begun to make trucks more female friendly. Some changes are so subtle they’d hardly be noticed: reducing the size of gas pedals for smaller feet or ensuring they function easily with high heels; testing door handles so they can be opened without chipping fingernails.
Pitcoff says Ford’s changes will appeal to most drivers. There’s a danger in designing purely for gender, he says.
“I’m not aware of any product that has ever been targeted specifically for woman and been a success. Back in ancient times, I remember somebody doing a pink Cougar, and it turned out to be a flop.”
In Japan, however, several automakers including Mitsubishi and Suzuki have begun selling smaller versions of domestic sport-utilities, primarily to win women. Maling won’t say Toyota designed the RAV4 to appeal to women but a common adjective used to describe it is “cute.” That’s not typically a hot-button word with men.
Toyota expected to sell about 36,000 RAV4s this year but Maling says it will probably do more than 50,000. Still, the mini-sport-utility market remains a tiny fraction of the 6.5 million trucks that will be sold.
But high demand makes mini-sport-utes promising, Maling says. The vehicles are aided by relatively affordable prices. Even low-end Explorers, Blazers and other bigger sport-utilities top that and routinely approach $30,000. A high-end mini-sport-utility like the RAV4 generally runs less than $20,000, a price that also lures younger buyers.
“What we’re probably going to see is an emerging carlike sport-utility vehicle market,” Maling says. “RAV4 is probably the beginning of that.”
But even the full-size pickup, which remains the most macho of trucks, hasn’t been immune to change. It’s showing a new softer side, with its cabs growing in the last few years to include a usable back seat. This year, several automakers also have introduced a third door on some extended-cab models, making it easier to load kids, pets, groceries as well as leather briefcases.
While automakers continue to play up the toughness of the trucks, women and families also are beginning to slip into ad campaigns.
Women drive only 9 percent of full-size pickups, the lowest of any truck category. Pitcoff, the Ford analyst, believes that may change, thanks to the third door.
“I’ll bet you’re going to start seeing the numbers for full-size pickups go up into the teens and maybe higher,” he says. “All of the sudden this vehicle makes sense for families. That means more women will be driving it.”
SPORT-UTES VS. MINI-VANS: THE TALE OF THE SALES
Before 1984, the mini-van barely registered on vehicle sales chart. The introduction of the family-friendly Dodge Caravan and Chrysler in late 1983 created a new market. But the explosive sales of vehicles such as the Ford Explorer and Chevrolet Blazer have pushed sport-utilities ahead of mini-vans, which peaked at more than 20 percent. This shows the share of the truck market for each. %%
Year Mini-van Sport-utility
1984 6.2% 10.3%
1985 10.1% 11.3%
1986 13% 12.1%
1987 14.3% 13.8%
1988 16% 14.1%
1989 16.7% 14.3%
1990 19.1% 15.6%
1991 20.1% 18.3%
1992 19.9% 20.1%
1993 20.1% 20.9%
1994 19.7% 20.8%
1995 19.2% 22.8%
Sources: Ford Motor Co., industry statistics
Knight-Ridder/Tribune. %%
