Climbing out of a white Chevrolet Colorado pickup at the Chicago Auto Show, Tom Hemesath shakes his head at the bottom line on the window sticker: $26,755.
“Too much money for too little truck,” says Hemesath, a full-size pickup owner visiting Chicago from Austin, Texas. “There’s no room, and you can’t haul anything.”
The Colorado is Chevy’s new midsize truck, a replacement for the smaller S-10 and one of several fresh, larger models auto manufacturers hope will reverse slumping sales of small pickups.
GMC offers a Colorado clone called Canyon, and new versions of the Dodge Dakota, Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma are due next fall. All will have roomier interiors than the current models and be larger overall. In addition, in 2005 Honda will offer a pickup based on its midsize Pilot sport-utility and Mitsubishi will get a version of the Dakota.
Despite the influx of roomier models, Hemesath’s reaction to the Colorado shows that small pickups face an uphill battle in a marketplace where size matters and full-size trucks are heavily discounted.
The “walk” or difference in price between compact and full-size trucks has narrowed, says George Pipas, Ford Motor Co.’s sales analyst, thanks to zero-percent financing and hefty rebates on full-size models.
Average transaction prices this year are $26,916 for a full-size pickup and $20,483 for a compact, according to the Power Information Network, the data-gathering service of J.D. Power and Associates.
That means better-equipped versions of the compacts overlap the low end of the full-size trucks. Pipas says that sends more comparison shoppers to a full-size truck.
The heyday for compact pickups was the 1980s, when automakers pushed 4-cylinder models to meet escalating federal fuel-economy standards.
Sales peaked at 1.44 million in 1986, and small pickups outsold full-size models that year and the following.
As gas prices fell in the late 1980s, so did interest in small trucks, and buyers gravitated to the larger, V-8-powered models.
Last year, Americans bought 742,000 small pickups, the fewest since 1982. Full-size models had record sales of nearly 2.4 million. Compact sales have fallen 30 percent since 2000.
“Consumers are telling us they want bigger,” Pipas said, adding that 75 percent of full-size F-150s sell with the largest engine, a 5.4-liter V-8.
Dora Nowicki, marketing manager for the Colorado, argues that the new generation of small trucks will appeal to more families because of their bigger interiors and greater availability of four-door crew-cab and extended-cab models.
Regular-cab models with two doors and seats for two or three, formerly the bulk of compact sales, have fallen to 10 to 15 percent. Nissan has dropped the Frontier regular cab, and Dodge will do the same with the 2005 Dakota.
“The segment used to be mainly young guys buying their first vehicle, but when children arrived that vehicle left the household,” Nowicki said of the regular-cab trucks. “We’ve gone beyond that.”
When GM asked small-pickup owners what they wanted, the top two requests were more interior room and more power.
“They wanted a vehicle that was more mainstream so they can pick up the kids from school or use their pickup to go out with friends in the evening,” she said. “Payload or towing capacity wasn’t the issue. It was how many people you could put in this vehicle.”
Mark Amstock, Toyota’s truck and sport-utility vehicle marketing manager, says the 2005 Tacoma’s interior will be about four inches wider than the current model to satisfy consumer demand for more space.
“We’re getting a lot of young families looking for the utility of a pickup and the affordability of a compact,” Amstock said, adding that about 25 percent of Tacoma buyers are repeat customers.
“We’ve found a segment of consumers who are compact owners. They like the maneuverability, the size and the fuel economy,” he said.
Nowicki agrees, saying, “One thing that everyone assumes is that the compact buyer is a full-size buyer wannabe. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Indeed, as Dennis Misch compared the full-size Dodge Ram pickup to the midsize Dakota at the recent auto show, he gave the smaller Dakota a thumbs-up, though “only because it would fit into my garage easier.”
Misch, a manager for a wholesale plumbing business in Valparaiso, Ind., drives a full-size Chevy pickup on the job but says the Dakota would be ideal for hauling stuff to his 10-acre farm and plowing the half-mile-long driveway.
Misch also liked the Colorado because it has more interior space than the S-10.
“The smaller ones don’t really have much practical use,” he said. “I want something that has more room and can do more hauling.”
The Ford Ranger has been the compact sales leader for 17 years, but Ford has not announced plans for a larger model.
Once Ford’s rivals introduce their new trucks, the Ranger will be the only one not available as a four-door crew cab.
The Ranger comes as a two-door regular cab and an extended cab with small rear doors that open to the rear.
Pipas says Ford intends to maintain the size gap between the Ranger and F-150.
“If we made [Ranger] bigger, would we sell more? Maybe. But, in general, if we sell more compact trucks, we will sell less full-size,” he said. “It’s no secret that we make more money on big pickups than small pickups.”
Ranger sales fell to 209,117 last year, 139,000 less than its record in 1999.
Ford used to dedicate two plants and part of a third to building Ranger, but in March will consolidate production at a single plant in St. Paul. Total output will total about 175,000 on straight time.
Ford could build more with overtime but that depends on the amount of overtime the United Auto Workers will agree to.
“As a manufacturer, you have to ask if you want to invest in a segment that is shrinking. It’s not for lack of money. It’s a question of where you want to put your money,” Pipas said.
Nowicki and Amstock forecast a modest increase in compact pickup sales as the slew of new models generates more interest among consumers. Pipas doesn’t see it.
“This segment is getting vaporized, and I see that trend continuing. The price competition in the full-size segment is going to become even more competitive,” he said.
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%% CHEVROLET 2003 S-10 2004 COLORADO
Body style Extended Cab Crew Cab
Wheelbase 122.9 inches 125.9 inches
Overall length 204.8 inches 207.0 inches
Width 67.9 inches 67.6 inches
Height 62.7 inches 63.5 inches
TOYOTA 2004 TACOMA 2005 TACOMA
Body style Extended Cab Extended Cab
Wheelbase 121.9 inches 127.4 inches
Overall length 202.9 inches 207.0 inches
Width 66.5 inches 71.8 inches
Height 63.5 inches 63.8 inches
DODGE 2004 DAKOTA 2005 DAKOTA
Body style Crew Cab Crew Cab
Wheelbase 131.0 inches 131.3 inches
Overall length 215.1 inches 218.8 inches
Width 71.6 inches 71.7 inches
Height 66.1 inches 68.7 inches
NISSAN 2004 FRONTIER 2005 FRONTIER
Body style Crew Cab Crew Cab
Wheelbase 116.1 inches 125.9 inches
Overall length 199.9 inches 205.5 inches
Width 71.2 inches 72.8 inches
Height 66.7 inches 69.7 inches
FORD
2004 RANGER
No major changes since 1992
Body style Extended Cab
Wheelbase 125.7 inches
Overall length 201.7 inches
Width 64.8 inches
Height 69.4 inches
%%
