Tundra stumbles

[rickaren]

After strong start, Tundra stumbles

Posted Friday, Oct 16, 2009, 11:28 am in Employee News

Industry observers have criticized the timing of Toyota’s introduction of its first competitive full-size pickup, the all-new, enlarged Tundra, in early 2007, the Detroit Free Press said. This criticism is offered as one of the reasons for Toyota’s recent woes both in the U.S. and globally.

Initially, the new 2007 Tundra did well, the paper said. Its share of the large pickup segment reached 9.1 percent in 2007, up from 5.59 percent the previous year, and the new Tundra’s 2007 calendar year sales of 196,555 were within a hair of the company’s 200,000 unit sales goal, the Free Press said. Most of the Tundra’s gains in these two years came at the expense of the F-Series and the Titan as a redesigned Silverado and heavily-incentivized Ram held their own, the story said.

The 2009 calendar year has been another story, as a combination of factors has drastically reduced the Tundra’s sales volume, the Free Press noted. The plunge in overall new light vehicle sales, and notably pickup trucks, this year has been one dampening factor, the paper said. The Tundra’s share of the segment has dipped to 6.92 percent (September YTD), its lowest segment share since 2006, before the launch of the larger truck, the story said.

Tundra’s September YTD unit sales are down 50.8 percent, the second greatest drop in the segment after that of the Titan, more than twice the F-Series drop of 24.8 percent and considerably more than the segment’s decline of 34.1 percent, the paper said. In nine months, Toyota dealers have delivered just 56,599 Tundras, which means total 2009 deliveries will fall short of the century mark for the first time since 2002, the Free Press said.

A key reason for the Tundra’s retreat in 2009 is the effective launches of re-designed Ford and Dodge full-size light-duty pickups for the 2009 model year, the paper said. The strength of these new products has also impacted the aging Nissan Titan, whose nine-month 2009 share of 1.68 percent is lower than any annual result since the model’s launch, the story said. (Detroit Free Press)