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Pickup Wars

Toyota_tundraI mentioned the coming Pickup Wars in a recent post.  Well the country that gave us the Honda Civic and the Toyota Prius Hybrid has now gotten on the bigger is better bandwagon, at least in full sized trucks.  Check out the Toyota Tundra  at this link.  Relax ladies, I won’t be asking you questions about ring gear or front disc brake sizes. Honestly as a verteran of over 20 years in the oilfield an owner of all kinds of trucks, I have never seen so much technical information in one ad, and videos. Imagine, a video back up camer by the rear hitch to see the trailer.  And one does wonder why the Big Three never integrated a trailer hitch into the frame, after all that is why people buy a giant pickup, to pull things.  This has always been a Detroit problem, never building quality in, but making the buyer add on the option. Toyota studied the problem and simply built a trailer hitch into the rear frame member to start with, simple and elegant, no doubt the Big Three will now do so.

Okay now all together, designing a trailer hitch integrated into the frame would be an example of what by Toyota?
Benchmarking
Process Re Engineering
TQM
CQM
Balanced Scorecard
All of the above?

Well yes I think you could check all of the above, okay. now some responses?

Well my point is that Chevy Ford Dodge made half hearted efforts at cars and lost the battle.  Trucks are their last stand.  All Detroit ever really did was build big body on frame vehicles, your GMC pickup is just like a 1955 Cadillac in that regard, a big engine atop a big frame for lots of power.

When you view the ad and you should note the testosterone filled steel like images that attempt to convey strength, Corollas need not apply for club membership.

DLE

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4 responses to “Pickup Wars”

  1. Jason Raper Avatar
    Jason Raper

    Awesome point to those of us who have seen this coming one day. Those that drive trucks are usually the testosterone filled men whom you are speaking of here. The Japanese need only do one thing if you ask me….convince the average American male that driving a foreign truck is not uncool.
    This seems to be the last American pride stronghold that many American males have yet to let go of. Good luck to the Big 3…I knew this day would eventually come. I certainly have always wondered why the Japanese never took this marketing approach years ago?

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  2. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    Well don’t give up on the home team quite yet. After the Americans got Congress to put up import quotas against the SMALL Japanese trucks, an open admission that the biggest car companies in the world could not build an efficient four cylinder pickup, which, ahem, is exactly what the model T was, the Japanese were understandbly not too bold in pushing forward. The import restriction was based on the number of foreign made trucks. So the Americans absolute worst nightmare happened, the Japanese started building them here. This beat Detroit at its own game, with jobs coming to areas that really needed them like TN, Alabama, Mississippi, it was easier and easier to just say no to Detroit. Now your next question, why not sooner, this is about Toyota’s third try. The original ‘big’ Japanese truck was what you might call mid sized, with a 6 cylinder engine which to the Japanese was a big truck. That went nowhere as did the next timid effort which had a V 8. to get the Japanese engineers to understand the problem they brought them, literally, to the parking lot of a Dallas Cowboys game and showed them what everyone drove. The engineers were stunned exclaiming, these are private vehicles, not strictly commercial? AT any rate, the Japanese have put this off as the last battleground, somewhat fearful of Detroit retaliation by political means. However the total employment and dollars and taxes paid etc by Japanese firms here is such that Detroit can hardly call it foreign competition when they are made in San Antonio, though I would be screaming foul over all the subsidies Texas has given them.
    Note the Tundra has exactly the same displacemnt as the current Chevy and past Fords, 5.7 liters or 5.7 x 61 cu in per liter, bingo a 350. However all of Toyota’s engines are aluminum heads and blocks with 4 valves per cylinder and double overhead cams, OK sorry to get technical but Ford finally went to a single OHC SOHC and Chevy still solddiers on with its original 1955 design, pushrods, swell, eh? Ford Chevy and Dodge still use iron blocks instead much lighter weight aluminum, the Ford site does not say if they are using aluminum heads, I doubt it.
    Ford Chevy Dodge have a right to protest the generous subsidies given Toyota in San Antonio when they get none up the road in Arlington.

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  3. gwadalupebarraza@yahoo.com Avatar
    gwadalupebarraza@yahoo.com

    O.K. so if the hitch is built into the frame, then what happends if your rear-ended? Do you then buy a Big Three or splurge on another frame? I guess living with an Average Joe, I thought men liked simplicity, power, and affordability. Isn’t accessoricing your truck part of that ego fun? The truck owners I know like buying their trucks for looks, functionality, and price bottom line. It seems to me that if your use for that big truck is towing capacity then wouldn’t you want something that better fits that criteria. The Chevy Silverado sells for $17.5 as compared to the Tundra $23. That trailer I’m gonna buy from “Joe’s Hitches N’ More” is $150 bucks installed. Now lets see what would be more attractive to a blue jean wearin’, workin’, testostrone driven male, assuming that’s who’s buying trucks.

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  4. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    If you were hit from the rear, the tailgate and bumper would take the first hit, unless you had the extension and ball on, I did on my Escape on day on Hampton, a VW hit me and the hitch took the brunt of it, resulting in no damage to me but the bumper of the VW ended up in the street. If you were hit so hard the frame were bent the receiver part would be a the least of your difficulties.
    Pricing, I don’t kmow, I doubt the Chevy at 17K has all the equipment of the toyota, but we shall see, that will be ferocious in the battle also

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