Updated Tacoma gets timing right - Automotive News
Toyota can't build enough of the outgoing Tacomas to meet demand -- despite the fact that the current generation of the pickup has been around for a decade and is a dinosaur by industry standards. Meanwhile General Motors waded back into the midsize market last fall with its Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, and has been rewarded by robust sales and the Colorado's Motor Trend Truck of the Year award. Fueled by GM and Toyota's success, the market share for these smaller pickups quickly jumped to 2. 1 percent of the light-vehicle market this year through July, according to the Automotive News Data Center, up from 1. 5 percent a year earlier. "This is basically coming from the strength of the market," Bill Fay, Toyota Division general manager, told Automotive News at the press launch for the Tacoma here. Thanks to easy credit and low gasoline prices, "we've got a 10-year-old truck that's getting very little marketing support but has a huge amount of support in the marketplace," Fay said. 10, the problem won't be selling the truck, but building it. Inventories of the outgoing version dwindled to below a 15-day supply in July, and that's after Toyota added a third shift at its Baja California, Mexico, plant in April. In addition to a favorable economy, the new models from GM and Toyota are bringing with them new levels of refinement, capability and size that smaller pickups previously didn't offer. Source: www.autonews.com
