"Jonathan Goodish" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Matt Whiting wrote:
Well, in 2005 Ford sold almost 10 times as many F-series trucks as the
closet Japanese competitor (Toyota). If 95% of truck buyers don't "use
it as a truck," there's still something that those buyers like better
about a Ford truck.

Its called the lemming affect. It took a while to fade in the car
market, but now it is almost gone, other than Toyota seems to be
developing it quite well for its cars. Trucks will follow,
unfortunately.


The Ford F-150 has been the best selling truck for 30 years straight.
It has been the best selling VEHICLE in the United States for quite a
number of consecutive years. That isn't because of a "lemming effect,"
though I know quite a few Honda and Toyota owners who are definitely
lemmings.

Ford would have to fall pretty hard for a pretty long time in order for
the Japanese to catch up. Ford's fall would have to be combined with a
broader and more capable line of Japanese trucks (i.e. heavy duty). So
far, the Japanese haven't been willing to make a truly heavy duty truck
for the mass market.

In 2005, Ford sold just shy of 1 million F-series trucks. The closest
Japanese competitor--Toyota--sold around 125,000 trucks. That's a huge
gap, and in the middle was Dodge with around 450,000 and GM, with
somewhere around 800,000, I believe. The Ford/GM dominance of the truck
market likely makes the costs to gain market share prohibitive for the
Japanese competitors.

Asuming ford will be around for any length of time. Ford's numbers are
dismal and Wall Street has their stock nearly down to junk value. The
Japanese can just sit and wait for Ford and GM to spiral into oblivion.