american trucks: mostly junk, right? So what is the following rooted in? (2011, credit)
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I agree that correlation does not equal causation. To be honest, I did not expect this much descent. I don't know cars, so I don't speak authoritatively about this. I had just assumed, talking to my father and his pals (who are known to be nationalistic and have every reason to be biased in favor of american trucks) it's almost universally accepted that American trucks are crap compared to foreign.
Some good points brought up that American companies are generally the only show in town when you need to haul a huge load. The only thing I will say is that this notion that most foreign truck owners are software dorks whereas American F150 owners put their trucks through hell, thus the disparity in stuff going wrong (and I do believe there is one), is an obvious falsehood. I feel no need to elaborate. There are just as many show-truck F150 owners as there are Ridgeline, et al.
While there are certainly just as many F150 grocery getters as there are Tundra grocery getters, the overall idea there holds water when you just look at sales. Toyota sold a little over 500k Tundras since 2007 compared to 2.25 million F150's. Even if 500k F150's were grocery getters, there would still be 1.75 million of them working.
If you take total sales since 2007 (first year of new Tundra) for the Americans; Ford F150 (just that model, not the entire F-series line), Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra and Dodge Ram, they sold almost 6 times as many trucks than the Japanese. As note for the Japanese, I am counting the Toyota Tundra AND Tacoma as well as the Honda Ridgeline and the Nissan Titan.
What that means is that if we had 10 trucks in a line, 8.5 of them would be American, 1.5 of them would be Japanese. If I take out the Ridgeline and Tacoma (which aren't 1/2 tons like the Americans) it would be 9.2 of the trucks are American and .8 are Japanese. That is a HUGE disparity.
If we rolled back to 2000, it would get even worse where the Americans would represent 9.6 to the Japanese .4. If we added in vehicles like the Avalanche or the American small trucks it would be slanted even more. So, the reason American trucks head into the shop more is that there are literally MILLIONS more of them on the road.
FWIW, frank is right, since 2008 the Ford F-series (not just the F150, all the F-series combined) are the number 1 selling vehicle on Earth. They took the crown from the Corolla. For all time, the Corolla is still number one and the F-series is number 2.
FWIW, frank is right, since 2008 the Ford F-series (not just the F150, all the F-series combined) are the number 1 selling vehicle on Earth. They took the crown from the Corolla. For all time, the Corolla is still number one and the F-series is number 2.
Is that the normal method of looking at 'best selling cars?' Looking at the total number of vehicles produced over the lifetime of the vehicle? If someone made a car that sold 10,000,000 units this year, they wouldn't be the top selling car?
Here's one that has cars ranked by country (no exact figures). But to be #1 in 28 countries vs 2 for the F-Series.
The Japanese are going to have a very hard time cracking the redneck pick-em-up truck love affair with anything Detroit. The Japanese trucks are superior in every way to their Detroit counterparts. It will take YEARS, maybe decades, of great word of mouth to get it through the skulls of the typical Detroit truck owner. At least the mechanics are making money off these top selling junkers. If I were Toyota or Nissan, I'd let them have their junk, and not waste money trying to get those who refuse to see get something better. Besides, tobacco juice on the side of a Toyota door doesn't look as normal as on a Chevy or Ford.
The Japanese are going to have a very hard time cracking the redneck pick-em-up truck love affair with anything Detroit. The Japanese trucks are superior in every way to their Detroit counterparts. It will take YEARS, maybe decades, of great word of mouth to get it through the skulls of the typical Detroit truck owner. At least the mechanics are making money off these top selling junkers. If I were Toyota or Nissan, I'd let them have their junk, and not waste money trying to get those who refuse to see get something better. Besides, tobacco juice on the side of a Toyota door doesn't look as normal as on a Chevy or Ford.
Funny.
My GMC has 185,000 miles on it. No problems. I would buy a Ford F-series (especially the new ecoboost). From what I hear, the Ranger is a good truck as well, plenty of them having 200,000+ on the odo.
First off, the Japanese did not even build an actual 1/2 ton truck until the Titan premiered in 2004. Toyota didn't join the game until 2007. So, previous to that if you wanted a truck to actually do "truck things", you had to buy American.
Second, even though they now build 1/2 tons, none of them build anything larger. So again, if you need to do serious "truck things" you have to buy American. This also applies to diesel engines which the Japanese makers simply don't offer.
Even though this is a troll thread, some people in this thread need to read the above again. By sake of shear numbers, you ought to see more American trucks come in for repairs because they are practically all that is out there in HD and work form. The imports are having a hard time cracking this market because the domestics have it down to a science - not just because of blind loyalty. I love it when people say it is just dumb redneck pride that causes people to continue to buy American trucks. No, there are also smart business people who have turned the numbers and have looked at what it would take to replace a fleet of domestic trucks with Tundras and Titans and have decided to stay away. Familiarity, compatible parts, etc go a long way, but that's not the only reason.
They haven't been able to get a strong foothold in 1/2 tons so I doubt any of them will show up with a HD 3/4 or 1 ton version. So we'll probably never know or see any sort of blow for blow across the lineup matchup between any American and Japanese builder to find out once and for all who makes the best pickup. If the trucks were that much better, it would make more sense to start replacing aging domestic units with new Japanese trucks and to start stocking and training your techs to repair them - not continue down the same path blindly.
Appreciate the numbers. I'll assume they accurate, but that only tells a small piece of the picture, as you know.
They reflect losses under the manufacturer warranty period and as such reflect a HUGE piece of the picture as there are strong correlations to initial and longer term quality. (Especially considering all the longer powertrain rates out there.)
The gap used to be much wider which would dove tail with people perceptions and they still show the Asians car makers to have an overall quality advantage vs. the domestics which has narrowed but is still notable.
To reiterate, many of the comments of posters here are BOTH correct and absolutely wrong. It depends upon your timeframe, model years involved etc.
Why do you feel it only tells a small piece of the picture? What do you feel is incorrect and if you have alternative info please share it.
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It depends upon your timeframe, model years involved etc.
