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Automotive - 2010 Motor Trend Truck of the Year: The Contenders

8:59 PM — Doncrack — 0 comments — Labels: Truck, Truck Incentives, Truck Sales

Over the last few years, sales of pickups for personal use have dropped dramatically. It's been a long, slow road to recovery in this country, and we still haven't seen truck sales improve. Making things worse, guys who work in construction are among the most dedicated to buying pickups for use on the job, and there isn't a lot of that going on right now, either.

How did truckmakers respond to this sudden, dramatic, and prolonged change in the marketplace? Instead of sticking solely with the mainstream-market formula, they're focusing on catering to the specific needs of truck people. That helps explain the interesting grouping of vehicles for the latest Truck of the Year event. Four qualified: the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, the Ford Transit Connect, the Ram Heavy Duty, and the Toyota Tundra 4.6-liter work truck.

First contender is the off-road race-ready Ford F-150 SVT Raptor. Instead of taking the street-biased high-performance route of the Lightning, the design team looked at the strengths of the truck platform and redefined the idea of high performance. The Raptor is ideally suited to romping over the ruts and sand of the Baja 1000 and only gets better the faster you go. And even though the extended-cab powered by a 5.4-liter V-8 is an impressive combination, we hear a crew cab and 400-plus-horsepower, 6.2-liter V-8 are coming.

2010 Dodge Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Front Three Quarters Driver
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Some of you may wonder why on earth there's a little van in Truck of the Year. The Ford Transit Connect is no kid-toting minivan. This is a van built for work, with a 1600-pound payload, comparable to that of any half-ton truck on the market. This van, which has been sold in Europe for many years, has been put through truck-durability testing and is ready to take on full-size vans for a piece of that market.

For those who need to be able to tow a fifth-wheel trailer or carry 5000 pounds of equipment in the bed, the Ram Heavy Duty arrives for 2010 with a revised platform, all-new sheetmetal, redesigned interior, and several innovations. These trucks are available as 3/4- and one-ton models, plus 4500 and 5500 trucks for even more capability.

Automotive - 2010 Motor Trend Truck of the Year: Ram Heavy Duty

7:56 PM — Doncrack — 0 comments — Labels: Truck, Truck Incentives, Truck Sales

Despite the effects of the Great Recession on personal-use truck sales, there is still demand for pickups ready to do hard work. The heavy-duty truck market has gotten smaller, but the guys who buy those pickups are fiercely loyal to the segment-they need the extreme capability these hard-working haulers provide. Some may wonder why anyone would own a truck that can tow nearly 20,000 pounds, but for a lot of people in construction, those who transport vehicles or goods, and those with ranches, this is just a part of everyday life.

2010 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty Rear Three Quarters Static
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Within the next few months, the heavy-duty category will heat up, as all three manufacturers have all-new offerings coming. The Ram Heavy Duty is the first to market, and it's already ahead of the game. When Ford and GM's all-new heavy-dutys come out, both new diesel engines are going to require urea injection to meet emissions requirements that take effect January 2010. The Ram Heavy Duty's Cummins inline-six turbodiesel, which puts out an impressive 350 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque, met those requirements -- without urea -- over a year ago.

Instead, the Ram 2500 and 3500 use a NOx adsorber with precious metals that convert the NOx into inert gases. Not only does this mean the Ram's emissions and exhaust systems are less complex than those in the upcoming Ford Super Duty and Silverado/Sierra HD (which could improve reliability and help keep maintenance costs down), it also means that, at the dealership, the Ram will very likely have a price advantage over its competitors. And while in this size category diesel is king, there are plenty of heavy-duty truck buyers who prefer gas power. The 5.7-liter Hemi, the Ram's base engine, has the most horsepower (383) and torque (400 pound-feet) of any V-8 in its class -- and only the Ford Super Duty's V-10 has more torque than the Hemi, but it still has less horsepower.

Q2 2009 Auto Sales: Fiat Reports Second Consecutive Loss on Truck

6:11 AM — Doncrack — 0 comments — Labels: 2009 Auto Sales, Chrysler, Euro Automotive, Fiat Sales, Truck Sales

Fiat SpA, the Italian carmaker that acquired a stake in Chrysler LLC, reported a second consecutive quarterly loss as slumping truck and equipment sales offset an improvement in auto deliveries in western Europe.

The net loss of 168 million euros ($239 million) in the second quarter missed the average estimate of a 158.4 million- euro loss from five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Turin-based Fiat had net income of 604 million euros a year earlier.

Fiat, led by Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne, gets about two-thirds of its operating income from the Iveco trucks and CNH agricultural and construction equipment units, where sales declined because of the global recession. Truck deliveries plunged 43 percent and sales of agricultural and construction equipment fell 21 percent at CNH, Fiat said.

“The truck business is facing a collapse in sales,” said Eric-Alain Michelis, an analyst at Societe Generale SA, in a Bloomberg television interview. “CNH is also having a tough time.”

Fiat predicted that the market for trucks and construction equipment will suffer for the rest of the year, with some chance of a recovery in the fourth quarter.

Fiat’s revenue fell 23 percent to 13.2 billion euros, the manufacturer said today in a statement. That missed the 13.96 billion-euro average estimate of 12 analysts.

Chrysler Integration

The carmaker didn’t address progress on integrating Chrysler in its earnings statement, though it reiterated in an analysts’ presentation that the company won’t make a cash investment. CEO Marchionne acquired 20 percent of the maker of the Dodge Challenger and Jeep models last month as it emerged from bankruptcy.

Fiat said it increased market share for autos, especially in Germany, with models including the Grande Punto and Panda hatchbacks. Government-funded incentives for consumers to buy new cars have boosted sales or slowed declines, and have particularly benefited companies such as Fiat that have deep lineups of small cars.

Fiat fell as much as 28.5 cents, or 3.6 percent, to 7.66 euros and was down 2.9 percent as of 3:32 p.m. in Milan trading, giving the company a market value of 9.2 billion euros.

Marchionne, long an advocate of industry consolidation, says a carmaker needs to produce at least 6 million vehicles annually to make money. The Chrysler deal brings production up to 4.5 million a year.

No Opel for Fiat

Fiat lost out on its bid to buy General Motors Co.’s Opel division after it declined to sweeten its offer. GM received three final bids July 20, including from Germany’s preferred candidate, Canadian auto-parts maker Magna International Inc.

“The long-term strategic issue regarding the lack of scale in the car market will continue to weigh on the stock,” said David Arnold, an auto analyst with Credit Suisse in London, who reiterated his advice to sell the shares.

Italy’s largest manufacturer, whose biggest investor is the Agnelli family, confirmed its full-year targets, saying trading profit, measured by earnings before interest, tax, and one-time items, will reach more than 1 billion euros this year.

The maker of Alfa Romeo and Lancia cars reported second- quarter trading profit of 310 million euros, compared with 1.31 billion euros a year earlier.

Revenue at Fiat Auto, which includes luxury brands Ferrari and Maserati, fell 12 percent to 7.4 billion euros, while trading profit fell 36 percent to 227 million euros.

Sales at CNH fell 21 percent to 2.9 billion euros and trading profit declined by more than half to 123 million euros. Sales of trucks and commercial vehicles at its Iveco unit dropped to 1.8 billion euros, while trading profit slumped to 18 million euros from 248 million euros.

Fiat said its net debt declined to 5.7 billion euros from 6.6 billion euros at the end of the first quarter. That compared with a 5.99 billion-euro average estimate by three analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Fiat reported a loss of 410 million euros in the first three months of this year.