Thread: Chrysler, Ford paint red, white and blue picture

Chrysler, Ford paint red, white and blue picture

Debut of new trucks made in manner that squarely appeals to U.S. market

By Roland Jones
Associate editor
MSNBC
updated 11:25 a.m. ET, Mon., Jan. 14, 2008

DETROIT - With sales of pickup trucks slipping, Ford and Chrysler are tugging on American heartstrings at this year’s Detroit auto show, painting themselves in red, white and blue to capture customers in an increasingly competitive market.

Ford, for example, unveiled its redesigned F-150 pickup Sunday flanked by all-American cultural icons including country singer Toby Keith, professional bull rider Justin McBride and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Rick Crawford.

Chrysler went one better, handing out Dodge-brand beef jerky and introducing its revamped Ram pickup with a posse of bull-whipping cowboys and driving a herd of 120 cattle past a corral of shivering journalists outside Detroit’s Cobo Center.

In both cases, the aim was unambiguous — automakers want to stimulate sales, which sagged last year as the housing market sank and construction activity declined. U.S. sales of pickup trucks, which are highly profitable for the automakers, fell 6 percent in 2007, while overall U.S. vehicle sales declined by 3 percent.

With the housing market expected to be soft through this year, the truck market is likely to face another tough road in 2008, and so automakers are pulling out all the stops in search of profit.

“For years, people who didn’t really need trucks were buying them as fashion statements, but now with gas prices rising those buyers are leaving the market, wondering why they’re going to pay so much money for trucks and have to pay for the extra gas needed to run them,â€

I wish the supporter of "LaRaza' (Ford) would not sell so much as one truck to an American...Let them sell them in Mexico!


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