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As with passenger cars, U.S. manufacturers are fighting strong competition from the Japanese. The first of their compact pickups landed on the docks at Long Beach, Calif., some 35 years ago, but the Datsun never made it to the showroom floor. As legend has it, a driver noticed it on the carrier truck, followed it to the dealer and bought the pickup on the spot. By 1978, every one of the 489,508 compact pickups sold in the U.S. was made in Japan. But Detroit has roared back. General Motors and Ford, which had been importing Japanese vehicles to sell under their nameplates, decided to enter the market on their own. Today GM, which has nearly half of the U.S. car market, also controls 20.6% of the compact-truck business. Ford is a close second, with 19.5% of truck sales.
The Japanese share of the compact-truck market slipped to 41.7% a year ago. Toyota and Nissan, two of the leading Japanese vehicle manufacturers, are third and fourth in the market. While Toyota exports all of its trucks from Japan, Nissan builds 8,000 a month at its new plant in Smyrna, Tenn. The two companies have only 9.5% of the American car business, but they control 38.7% of the light-truck market.
Japanese auto executives are angry at themselves for letting sales ebb away. Recalls one: "We were so cocky that we just went ahead and let all these American engineers take a look at nearly whatever they wanted to in our light-truck plants." Now the Japanese are pushing to improve sales through low prices. Though they face a 25% import duty imposed in 1980, they are unfettered by the quotas that restrict the number of cars they can export to the U.S. A Mazda Sundowner B-2000 can be bought for $5,795. The lowest-cost American-made pickup is the Chevrolet S-10 at $5,900.
Healthy truck sales are a boon to automakers. Trucks are cheaper to build than cars, and hence more profitable, because they contain fewer parts and are restyled less frequently. Detroit's rule of thumb is that trucks provide one-quarter of the industry's total volume but one-third of its profits. At AMC, sales of the Jeep Cherokee and Wagoneer models are the principal reason that the company is expected to report a profit this year for the first time since 1979.
Automakers are confident they can keep on truckin' profitably. "Chris Cedergren, the automotive-industry analyst for J.D. Power & Associates, a West Coast marketing and consulting firm, expects truck sales in 1985 to increase 4.7% more. Buyers will have an even greater assortment of models to choose from in coming years. Both GM and Ford will introduce minivans next year, while AMC and Chrysler are preparing pickups for the 1986 and 1987 model years. -By Alexander L. Taylor III. Reported by Meg Grant/Los Angeles and Paul A. Witteman/ Detroit