Truck Thursday: Toyota Mulls FJ/4Runner Replacements, Boosts Tundra Output
We’re at a difficult phase in the global economy. Economists would have you believe that we’re out of recession and things are starting to look rosy. But just talk to someone like Peter Schiff and he’d have you believe that a second downturn is inevitable. It really is tough to say where the economy will go and it’s showing in the car market. USA Today reports that Toyota are looking at their 4Runner & FJ Cruiser models and wondering whether to build a new generation or not.
“We have to look at that market closely,” said Jim Lentz, head of Toyota’s U.S Sales operation. Mr Lentz went on to mention that with the market for truck based, full-frame vehicles contracting and the fuel economy standards coming into force, the case for these vehicles’ existence makes less sense. Do they make more sense as unibody trucklets? That’s one of the possibilities Toyota is exploring.
However, one vehicle which Toyota will not give up on is the Tundra. Toyota has indicated that it will push forward with full size pick up trucks, and indeed, ToMoCo has just added a second shift at its San Antonio Tundra plant. Therefore, it’s a good bet that the Sequoia SUV will carry on production, as it is built off the same platform.
Toyota sold 19,675 4Runners last year, as volume fell 59 percent. FJ Cruiser volume for 2009 was 11,941, down 58 percent. Tundra sold 79,385 units last year, a 42.2 percent drop from 2008.
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With increasingly sophisticated side-by-side offroaders to do the traditional Jeep job, it would seem to make sense.
Toyota needs to think long term with the Tundra. One thing they can do immediately is offer a better warranty - and their marketing folks should come up with a (backhanded insulting) way to imply that GM and/or Chrysler won't be around to honor theirs.
One question I have is, how many BOF SUV's does Toyota really need? I mean, they have 3 already. They have 6 SUVs and Crossovers, not including a not so mini van. The question is, why so many?
The US 4runner is just a reskinned Land Cruiser from the rest of the world, hence pretty cheap for Toyota US to keep around. The US GX is a not even reskinned, just heavily contented, one. The US Land Cruiser is an expensive luxury vehicle pretty much anywhere. Unless Toyota decides to drop BOF worldwide, which is unlikely, I don't see 4runners being much more than found revenue for them. I wouldn't be surprised if the platform is eventually unified with the larger Land Cruiser, as its getting pretty close size wise, and many important (for marketing reasons, if nothing else) Land Cruiser markets probably don't have roads for the "big" Land Cruiser to grow Sequoia sized, where it could be economically built on large volume full sized pickup frames. Unless Range Rovers gets a bit cheaper and stop falling apart, or Honda or someone actually manages to build and time test a unibody competitor that develops a similar reputation for reliability, configurability and sheer ability in adverse conditions even when abused, I doubt conservative Toyota will walk away from all the brand equity the BOF LC (and 4R) has developed over the years, in pretty much every market in which it is sold.