You Can Thank The UAW For A Truck Nobody Wants

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: September 24th, 2011

you can thank the uaw for a truck nobody wants

Mid sized pickups allegedly were left for dead. Automotive News’ Product Editor Rick Kranz even accused Honda of “abandoning” its Ridgeline pickup. Now, the unloved segment is being resuscitated by – General Motors. And the UAW.

Says Edmunds:

“A variety of moves in the past week indicate General Motors Co. isn’t carving any headstones, after all. GM hasn’t said anything definitive lately about the fate of the midsize Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon nameplates, seeing how their assembly plant in Shreveport, LA is scheduled to close in mid-2012. But GM doesn’t have to, as it’s all but said a new midsize pickup is coming. And it’ll no emerging-market leftover – it looks magnificent and will be built in the U.S.”

Edmunds thinks that a concept version of a new midsize pickup shown at the Frankfurt auto show soon ”is the trial balloon for the next-generation Colorado/Canyon in the U.S.” The source? The UAW labor contract. Edmunds writes:

“The UAW’s summary of the contract provisions said matter-of-factly that GM’s commitments to new products to be built in the U.S. include (at its Wentzville, MO, assembly plant), “full shift added and new mid-size truck program.”

Edmunds calls it a “a notable strategic gamble given the segment’s astounding sales decline.” No kidding, as the graph above vividly illustrates.

#BertelSchmitt #GM #Trucks #Uaw

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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Cheezeweggie on Sep 25, 2011

The 4x8 sheet of drywall comments make me laugh. I wonder how many suburban White Collar types use their truck bed for anything other than the Golden Retriever and the occasional barbeque grill. I've hauled plenty of plywood, drywall and 2x4's in my 79 Chevy short bed (6 ft bed), my 2000 Frontier (5 1/2ft)and my 2006 Frontier Crew Cab (5 ft). The tailgate stays down - big deal. I see plenty of Frontiers and Tacomas out there. Far too many for being a "dead" segment. These are modern powerful midsize pickups with excellent V6 engines. The Nissan 4.0 VQ truck engine is awesome. Ford's Ranger V6 offerings, although reliable, are outdated. The Colorado would have actually been better off with the old push-rod 4.3 rather than the underpowered 5-cylinder. And who designed that fugly Colorado Fisher-Price style dashboard...

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- PrincipalDan on Sep 25, 2011
  
  Back when I was in college (1995-1999) I was working for the Physical Plant, they replaced a beat up old 1980 Chevy truck with an early 1990s V6 Dodge Dakota standard cab long bed. While the cab was a little cramped (and I'm only 5'11") the long bed would accomidate a 4X8 sheet above the wheelwells with a much smaller footprint. The guys loved it for light duty work and racked up the miles pretty quickly.
  
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- Geozinger on Sep 26, 2011
  
  @EdDan: I had a 95 Dakota extended cab with the shorty box on it. 3.9 V6 and autobox, it was a far better hauler than my BILs Ranger. While being somewhat bigger, fitting into tight spaces and parking downtown wasn't that much of a challenge. It could take whatever load I put in the bed. And, it wasn't THAT much smaller than a regular bed pickup, but I still got the small truck discount at the local gravel and mulch place. If my kids hadn't been growing so rapidly at the time and my other car wasn't that POS Topaz, I would have liked to hang on to it longer. But we decided to trade what had the better resale value to get the price down on my wife's then new car. Bummer.
  
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- Luke42 on Sep 26, 2011
  
  "The 4×8 sheet of drywall comments make me laugh. I wonder how many suburban White Collar types use their truck bed for anything other than the Golden Retriever and the occasional barbeque grill." Me! I'm a DIYer on weekends. That's why I bought my RWD Ranger in the first place. My wife is still amazed that you can just go to the hardware store, buy a pile of lumber, and build something -- I enjoy building stuff, and it gets me laid. Yay Though Ford and GM's market-research probably agrees with you. Which is why I've been shopping compact wagons and used minivans. Also, Harbor Fright has a nice little folding trailer for sale that I can tow behind any small car that's rated for towing. BTW, I helped a family member buy F-150 (and I'm part owner), and it's an excellent truck, and I spent a lot of time driving it around town while I was getting it outfitted. It's an excellent truck, but it's not the right tool for what I do with my truck. It's too high, too much effort to park, and the bed wasn't really any bigger than my Ranger's bed (except for the distance between the wheel-wells). It's a great fit for what this family member is doing with it (traveling thousands of miles over unimproved roads in the desert southwest), but the load-floor is too high and the footprint too large. My old Ranger is getting pretty long in the tooth, so it will be replaced sooner or later. I've thought about buying another used Ranger and putting a flatbed/ute-bed on it. Or, I might go for a compact car that can tow or a very-used minivan. I could use the extra seats at times, and the useless 4' poseur beds that I see on a lot of 4-door trucks aren't going to cut it.
  
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JMII on Sep 26, 2011

As said it before and I'll say it again: I bought a V8 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab for one reason - it was "right sized". I had a Ranger (Extra Cab Splash) and the V6 didn't have the power to tow my boat. Gas mileage with the Ford 4.0l V6 was the same as the Dodge 4.7l V8, a laughable 13 mpg. The big difference being that the Dodge has no trouble pulling my boat. My truck fits (just barely) into my two car garage, I don't want a bigger truck regardless of price/power. I can't be the only one that feels this way, but based on sales of the F150 it appears so. I'd love a Dakota size truck with a small-ish diesel, you know the same kind the rest of the world uses every day. The full-size truck is an America-only thing, kind of like the soccer mom luxury SUV/CUV. Gas mileage is slowly reversing this trend as people realize they can fill 95% of their needs with a 70% smaller vehicle. However I think something special needs to hit the market place to trigger a shift in thinking. Kind of like how the Mini got people into smaller cars and how hatchbacks are making a much over due comeback. The compact truck market is out there, but it lacks a "halo" vehicle to generate any buzz... now a Jeep pickup based on the 4 door Wrangler might be the just ticket.

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