General Motors Doing Well In Midsize Truck Segment, Success May Not Last


General Motors’ return to the midsize truck segment has done wonders for the automaker and the market, but skeptics aren’t sure how long that will last.
Ever since the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon twins left for the showroom last fall, the segment has grown to over 2 percent of the overall U.S. new-vehicle market from 1.4 percent last summer, Reuters reports. Industry execs add that as many as 500,000 midsize pickups could be sold this year, double what was sold in 2014.
However, IHS Automotive analyst Tom Libby found that 9 out of 10 Colorado and Canyon owners traded in other GM cars and trucks for the smaller pickups, with over 16 percent coming from ownership of Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierras alone. Libby warns this could be a sign of undercutting of sales of models with higher margins.
GM execs and dealers, on the other hand, are happy with the midsize twins. GM President Dan Ammann called the duo a “very good investment,” while GMC’s director of marketing, Rich Latek, says the midsize segment as a whole is “a sleeper segment with huge opportunity.” AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson adds the Colorado and Canyon happen to have been the right trucks to come at the right time to give the segment a shot in the arm.
The party may not last for the duo, though. LMC Automotive notes that the segment would hold at 2 percent for this year, then slip back down by 2020. Meanwhile, the twins would fizzle out from projected sales of 74,000 for the Colorado and 29,500 for the Canyon this year, falling 8.4 percent and 21 percent over the next five years.
[Photo credit: Blake Z. Rong/ The Truth About Cars]
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Looking for the manual transmission diesel 4x4 extra cab. Preferably in brown. :) I have an odd desire to get a Barcelona Red 4-door stick shift 4x4 V6 crew cab, but they're gas pigs for what they are. My mythical perfect vehicle would run my 60 mile round-trip commute around 30 mpg empty, but still be able to yank my Lemons car or a cord of firewood on a trailer without self-destructing. After driving my dad's 2006 KING RANCH DUALLY CREW CAB POWERSTOKE 4X4!!!!, I want something half the size that will tow 7,500 lbs (slowly is fine, just so long as it can do it) and get better than 11 mpg doing it (a friend's 95ish 4x4 Dodge Cummins with 260k miles on it will get 20 mpg towing 5,500 lbs. without breaking a sweat, so it's not unpossible). Come on, Generic Motors, build somethingI can't resist!
I'm holding out for the Frontier with the Cummins. My Frontier has been solid. Yes, it feels cheap inside but it is cheap materials that are put together well. It's just an honest truck. I like the interior of these trucks, the GMC in particular but I find the exterior odd. They don't do anything so much better than my Frontier that I'd roll the dice on a GM product at this point.
I'm seeing more newer GM's than Toyota's, and I'm in a town that loves Toy's. Problem for GM is, they all belong to contractors, several of which I've befriended, and they're all leases. None are personal vehicles, unlike the Toyota's.
I care less about the size than the pricing on these things. Selecting 4wd adds $7,000 to the price! No thanks!