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Toyota Camry: Can It Beat the Ford F-150?
After years as the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., the F-150—and other pickups—will soon cede top spots to cars like the Toyota Camry

Could the Toyota Camry become the best-selling vehicle in the U.S.? It could happen, if sales keep falling for large pickups, and cars keep climbing up the list of Top 10-selling vehicles.

The Camry is already the No. 1-selling car in the U.S. market and has been for 10 of the past 11 years. The one exception was Honda's (HMC) Accord in 2001, according to Automotive News. But for all that time, full-size pickups from General Motors (GM), Chrysler, and Ford (F) outsold the Camry and every other car by such a wide margin, it seemed that pickups could never be knocked from their perch.

Above it all, the Ford F-150 and its ancestors have been the best-selling vehicles in the U.S. for 26 years in a row, and the best-selling truck for 31 years in a row, according to George Pipas, Ford's U.S. sales analysis manager.

Closing the Gap
But as the big domestic pickups have fallen and Camry sales have slowly improved, the Camry has been closing the gap. For the month of April, the Camry outsold the perennial No. 2 overall, the Chevrolet Silverado, something that's never happened for a full year. The Camry has outsold the Dodge Ram pickup since 2006, at first by only a few hundred units in a full year, but this year by more than 50,000 after only four months.

Nobody until recently thought Toyota Motor (TM) would outsell General Motors worldwide, either, yet that happened last year.

In the U.S. market, gas prices, the housing meltdown, and changing consumer tastes have all combined to drag down sales of large pickups. The same high gas prices have made fuel-efficient cars more attractive, especially gasoline-electric hybrids like the Toyota Camry Hybrid. The hybrid model accounts for the entire 2008 improvement in Camry sales overall. The all-hybrid Toyota Prius isn't in the overall Top 10 yet, but it's knocking on the door, and it was a Top 10-selling car last year. On May 15, Toyota reported for the first time that it had sold more than 1 million Priuses.

As recently as 2004, the year gas prices started to spike, Ford sold more than 900,000 units of the F-Series pickup, outselling the Camry by more than 2-to-1. In 2008 the F-150 continues to outsell the Camry, but only by about 30% through April. That's still a lot, but if the present trend continues and the F-150 stays in free fall, those lines cross within the next couple of years, and the Camry will outsell the F-150.

Fighting for the Top
Ford is going to do everything it can to keep that from happening, starting with the launch of a redesigned F-150 this fall, for the 2009 model year. And Ford has had some success of its own in other product segments, including the revived Ford Focus small car, which has reached the Top 10-sellers list this year.

The Focus was redesigned last fall for the 2008 model year, just in time to take advantage of the U.S. market's move to small cars and away from big trucks. The trouble for Ford and its domestic rivals is that it takes several small cars to make up for the revenue and profits from one big pickup.

Besides the switch to smaller vehicles, consumers are opting for smaller, less powerful, more efficient, and less profitable engines as well, said Mark LaNeve, vice-president of GM North America vehicle sales, service, and marketing, in a May 1 conference call.

Small Is Beautiful?
"In the last few months, when a customer has a choice of a 4 [-cylinder] or a 6, a 6 or an 8, we've been seeing a shift to the smaller engine. It was particularly sharp in the month of April," he said. For instance, he said the 6-cylinder model mix is higher for the Cadillac STS.

LaNeve said GM would stick to its strategy of trying to keep a lid on incentives and fleet sales at the risk of losing market share. Ford has made similar comments. LaNeve said pricing for full-size pickups and SUVs is "inelastic." That suggests demand is so low that only the most drastic incentive would work, and GM doesn't want to go there.

"The full-size truck market seems very inelastic. We're not going to try and buy it [sales volume]. We're going to try and stay competitive as we can," LaNeve said.

"Two of our biggest segments are full-size pickups and SUVs. We've got great product, great brands, we're gaining share, and our dealers know how to sell them," he said. "But we're losing volume, and that makes our numbers tough." Read Article
Toyota Camry: Can It Beat the Ford F-150?



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amazinBimmeramazinBimmer - 5/19/2008 12:20:22 PM
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i love it. american hoosiers and their trucks.. lets see what they do with $5 gas around the corner.

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EL34EL34 - 5/19/2008 1:21:12 PM
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Where I live in Orange County, Calif. we're building 30,000 homes from now until 2011.

We have a need for Ford F-150 pickup trucks.

Got it, get it!


utahnkidutahnkid - 5/19/2008 1:44:33 PM
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I'll gladly pay it. It's hard towing a boat with a Prius...


PorschinatorPorschinator - 5/19/2008 8:08:11 PM
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I love a guy that bashes a country that invented all the great things he uses everyday...lol. Its OK...we know ur just jealous and trying to piss people off...lol.

I guess you are one of those people that straps 10 sheets of plywood to the top of your 1985 3 Series...lol. Most house owners I know either wish they could have a truck, own a truck, or bugs someone with a truck.

This is one main reason Station wagons and cross overs are popular in Europe. Easier on fuel but still good for utility and not as hard to navigate small streets.




sholemonsholemon - 5/19/2008 12:59:29 PMView My AgentSpace
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So in summary...

though the F150 still outsells the Camry by 30% maybe in several years the Camry will catch up.

What a waste of an article.

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tundrahqtundrahq - 5/19/2008 10:00:17 PMView My AgentSpace
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I agree. The Camry's hold on the car market is due in large part to their appeal to baby boomers. As this key Toyota demographic gets older, Toyota's sales of their flagship will diminish as well. One of Toyota's biggest problems is their stodgy image - people under 30 (the echo boomers) find Toyotas "old". Finally, and most importantly, Ford sells a lot of F-series trucks because they're very popular and useful. While competition among truck manufacturers and gas prices will reduce 'recreational' truck purchases, the U.S. is a pickup truck nation. Big wide open spaces, big toys, and lots of skilled workers, etc. all equal big trucks.


Homer007Homer007 - 5/19/2008 12:59:29 PM
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March 2008
1 Honda Accord Midsize Car 36,161
2 Ford F-150 Large Truck 34,996
3 Toyota Camry Midsize Car 31,310
4 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Large Truck 30,780
5 Nissan Altima Midsize Car 30,577
6 Chevrolet Impala Large Car 29,010
7 Honda Civic Compact Car 28,971
8 Toyota Corolla Compact Car 21,552
9 Ford Focus Compact Car 21,168
10 Toyota Prius Compact Car 20,635
11 Honda CR-V Compact SUV 18,974
12 Ford Escape Compact SUV 16,735
13 Ford Fusion Midsize Car 15,887
14 Toyota Tacoma Compact Truck 15,587
15 Dodge Ram Pickup 1500 Large Truck 15,452
16 Pontiac G6 Midsize Car 15,108
17 Chevrolet Malibu Midsize Car 14,737
18 Toyota Tundra Large Truck 14,311
19 Dodge Grand Caravan Minivan 14,104
20 Chevrolet Cobalt Compact Car 13,756
Best selling Vehicle for Q1, 2008
Best Selling Vehicles for Q1 2008
1 2008 Ford F-150 20.2% 94,551
2 2008 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 19.1% 90,903
3 2008 Honda Accord 27.8% 87,659
4 2008 Toyota Camry 17.6% 84,176
5 2008 Nissan Altima 31.5% 74,573
6 2008 Chevrolet Impala 15.4% 71,750
7 2008 Honda Civic 22.3% 70,210
8 2008 Toyota Corolla 12.1% 57,857
9 2008 Honda CR-V 16.2% 50,684
10 2008 Ford Focus 10.6% 49,070
11 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt 10.2% 48,024
12 2008 Pontiac G6 63.9% 45,951
13 2008 Toyota Prius 9.4% 42,907
14 2008 Toyota Tundra 8.6% 40,784
15 2008 Ford Fusion 8.6% 40,050
16 2008 Toyota Tacoma 8.4% 39,776
17 2008 Ford Escape 8.4% 39,313
18 2008 Dodge Ram Pickup 1500 16.7% 38,439
19 2008 Chevrolet Malibu 8.0% 37,404
20 2008 Ford Edge 7.7% 36,034

looks to me Accord has the lead thus far.
My prediction for future seller leaders will be a subcompact or compact hybrid cars...yeah some will chuckle at this but just wait til gas price hit $20 per gallon.

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91z4me91z4me - 5/19/2008 2:37:58 PM
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And just how many decades until gas hits $20/gallon?


Homer007Homer007 - 5/19/2008 3:27:56 PM
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I say in lessthan 1.5 decades. a good question...what do you think?


thetruth01thetruth01 - 5/19/2008 7:44:23 PM
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Looks like you might only be using retail sales (ie not fleet sales). Makes for an interesting statistic (if you are Honda), but does not give the complete picture. Numbers still stand as....

F150
Silverado
Camry
Accord
(example, Camry sold 40487 in March, Accord sold 36214)

That is unfortunate too, because you (or somebody)obviously put a lot of work into that chart. I would love to see something that comprehensive that was complete.


IhavearedS2000IhavearedS2000 - 5/19/2008 8:03:52 PM
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Yes those are retail sales and I think it gives the REAL picture, it shows what car people have been buying if using their own money...

Adding fleet sales if anything over-inflates conceptions of what is really popular with the buying public.


toolatetoracetoolatetorace - 5/19/2008 9:42:52 PM
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91z4me $20/gal. hah ! just roll up paycheck and put it in the gas tank ,


adamsaf723adamsaf723 - 5/19/2008 2:38:07 PM
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It only makes sense that Mid-Size cars that are pushing close to 30MPG are going to be high sellers during a gas crisis. Still doesn't mean the demand for fleet pickups will start being cut off.

I hope that they didn't pay people to do extensive research into this theory.

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mercuryguymercuryguy - 5/19/2008 4:26:53 PM
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We've seen this before, during the last oil crisis, people traded their cars for small econoboxes. By the mid 80s, when the oil companies produced big supplies again, people rushed to sell and trade their econoboxes for cars with more horsepower and more trunk space.
If you still drove an econobox, people thought you were too cheap to by a modern car. These are just cyclical trends. Just ways for markets to sell gas and cars at a time when people are living beyond their means already.


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mercuryguymercuryguy - 5/19/2008 4:29:57 PM
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Ever notice how the Asian cars keep getting bigger and more powerful engines every year? (Accord, Maxima, LS460)

Why trade a roomy American car, for a car that aspires to be a roomy American Car?


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0to600to60 - 5/19/2008 5:43:18 PM
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Why would a better selling, usually better looking japanese car trade with an american car? if you havent noticed, the big 3 have been going down for a while. Who would copy a losing formula?


S4cabriofoxoneS4cabriofoxone - 5/19/2008 9:41:41 PMView My AgentSpace
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Speaking of which, I saw a metallic red Malibu today with all the trimmings. It looked quite nice and I wouldn't be embarrassed to drive one.


ChicaneShooterChicaneShooter - 5/21/2008 1:08:29 AM
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ever notice how not infrequently, a new japanese car or truck with a MORE POWERFUL engine will ALSO yeild BETTER MILEAGE?

demonstrating how they have a SUPERIOR CALIBER of engineering talent.




utahnkidutahnkid - 5/21/2008 2:12:04 PM
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Chicane: Look up the new HEMI engine. The one going into the 09 and up RAM


PorschinatorPorschinator - 5/19/2008 8:09:57 PM
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Camry will climb as well as most small cars since the Gas prices is ripping the cash out of wallets at a fevorish pace...

I am surprised the Impala is outselling the Malibu...

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0to600to60 - 5/19/2008 9:48:49 PM
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cop cars. Thats why the impala sales so well.


Hatemachine777Hatemachine777 - 5/20/2008 3:00:49 AM
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No matter what the price of gas goes to trucks like the F-150 will always have a place as long as there is a construction industry if for no other reason. Try strapping a piece of 8-10" diameter ductile iron pipe to anything but a F-250 or similar truck and watch what happens. It's done for the contrustion of every Target, Walmart, and other warehouse type project where there is a fire protection system in place.

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ChicaneShooterChicaneShooter - 5/20/2008 11:26:17 PM
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ChicaneShooterChicaneShooter - 5/20/2008 11:32:01 PM
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who would want a POS gm quality malibu, when you can get a superior lasts forever camry?



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utahnkidutahnkid - 5/21/2008 2:13:48 PM
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If the Camry lasts longer, why does the Malibu have a such a longer warranty

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Htay7500Htay7500 - 5/21/2008 2:29:03 PM
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as of lately, the camry I was in had a pretty bad interior next to the malibu which actually felt nice. I don't understand though, toyota is getting boring and boring by the minute.

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ChicaneShooterChicaneShooter - 5/22/2008 8:44:23 AM
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the 'Bu NEEDS a longer warranty so people won't be afraid to buy it.

EIGHT year old toyotas --across the whole model line-- have less problems than gm junk half as old.

toyota buyers DON'T CARE how long the warranties are. they simply KNOW the cars will still be trouble free long after the warranty expires.



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Htay7500Htay7500 - 5/22/2008 4:42:42 PM
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It'll still be boring unless its their sports cars. nonetheless, I don't care how long it'll last, it will still hesitate on highway speeds and I'd rather get anything else from honda, nissan, mazda, chevy or subaru before toyota.

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gregsfcgregsfc - 5/24/2008 6:22:19 PM
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As others have stated, the article assumes the Camry will remain the most popular car. There is no doubt that the full-size pickups, including the F150, will fall to the passenger car. In fact, I predict it will happen in '09 if gas prices don't fall, but it won't be the Camry. Probably the Accord. The brand new Malibu is just now catching wind, so it is underrepresented in how it will finish the year. The mid-size car market has many more players than the full-size truck market and is harder for one brand to show dominance, even so, a mid-size will soon take over.

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