1- According to Edmunds.com analyst Jesse Toprak.
"The Tundra's price point has put off many potential buyers who might've considered a worthy, Texas-built truck from an import automaker with a solid reputation," he said.
That's a big hurdle, made even bigger by a deep slump in the U.S. home building market and lofty prices at the gas pump.
The majority of new Tundra buyers are previous Toyota owners, not drivers won-over from other brands, which is key to the vehicle line's success. In order to hit the buying bone of some Ford (F) and General Motors die-hards, Toprak says the cost needs to be adjusted.
"The domestic truck makers have built a very good reputation," he explained. "And Toyota is having a difficult time taking away their customers; the price point has to be more attractive."
The Tundra's average transaction price is $33,151, the car-buying website reported. The Ford F-Series, on the other end of the pricing spectrum, goes for $29,591.
Pricing isn't the only speed bump Toyota has encountered in its journey to take a piece of the profitable U.S. truck market. The Tundra earlier this month earned four stars in its head-on collision crash test conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Not bad on the surface, but GM and Ford grabbed five stars in the frontal tests, and every advantage helps in this fiercely competitive segment.
Still, if history is any indication, Toyota will likely prove a worthy competitor, despite what may turn out to be a few early hiccups. In fact, the company's move to quickly cut prices on the Tundra is part of what has made it such a success and likely the dethroner of General Motors (GM) as the world's leading carmaker.
"Toyota does a great job assessing future demand and are proactive in dealing with it," Toprak said. "Some automakers allow their products sit for months and months without doing a thing. Not Toyota. They'll do what they need to do to fix this."
Source: http://news.morningstar.com/news/ViewNews.asp?article=/MW/05150C61-DF2D-4938-A9CF-E81938BB8B7D_univ.xml
2- The 2007 Tundra is slated to hit showrooms next month and Toyota is hoping its biggest truck ever will lay waste to the competition in the same way the Camry has risen to the top of the hotly-contested midsize sedan market.
Gary White, who oversees GM's full-size trucks vehicle line, lobbed a shot across the bow, illustrating the heated competition in the high-profit segment.
"They did what they said they would do - develop a full-size truck emulating our old models," he said, before explaining how GM has improved its lineup.
Still, industry observers and analysts are applauding Toyota's work.
AutoNation's Mike Jackson, chief executive of the nation's biggest car retailer, said he believes the Tundra to be a big and necessary step towards Toyota's steady move to global number one, but it won't come easily.
"The Tundra is a great truck, but so is the [Chevrolet] Silverado, so is the [Ford] F-150," he said. "This won't be a hot knife through butter for Toyota like it was when they took on sedans."
No doubt, there's a long way to go for Toyota. The F-Series is the best-selling vehicle in the United States by a long shot. In December 2006, Ford sold 70,580 of its flagship pickups, easily surpassing the competition despite a 21% plunge from a year earlier.
In comparison, Toyota sold only 12,468 of its current Tundra model.
"Toyota will be extremely happy if they can manage to sell 200,000 of these trucks per year" Jackson added. The Ford F-Series, the segment leader for about 30 years, sold almost four times that amount in 2006.
Toyota's Lentz didn't get into specific volume targets but did admit that he harbors no delusions of toppling the heavies in the segment.
"We'll have to see where the market takes us," he said. "But do we ever foresee selling Ford and Chevy (GM) size numbers? No -- not gonna happen."
Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/toyotas-tundra-stalks-us-pickup/story.aspx?guid=%7B9E5F7FB4-73F4-4DF7-ADBC-FD08753F4344%7D