Identity Crisis? Japanese Trucks Attract City Slickers Rather Than Traditional Buyers

If there's one thing Americans can do? That's build good trucks.

Agreed and today there is a very thin margin between American, and Japanese cars.

Most truck buyers are "True Blue Americans" and would rather die than be seen in a foreign made vehicle, they are the ones with the "Buy American" stickers on the bumper.

The Japanese found an obstacle they haven't yet figured out how to overcome:

Red, White and Blue

Meanwhile, they're oblivious to the fact that almost all of the raw material comes from China, and the electronics are manufactured by Japan.

"rue uaw,
I'd rather be seen in an American built Tundra than a Silverado from Government Motors built in Mexico and imported to the USA using our tax dollars to support those Mexican workers."


sportsbike8 I dont think im Mexican neither and their are about 100 Hispanics at our plant. Regardless not only are "true blues" patriotic they want a BETTER truck than the recall laden Tundra with no rear locking diff or a Titian.

You will never see a ridgeline at a construction site. LOL!! It simply doesn't have enough towing and load capacity. Whatever makes you happy I guess.

lol I agree with Lexsucks, the ridgeline is pretty tame for a truck. The Avalanche gets 70more hp, the same fuel economy (well... 1mpg better on the highway) and 8100lbs towing capacity.

Ridgeline gets points only for being cheap :P

Are you effin kidding me!? The ridgeline is so bad it may not be an option for truck owners next year. I guess your biases knows no boundary it forced you to pick the weakest of all trucks.

Bmw8te there are just as many components in Japanese/German cars. Globalization is nothing new for the auto industry.

uaw_lax...my comment was in regards to the fact that there are some hardcore pro-america union-types that won't so much as lay a finger on products that aren't labeled as being "Made in America". And who don't fully understand that the expression is little more than a trademark these days. Some of them are just blithering idiots. You could stamp Chinese dogsh** with "Made in America", and they'd believe it.

The same holds true for ANY slogan or badge.

the Avalanche still is the better truck when you drop its midgate and gives you more storage room then the ridgeline and where it really beats it is with the nearly double the amount it can tow over the Ridgeline.

Top 10 Pickup Truck Sales in September 2010
Rank YTD Sales YTD Change Year-Over-Year Monthly Sales Last 12 months
1 Ford F-Series +30.6% September 2010 47,433 Coming soon
385,879 September 2009 33,877

2 Chevrolet Silverado +16.7% September 2010 32,185 Coming soon
267,715 September 2009 19,401

3 Ram Trucks -1.6% September 2010 16,887 Coming soon
140,889 September 2009 13,452

4 GMC Sierra +13.6% September 2010 11,077 Coming soon
90,235 September 2009 7,244

5 Toyota Tacoma -9.2% September 2010 8,874 Coming soon
77,584 September 2009 7,513

6 Toyota Tundra +21.8% September 2010 6,923 Coming soon
68,645 September 2009 6,308

7 Ford Ranger -2.4% September 2010 3,815 Coming soon
42,844 September 2009 2,052

8 Nissan Frontier +42.2% September 2010 3,901 Coming soon
30,035 September 2009 2,164

9 Chevrolet Colorado -33.2% September 2010 2,723 Coming soon
18,426 September 2009 2,094

10 Nissan Titan +27.4% September 2010 2,063 Coming soon
17,463 September 2009 1,900

less then 13,000 ridgelines sold this year to date.

Fewer than.

Define "buy American".

"They found that GM and Ford truck owners, for instance, are more likely to dine at Cracker Barrel (CBRL) restaurants, have dial-up Internet, and use the paper Yellow Pages, according to purchase data from Nielsen Claritas. A much higher share of buyers of Toyota's big pickup dine at steakhouses, shop online, own golf clubs, and subscribe to magazines like Runner's World, the Nielsen data show."

ROFL