Posted on 11/07/2017 2:28:56 AM PST by jjotto
Don’t worry, they aren’t suffering. As shown by the rise of pickup trucks as daily drivers and family haulers in North America, Europe’s burgeoning love affair with versatile light trucks isn’t hurting the owners. It’s traditional passengers car makers who must worry.
Sales stats arriving from the Continent show a marketplace that’s increasingly different from years gone by. The increasing popularity of SUVs and crossovers in the land of diesels, manual transmissions, and small displacements is nothing new, but the exploding popularity of honest-to-God pickups is.
According to JATO Dynamics data published by Automotive News Europe, midsize pickup sales in Europe rose 19 percent in the first half of 2017. While that only amounts to 80,300 pickups sold, a fraction of the 216,194 sold in the U.S. in Q1 2017, the segment’s just getting started. Some analysts expect volume to top 200,000 units next year.
What’s fueling the hunger for a vehicle type long associated with public works crews, laborers and nothing else? Choice, for one thing, but also — to some degree — government regulations.
With fuel economy and emissions standards growing ever stricter, the traditional body-on-frame SUVs used by the well-heeled to pull trailers and boats are dwindling from the marketplace. Crossovers, especially those with small-displacement turbocharged engines and multi-cog transmissions, can’t cut it. Enter the body-on-frame midsize truck and its often hefty towing capacity.
In the UK, by far the biggest truck-buying country in Europe, the demise of the revered Land Rover Defender made consumers take a second look at the Ford Ranger for such duties. Pickup sales rose 17 percent in the UK in the first half of 2017. In Germany, it was 15 percent. France saw pickup sales rise 20 percent, while sales in Sweden and Italy rose 24 and 20 percent, respectively.
So promising is the fledgling segment, automakers are scrambling to field European-market pickups. Volkswagen already sells its Amarok, while Nissan’s Navara, Mitsubishi’s L200/Triton, Fiat’s Fullback, Ford’s Ranger, and Toyota’s Hilux round out the available offerings. Catering to buyers in the luxury market, Mercedes-Benz’s X-Class appears this year.
Renault — hardly a name you associate with rugged, do-anything private vehicles — is now considering whether it should sell its overseas-market Alaskan pickup (based, like the X-Class, on the Navara) in Europe. Meanwhile, PSA Group, maker of Citroën and Peugeot cars, wonders whether it should enter the fray or risk being left behind. The French automaker announced a joint venture with China’s Changan Automobile in September for a midsize, Chinese-market pickup. Maybe Europeans would like it, too.
With the exception of the Ranger, which comes to America in 2019, there’s little Detroit presence in the European truck field. If you’ve got the cash to spend, importers like AEC Europe will get you behind the wheel of a Ram 1500, which is exactly what one French man did.
In a recent interview with Trucks.com, Philippe Leroy describes his purchase of a gas-guzzling, lane-hogging 1500 back in 2009. The French cards were stacked against the obese American vehicle, but he soon grew to love it. He’s bought a new one from a Paris importer every two years since.
“At first, they don’t understand why I’m driving such a car,” Leroy said of the naysayers. “But when I talk about the benefits for buying this car, they understand. It’s the perfect truck for everyday living.”
Very true but as of Sunday night when I was done, I would almost not see a book for a few decades.
That was the loose ones. There are a few bookcases left.
THe Kraut on that show became a soap opera star.
Interesting.
I don’t remember seeing any pickups when I lived in Europe in the 1970s and early 1980s.
The rugged little Land Rovers (NOT the luxury versions that were sold in the US) were everywhere, as well as Peugeot or Citroen utility vehicles.
One of their best segments.
The mighty Hi Lux.
My dad had a Chevy LUV back in the early 80s. Those didn’t seem to last.
Eric Braden did well.
“In the original Top Gear show they tried everything short of a crusher to stop a Hilux from running. It kept starting and driving. Props to Toyota, tough little truck”
I remember that episode.
IIRC the last attempt to destroy it involved putting it on the roof of a high rise building that was being dynamited.
The building collapsed and with a little tinkering the little truck started up and ran.
Maybe, but it is not the best platform for firing a Dishka. The second and third rounds and on would be aimed at airplanes, no matter what you were really aiming at.
Wesley Pegden would approve.
European cars were always smaller due to taxes, high fuel costs and environmental regulations. I think one of the reasons small car sales in the US and Europe have tanked is due to the ongoing press for better and better fuel economy. This makes the small cars intolerably small. If you want to haul a few pieces of wood for a home project, how do you get them home? Daily, I see $90 worth of lumber poking out through a window or strapped, or even held on the roof, by passenger and driver. If you want to take home a big screen TV, how do you do it? I was standing outside of Best Buy next to an employee manning a hauler with a washer on it. Up drives a subcompact; WAY too small for the load. He rolled his eyes and I asked, “How often does this happen?” He said, “More often than you’d imagine.”
The astonishing thing is, why did it take Europeans this long to discover pickups?
I just looked, Ford will have a 2019 Ranger
Yep, Ford made the decision to bring that model (and the Ranger-based Bronco) back to the U.S. almost two years ago. Toyota sells the Hilux here as well, they just call it the Tacoma. It looks like VW will be last to the party, though I've seen several Amaroks on the roads in Texas. They're sifting across the Mexican border.
You either prefer movies or those electronic things that can be changed on a whim?
Socialists are into LOOKING like they have status. Even if their bank accounts say differently. Pickups are redneck American trash looking to them.
Is that the line of ISIS trucks Barak ordered not to shoot at?
I see a lot of the same silliness.
My Tacoma doesn’t have the biggest bed but a trailer makes up for that with oddball loads.
I love drivers like you 'cause it makes me laugh to crowd you, blow smoke in your face and watch you wet yourself, toto.
lol
My Carolla has a 1500 lb tow limit. I installed a hitch from Amazon for about $150. I can tow my 5x8 utility trailer (has a 1200 lb limit) or my Scout 145 skiff weighing 1470 lbs. The FWD pulling the boat out at low tide is great for taking the smirks away from all the RWD truckers.
Almost.
History needs to be preserved.
As Homer Simpson asked, “can’t somebody else do it”?
My wife the book nut will read most anything except Ayn Rand.
For commercial use, Euros have preferred enclosed vans, and one-ton trucks where vans wouldn’t suffice.
Pickup sales seem to be to the private luxury market. Hard to imagine socialist governments in Europe keeping up the roads properly, and non-immigrant Euros are getting older, fatter and wealthier like their American counterparts. SUVs and pickups become natural choices.
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