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.”
LOL at “lotus notes” in your list of hates.
I thought I had successfully managed to have a career while completely avoiding Lotus Notes until a consulting gig about 10 years ago at a place that was a big Notes shop. I quickly learned I needed a utility called KillNotes.exe, which I kept on my desktop.
Notes would crash, and leave crud running in the background such that you couldn’t restart it, short of rebooting the machine. KillNotes killed all that background cruft such that you could restart Notes without rebooting the machine.
Such a piece of crap.
Yeah, well, I just do, viscerally, but I like cowboys and horses, golf and tennis, beaches, kids, dogs, cats, men does that make up for it?
YEE HAW
But have your cowboys always been heroes?
I had a `72 Dodge 1/2 ton with the 318, 4 speed. You could almost pull stumps in `granny gear’. In fact I did pull a small Russian olive out of the ground with a chain.
My current is an `83 Chevy shortbed with the 305 auto. That truck has paid for itself hundreds of times over, no exaggeration. It has hauled everything from bricks, to a rebuilt engine for a Buick Regal to building materials and construction waste.
I was driving on Wacker (?) or some boulevard in Chicagoland years ago and other motorists were signalling me, I felt like I was in the movie `Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ going the wrong way on the interstate.
Found out later that trucks weren’t allowed on that freeway. How screwy is that?
Yeah, there’s nothing like driving a fuel efficient car most of the week, then getting in your truck and stomping on a V-8. The downside is prying those tiny cars out of your wheel wells ....
Software design by some descendant of the Marquis De Sade no doubt.
With Europe going fully electric vehicles in the next 20-40 years, those pickup trucks are going to either be banned, or recharged every 10 miles, or every five miles when pulling a boat or anything else.
Beg pardon, ma’am, I thought you were a crabby little feller.
Everyone admires a woman with few strong peeves.
Hard to love cowboys but not pickups, though...?
Let me correct your statement...... Toyota’s Hilux is the vehicle of choice for the US government to purchase for terrorists in the Middle East.
“And the same thing that killed off the station wagon (another handy vehicle) government regulations.”
I drove a station wagon,filled with kids,for years.
What government regs killed them off? I always just assumed they were just not “in” with younger people.
.
Practical? No.
Car guy geek points. Definitely so.
They were classified as a car so they had to meet the same standards.
So the big three decided to put a station wagon on a compact truck chassis and the SUV on a full size truck chassis and presto!
They didn't have to meet the car fuel standards.
“So the big three decided to put a station wagon on a compact truck chassis and the SUV on a full size truck chassis and presto!”
Thanks,I was unaware of that.More government s*** !
They were great cars.
.
no unfortunately
Well, circumstances force me to be both a cowboy and a hero. Anything less is to be knocked flat forever. I’d rather get some dust, a black eye or two, torn jeans, and some bruises, but keep on standing.
To keep the yeehaw holy is a balancing act. It has to stop the moment it verges into really being self serving... the Lord glorified no more.
I thank Jesus that He forgives me for my fumbles!
The new CRV is an excellent vehicle!
Good for you and your Wife!
Enjoy!
I drive a 2013 Mazda 2 (which actually sits a good bit higher than the 1997 Protege’ it replaced), so I know all about looking up at F150’s and Silverados as they go by. But I occasionally get out my 1991 F-350, dually, 4WD, 7.3 liter diesel, flatbed and drive around looking at all the ‘little people.’
Muslim Europe isn’t going to give a toot about their carbon footprint. Their Hilux diesels with gun mounts will fight over control of coal power plants.
Best American made car on the road for the money.
Agreed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.