Word: truckfuls
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...Japanese share of the compact-truck market slipped to 41.7% a year ago. Toyota and Nissan, two of the leading Japanese vehicle manufacturers, are third and fourth in the market. While Toyota exports all of its trucks from Japan, Nissan builds 8,000 a month at its new plant in Smyrna, Tenn. The two companies have only 9.5% of the American car business, but they control 38.7% of the light-truck market...
...trucks are a breed apart from their clunky forerunners. They are easier to drive and more comfortable to ride in. Says Lynette Maker, a nurse in Burlington, Wis., of her new Cherokee Chief Jeep: "It has enough room for hauling and doesn't drive like a truck." The vehicles can also be purchased with air conditioning, power seats and expensive stereo equipment. Says Ed Rikess, owner of Southview Chevrolet in St. Paul: "The biggest option is the fanciest music system we can get." One out of four small pickups is sold with four-wheel drive, which provides greater traction...
...Truck buyers are young-the median age is around 33-and about one-third of new owners between the ages of 20 and 30 are women. Joan Cheek, of Simi Valley, Calif., passed along her 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass to her son, and now commutes to her job at a hospital in a 1984 Chevy S-10 pickup. Says she: "A lot of women are driving trucks now. It's the thing." Cheek finds her truck handy for carrying groceries and hauling tree trimmings to the dump. She plans to add a metal cap (average price: $270) to cover...
...cars, U.S. manufacturers are fighting strong competition from the Japanese. The first of their compact pickups landed on the docks at Long Beach, Calif., some 35 years ago, but the Datsun never made it to the showroom floor. As legend has it, a driver noticed it on the carrier truck, followed it to the dealer and bought the pickup on the spot. By 1978, every one of the 489,508 compact pickups sold in the U.S. was made in Japan. But Detroit has roared back. General Motors and Ford, which had been importing Japanese vehicles to sell under their nameplates...
Japanese auto executives are angry at themselves for letting sales ebb away. Recalls one: "We were so cocky that we just went ahead and let all these American engineers take a look at nearly whatever they wanted to in our light-truck plants." Now the Japanese are pushing to improve sales through low prices. Though they face a 25% import duty imposed in 1980, they are unfettered by the quotas that restrict the number of cars they can export to the U.S. A Mazda Sundowner B-2000 can be bought for $5,795. The lowest-cost American-made pickup...