GM Midsized Pickups

[Bob Rosadini]

Automotive News / February 9, 2016

General Motors will increase production of the Chevrolet Colorado midsize pickup, which has been in tight supply since its debut 18 months ago, a company executive said today.

Work is being done at GM’s Wentzville, Mo., plant -- where the Colorado and it sibling, the GMC Canyon are assembled -- to add “hard tooling capacity on the line,” said Sandor Piszar, Chevy’s director of truck marketing.

“We will have additional production capacity at Wentzville” to support the fast-selling trucks, Piszar told reporters at a GM event today.

Darin Copeland, a GM spokesman at the Wentzville plant, said work is being done to “increase the line speed to make more trucks for our customers down the road.” He said that process should be completed sometime in coming weeks.

“Small production increases daily can mean bigger numbers over the course of a year,” he said.

GM wouldn’t quantify the increase in production.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20160209/OEM01/160209816/gm-mobilizes-to-build-more-small-pickups

Edited February 10, 2016 by RichardJensen

[630land]

Cousins work there and it's the last auto plant standing in STL area.

[akirby]

I fixed the title - these are not small pickups.

 

I'm really surprised they're doing as well as they are without impacting full sized pickup sales. it bodes well for a Ranger comeback.

[rmc523]

I've been keeping track of their sales. When I get a chance, I'll post the numbers and trends I've found.

 

Do we know what incentives have been on both the mid and full sizers since the midsizers debut? I'm interested to see if sales are artificially high because of GM incentives (we know they would), or if demand truly is as strong as it seems.

[akirby]

I know we looked at incentives at one point last year expecting to see bigger incentives on the full sized trucks but that wasn't the case. Or at least it didn't appear that way at the time.

[J-150]

So how exactly do they add vans to this mix?

[jpd80]

So how exactly do they add vans to this mix?

GM intends outsourcing the next Light Duty Express

 

Production of Colorado and Canyon last year topped 135K

 

Colorado 97,657

Canyon 37,587

Edited February 11, 2016 by jpd80

[silvrsvt]

GM intends outsourcing the next Light Duty Express

 

They do already...its a Nissan NV200 rebadged

 

They still make 2500 and 3500 Vans in the same plant.

[J-150]

 

They do already...its a Nissan NV200 rebadged

 

They still make 2500 and 3500 Vans in the same plant.

That's where I was going. If mid size demand is that high, the vans may need to move elsewhere.

[jpd80]

That's where I was going. If mid size demand is that high, the vans may need to move elsewhere.

Correct as GM has used the plant where the former Light Duty Express was being made

but wasn't aware that the new, outsourced Light Duty Express had arrived yet...

 

Two areas where Ford can close the gap on GM sales would be

1. New Full sized SUV, Expedition & Navigator

2. Mid Sized Truck and Utility, Ranger and Bronco

 

The arrival of those two pproduct groups will go a long way towards closing the sales gap with GM,

all without compromising ROI and ATPs.

Edited February 11, 2016 by jpd80

[sullynd]

They do already...its a Nissan NV200 rebadged

 

They still make 2500 and 3500 Vans in the same plant.

That's more a TC competitor. They plan to have AM General start building the 1500 Vans.

[jpd80]

So GM's Mid-Sized truck sales and product mix is making the decision easy for Ford.

 

The old paradigm of Ranger being a low cost cheap transport vehicle is consigned to history

and the only reason Ranger became that way is because Ford didn't offer other variations.

 

Just like not spending money on Large SUVs, ignoring the Mid Sized truck market has hurt sales,

and profit but we don't know how much because Ford still isn't really competing properly in either.

Edited February 11, 2016 by jpd80

[bdegrand]

GM intends outsourcing the next Light Duty Express

 

Production of Colorado and Canyon last year topped 135K

 

Colorado 97,657

Canyon 37,587

Ju

 

I dug up 89,525 sold for Colorado 2015. The difference was actual sales to production. Colorado sold about 5500 in January.

Edited February 11, 2016 by bdegrand

[aneekr]

I'm really surprised they're doing as well as they are without impacting full sized pickup sales. it bodes well for a Ranger comeback.

 

What surprises me is all OEMs that sold midsize pickup trucks in the U.S. market a decade ago either failed to make any significant updates to those vehicles or discontinued them altogether until GM's revised Colorado/Canyon came into the market for model year 2015. GM deserves kudos for injecting newfound vitality into this market segment. Since then, Toyota introduced its third generation Tacoma and Honda the second gen Ridgeline.

 

I'm confident that Ford will reintroduce Ranger to the U.S. market by the end of the decade.

[silvrsvt]

 

What surprises me is all OEMs that sold midsize pickup trucks in the U.S. market a decade ago either failed to make any significant updates to those vehicles or discontinued them altogether until GM's revised Colorado/Canyon came into the market for model year 2015. GM deserves kudos for injecting newfound vitality into this market segment. Since then, Toyota introduced its third generation Tacoma and Honda the second gen Ridgeline.

 

I'm confident that Ford will reintroduce Ranger to the U.S. market by the end of the decade.

 

There is a market for them, but at the same time they aren't going to sell 300K of them like they did 10-15 years ago. Its hard to justify a stand alone product that sells only about ~150K units a year

[silvrsvt]

That's more a TC competitor. They plan to have AM General start building the 1500 Vans.

 

They are? The Express 1500 isn't listed on Chevy's website.

 

And this:

 

Chevrolet Express 1500, GMC Savana 1500 Dropped From Lineup for 2015

 

http://www.edmunds.com/car-news/chevrolet-express-1500-gmc-savana-1500-dropped-from-lineup-for-2015.html?SID=ikj1xpuj910115i0001ol&kw=flexibletexttool&PID=6160237&AID=10364102&mktid=cj260233&mktcat=affiliates

 

Ford decided to keep its van market share and then bring the Ranger or whatever they are going to bring here.

[7Mary3]

AM General may be building the 2500/3500 series vans and 3500/4500 cut-aways.

 

Not sure what GM's long range large van plans are at this point.

[jpd80]

Ju

 

I dug up 89,525 sold for Colorado 2015. The difference was actual sales to production. Colorado sold about 5500 in January.

Oh I agree 100%

Manufacturing also includes inventory and units sold in Canada and Mexico

 

Colorado

- USA 84,430

- Canada 5,095

- Mexico 1,199

- Invntry 15,700 (Inventory 1Jan 2015, inventory 12 months prior was 625)

Total 106,424

 

Canyon

- USA 30,077

- Canada 4,635

- Mexico not sold

- Invntry 9,900 (Inventory 1Jan 2015, inventory 12 months prior was zero)

Total 44,612

 

Interestingly,

Ford managed to sell 10,382 Rangers in Mexico in 2015 alongside +12,000 F Series.

So much for Ranger getting in the way of F Series sales....

Edited February 12, 2016 by jpd80

[rmc523]

Oh I agree 100%

Manufacturing also includes inventory and units sold in Canada and Mexico

 

Colorado

- USA 84,430

- Canada 5,095

- Mexico 1,199

- Invntry 15,700 (Inventory 1Jan 2015, inventory 12 months prior was 625)

Total 106,424

 

Canyon

- USA 30,077

- Canada 4,635

- Mexico not sold

- Invntry 9,900 (Inventory 1Jan 2015, inventory 12 months prior was zero)

Total 44,612

 

Interestingly,

Ford managed to sell 10,382 Rangers in Mexico in 2015 alongside +12,000 F Series.

So much for Ranger getting in the way of F Series sales....

Can the Mexican market really be compared to the US market though (in regards to your last point)?

[jpd80]

Can the Mexican market really be compared to the US market though (in regards to your last point)?

I'm not comparing it to the US market. It's just a reflection of the global battle in other markets

where Ranger continues to out sell Colorado.

 

What I wanted to show is that while Colorado managed to sell just over 1,100 units in Mexico,

Ranger sold well over 10,000 and all of those units were restricted to the 2.5 I-4 gas engine...

[rmc523]

Here's a much easier to read line graph of the GM Trucks sales that I've been keeping track of...

 

 

GM loves to dump inventory of the Silverado and Sierra in December it seems. A more interesting point in regards to this discussion though.....look at the overall decline for the Silverado and Sierra since August of 2015....

 

The Colorado and Canyon have actually stayed very consistent since their ramp up....even though I've been keeping track of the numbers, I didn't even realize how relatively consistent they seem to be until throwing the numbers in this type of chart.

Edited February 13, 2016 by rmc523

[aneekr]

 

There is a market for them, but at the same time they aren't going to sell 300K of them like they did 10-15 years ago. Its hard to justify a stand alone product that sells only about ~150K units a year

 

Good point. A decade ago, that may have been difficult to justify. However, GM, FCA, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Ford have restructured their operations since then to make those volumes feasible.

 

Also, as jpd80 alluded to, each of the midsize pickup truck models currently available in the U.S. market are sold in Canada and Mexico as well. Additionally, variants or siblings of these trucks are popular elsewhere in the Americas (Brazil, Argentina), Africa (Egypt, South Africa), Asia-Pacific (Thailand, Australia), and Europe (Spain, Portugal).

Edited February 13, 2016 by aneekr

[jpd80]

The other point is that product mix is much different these days, Crew cabs and Super cabs dominate sales

in Nth America as well as around the Globe. Ford and GM have rediscovered the value of Mid Sized Trucks

but it will take Ford a little longer to get going in Nth America. That is good because it can defray the next

product cycle development costs across global markets, GM has made the Colorado very US specific

so I don't thenk those scales of economy are possible.

[RichardJensen]

 

What surprises me is all OEMs that sold midsize pickup trucks in the U.S. market a decade ago either failed to make any significant updates to those vehicles or discontinued them altogether until GM's revised Colorado/Canyon came into the market for model year 2015

 

You're forgetting the 2005 Colorado/Canyon. Those were new models that replaced the S-10 & Sonoma.

 

They didn't sell.

 

Times change. There was little to no market for those trucks ten years ago. There is now. The cynical/grouchy part of me says that since these are 'old man' trucks, their increase in popularity is proportional to the age of baby boomers.

[J-150]

 

You're forgetting the 2005 Colorado/Canyon. Those were new models that replaced the S-10 & Sonoma.

 

They didn't sell.

 

Times change. There was little to no market for those trucks ten years ago. There is now. The cynical/grouchy part of me says that since these are 'old man' trucks, their increase in popularity is proportional to the age of baby boomers.

Underpowered, poor fuel efficiency, uncompetitive. Rebadged Isuzus that were awful to drive (we had a few in our fleet).