Toyota Dealers Desperately Want A Small Pickup Truck

Sep. 11, 2023 10:23 AM ET byJacob Oliva Trucks /6 Comments

Dealers want to sell a small truck and Toyota USA is well aware of this.

Since last year, Toyota USA has beenclosely monitoringthe budding compact truck segment, currently populated by the hot-sellingFord Maverickand Hyundai Santa Fe. Toyota dealers have been admiring these models from afar and have desperately wanted a compact pickup of their own for years now.

Speaking to一个utomotive News, Steve Gates, the current chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Council, said he's been asking for a compact Toyota pickup "since back in the Jim Press days." Jim Press was, of course, Toyota Motor North America's COO until 2007.

Gates also owns a Ford dealership, witnessing first-handhow quickly the Maverick flies off dealer lotswithout affecting the sales of the Ranger and F-150.

"The quality small truck is Toyota's DNA. We hear all the time, several times a week, stories of people who had older Toyota trucks, before those trucks even had a name, and they long for another small Toyota truck. I think the volume opportunity is huge, without affecting Tacoma and Tundra sales," Gates told一个utomotive News.

一个part from himself, other members of the dealer council's product committee share Gates' sentiments and have already submitted a formal request for a small Toyota truck.

Danny Wilson, dealer principal at Wilson Toyota of Ames in Iowa and also part of the committee, stated that the small Toyota truck would harken to the brand's heritage in the US.

"The small pickup truck? That's where things started for Toyota," said Wilson. "I think that would be kind of a cool mindset. It's always worked well when we've gone back to our roots. What we think is old, the next generation thinks is new and cool."

Toyota brand head Dave Christ seconded the company's stance about the small truck,saying that it is possibleconsidering how the automaker makes its cars and the current platforms offered, particularly the Corolla sedan andCorolla Cross. It will also help the automaker's Corporate Average Fuel Economy metrics.

However, Christ pointed out that this isn't a confirmation that it's happening, contradictory toprevious Toyota Stout reportscoming from outside the US.

"We don't have anything planned," Christ said. "We're not announcing anything to the dealers. I won't even say 'yet' because that would suggest it's coming. But certainly, it's something we've looked at."

Meanwhile, Ram has already beaten Toyota to the punch,with a plan to enterthe lucrative American small truck segment with therecently revealed Rampage.

Toyota Dealers Desperately Want A Small Pickup Truck

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