Full-size pickup truck sales expected to tow auto industry to strong February

Michael Wayland | mwayland@mlive.com 10. Chevrolet Cruze- 14,524 Best-selling Detroit Three vehicles of January 2013 gallery (10 photos)

DETROIT- The U.S. auto industry is expected to remain resilient this month with sales topping last year’s strong February numbers.

TrueCar.com and LMC Automotive analysts say sales of new cars and trucks are expected to come in at about 1.2 million in February, up nearly 6 percent from a year ago.

TrueCar.com senior analyst Jesse Toprak attributes the expected increase to the “unusual strength” of the full-size truck segment.

“Pent up demand for pickup trucks by small businesses will be a critical factor in this year's continued sales recovery,” he said in a statement.

Pickup truck sales, according to industry experts, have continued to pick up in recent months thanks to easier lending and the recovering housing market.

LMC Automotive predicts retail sales this month to reach 931,100 units, which would be 9 percent higher than in February 2012 and would translate to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 12.1 million units, up from last February’s 11.7 million unit pace, but weaker than the 13.1 million-unit retail pace in January 2013.

Fleet deliveries are expected to remain at the same level as in January—accounting for 21 percent of the sales mix, according to the automotive forecasting firm.

The majority of automakers, including the Detroit Three, reported January sales of double-digit gains from the same time in 2012, combining for overall auto sales topping 1 million last month, up about 14 percent from a year ago.

Toprak earlier this month said he doesn’t “see too much of a downside risk” this year regarding U.S. auto sales.

Positive forces for the industry, such as the stock market, low interest rates, new products and pent-up demand, are all expected to continue to help the industry sell about 15.5 million vehicles this year.

General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC and foreign automakers are all expected to report their February sales on Friday.

Check back to MLive.com/auto tomorrow for more details on February sales.

Email Michael Wayland: MWayland@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/MikeWayland

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Correct junction tactics

This video of Stokes Croft on a weekday evening is interesting. As well as the number of cyclists trying to along a road which clearly doesn't welcome them, most drivers are taking the collect "seize the junction" option here at the junction with Jamaica Street. Indeed, the yellow-hatching only covers half the road: its OK to block vehicles coming out of Jamaica Street, just not those going in.


What is odd is that the car at the end, WR60VVG , doesn't take the junction, even though at list late in the cycle, there's a risk of the lights changing before she gets to go through. Admittedly, she has passed the lights so can't see them changing, but even so, why hold back?

It's only as she goes past the camera that we can see why: she's on the phone.

That's a problem that phone users present: they slow down the vehicles behind. If she'd been paying attention she would have gone through earlier, and another car could have come up behind. While she didn't suffer, another vehicle did.

No, this is what we'd do


At 0:15 you can see some pickup -a proper vehicle- go through the roundabout and stop in front of the Cotham Hill traffic. That lets vehicles behind turn right, and ensures that the pickup driver isn't held up by anyone else. Of course, it does block that Cotham Hill traffic, so the usual "If you don't see them they aren't there" tactic kicks in: don't look to either side.

What does the driver do. The phone would be a context switch and make them less responsive to changes in the road ahead. No, they do a better action: they eat their breakfast. There's nothing like a bacon roll and a bottle of cider for a breakfast on the road. Eating this way reduces the cost of congestion: instead of being stuck in the middle of the roundabout being "wasted" time, it is now useful. We think the drivers coming up the hill, instead of being unhappy about the driver's actions, should exploit this opportunity and have their own breakfasts.

Pickup trucks aren't a Miami vice

BECAUSE I'M guilty of being a newspaper reporter, it's an idea that lots of people have suggested to me. Let's crack down on antisocial behaviour by banning hoodies from town centres at night.

Before you pick your pen in disgust I'd like to say I disagree with the idea. There is, of course, nothing wrong with people who wear hooded tops, and being young and in a town centre after dark is not in itself illegal. Well, it isn't until Lingering With Malicious Intent becomes a bookable offence. Banning things simply because someone doesn't like them is an idiotic idea.

It's the same with pickup trucks, which apparently the good people of Miami now want to ban from the city at night. Under a proposed reenactment of bonkers bylaws dating back to the Sixties, you'll be fined if you're spotted with an example of an all-American icon between 7pm and 7am. Even if it's parked up on your driveway overnight.

Personally, I've never had much truck with pickups; they are the Transits of the American Bible Belt, only worse because your stuff in the back gets wet whenever it rains. They're also, if you've been brought up to think the Land Rover Discovery is a big car, incredibly excessive and a tad wasteful of the world's resources. Pickups - even the really fast ones with pushrod V8 engines - are stupid.

But I wouldn't ban them, because it's a bylaw that boils down to automotive taste and I don't think it's fair to tell hardworking Dolly Parton fans what they can and can't drive, in exactly the same way you shouldn't outlaw Max Powered hot hatches or the Nissan Micra. I'm sure if the local council got wind of this idea they'd slowly ban everything, and we'd all eventually end up being forced to own hybrid hatchbacks.

Banning certain types of car in order to make suburbia look more respectable is one Miami Vice we could definitely do without. The day some jobsworth from the local authority knocks on my door and tells me I'm in breach of their Local Vehicle Bylaws because I own an old MGB is the day I book my plane ticket out of here (but not to Florida). People should be able to pay road tax on whatever they choose.

Having said that, I've always hated the Kia Pride.

April fool!

HERE'S proof that even the most sensible car companies have a sense of humour - a BMW M3 that's been given the Australian outback treatment!

BMW unveiled this pickup version of the M3 earlier today, presumably as an elaborate April Fool's Joke, as the fourth variant of its V8-powered star, which has already proven a hit with keen drivers as a saloon, coupe and convertible. However, this new version, which is the first ever M3 to come with a tow hitch, looks strangely similar to the small pickups popular in Australia, where they are affectionately referred to as “utes”.

BMW has said that despite its “unquestionable stand-out qualities” it will remain a one-off destined to be used as a workhouse for BMW's M Division, which makes M versions of the 1 Series, 3 Series, and 5 Series.

Safe passing

A lot of people on their bicycles complain about being passed badly by cars. Yet in Bristol, many of us, even though we are important -and show it by driving big cars- still pass our fellow citizens safely, even when they are poor and can only afford bicycles. Here is an example on Lower Maudlin Street, heading towards the BRI. This is one-way, with a contraflow for tax-dodgers heading downhill.



As you can see the Important Pickup moves safely into the contraflow to pass the bicycle, and then cuts left, so giving the bicycle room to share the ASL with them.

Isn't that generous?

The mystery of the Skover pickup

FORGET Nessie or the Beast of Bodmin Moor. Stranger things have happened, as one Life On Cars reader has found out!

Jamie Frew sent in this picture of the strange cross-breed he spotted in a dark supermarket car park somewhere near Glasgow, which appears to splice the genes of the Rover 200 I bought earlier this month with the early Nineties efforts of a certain Czech car maker. It's the Skover Felicia... I think.

I love the idea that a cash-strapped Rover Group would have gone knocking on Skoda's door with a cheque for the Czechs, in return for a tarted-up pickup truck which could have been sold alongside Metros and MGFs. It is badge engineering at its cheapest, simplest level.

Oh alright, I'll come clean; it's a Skoda Felicia Pickup, which someone thought they could improve by removing all the original badging and replacing with Rover wheels and radiator grille. The idea, I take it, was to take away the outdated connotations of cheapness which used to come with Skoda, and replace it with Roverised visions of restraint and refinement.

I'm not entirely sure it's worked...