Australian Ute Photos

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http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html#autosalesE

[starliner62]

Here's hoping a Ute or two will show up at the International meet. (I'm dreaming again!!)

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Lies, damned lies, and statistics? Everything looked fine until I went shopping for the Volvo and Saab trucks listed there...
and OMG, Maybach sales are through the roof!

Hard to tell from the presentation which SUV-like contrivances are listed as crossover cars, and which as light trucks.
Wouldn't it be handy to have vans and pick-ups broken out? I hate when they do that.

In defense of the suddenly-unpopular "small" truck: I use a GMC 3500, one ton with a dump box. When I was shopping, it took a special order to get a traditional one-bench cab on a conventional pick-up. Everything had a club or crew cab, with an extended wheelbase to match. As a result, my 'big commercial' rig parks, and navigates parking lots, better than most pick-ups around these parts. And even though the bed is way up off the ground, it's no harder to toss things in than to deal with the new F-150. Were I loading by hand into a pick-up bed every day (like the Manly Men in all the ads -- it's always feed sacks, ain't it?), I'd never stand for that. 'Course, mine unloads itself.

For the longest time, I thought the mini-trucks were a joke. Some of them turned out to be long lasting and useful. But a real F-100 size, one bench seat, half-ton, with a usable cargo bed, has to be a market worth serving. You can't run a whole economy on appearance packages.

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Unfortunatelly, If GM keeps bleeding market share the way they have been the past couple years, Ford may knock them out of the #1 spot in North America soon. And, Toyota could fight with them for #2 on a regular basis. Its never been this close in my lifetime. In NORTH AMERICAN sales, five or so years ago, GM used to blow Ford away by 500,000 total units a month. The only reason GM got to 20% share in 2011 was the Japanese Earthquake. Same goes for their 2011 Worldwide Production Crown. 2012 numbers will be very interesting.

Weakening of the dealer network? Elimination of divisions? Product mix? Either way, since they are back listed on the NYSE, someone is having to answer the question as to why GM's market share is on such a downward trend.

The Ute would have been a "halo" vehicle used to build interest in lesser models. Since those lesser models are no longer offered, the Ute didn't make it.

At 17%, GM's current market share is close to where Chrysler Corporation's was in 1998.