Author Archive for Jason Lancaster
Jason Lancaster is the editor and founder of TundraHeadquarters.com. He has nearly a decade of experience on the retail side of the auto industry, and another decade of experience of the part and accessory side of the industry.
Ridgeline Will Continue?! Honda Blows Smoke
Last week, USA Today reported that Honda will “keep it’s Ridgeline pickup,” saying that “the Ridgeline pickup will go on.” This news would seem to refute our prediction that the Ridgeline will be discontinued in 2012. While Ridgeline fans were understandably excited about this news, we think that Honda’s announcement was just meant to keep sales from crashing.
Honda says that the Ridgeline will continue, but we think it's smoke.
Here’s why:
Toyota Entune System – Preliminary Review
At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, Toyota announced a new in-car electronics system called Entune that seems to be very similar to Ford’s “Sync” system. While we have yet to actually use Entune, the system might best be described as a smart phone or tablet PC that’s built into your Toyota. It features a large touch screen, a number of built-in applications, and the ability to connect to the Internet by tethering itself to the driver’s smart phone.
How it Works: Entune connects your car to the Internet using your smart phone. You install a special Entune app on your iPhone, Blackberry, or Android-powered phone, and then you use Bluetooth to connect your phone to your car. As long as your phone is on and the Entune app on your phone is active, Entune will be fully functional.
Needless to say, if you don’t have a smart phone with a data plan, Entune might not be useful to you.
Entune Features Include:
Tundra 2010 Sales Growth Ahead of Chevy, GMC, and Ram
Yesterday Toyota announced their 2010 total sales figures, which were quickly pulled into a 2010 Pickup Sales Totals article on PickupTrucks.com. The highlight? Toyota Tundra sales in 2010 grew 17.5% compared to 2009, which means that Toyota sold a total of 93,309 trucks.
While Ram and GM both sold more trucks (199,652 Rams and 499,929 GM’s), sales growth at Ram was 12.6% and about 16.5% at GM. Ford was the big winner with 528,349 trucks sold in 2010 – 27.7% more than 2009. Titan pulled up the rear with 23,416 sales in 2010, growth of 23%.
While some people might look at the numbers for Ford, Ram, and GM and marvel, you have to handicap these numbers because:
Ram 1500 Recall For Rear Axle Bearings, Tundra Too?
Chrysler-Fiat is recalling more than 50,000 Ram 1500 pickups because of a rear axle bearing problem that can eventually cause a rear axle failure. The symptoms of this problem are a growling, griding noise coming from the rear axle:
Chrysler is recalling certain model year 2011 Ram 1500 trucks manufactured from September 2009 through December 2010. Some vehicles may have experience a noise (growl, grind) coming from the rear axle bearing which could eventually seize.
If this recall is not completed, a failure of the bearing could cause the vehicle to stall increasing the risk of a crash.
The interesting thing – to me at least – is that these symptoms match a Toyota Tundra TSB (#T-SB-015-10):
3 Reasons Toyota Should Unveil A Prius Pickup
On January 10th, 2011, Toyota is going to unveil three new Prius models:
- The plug-in Prius hybrid that’s been rumored for years
- The Prius wagon that Toyota has hinted at for months (and that made an appearance at Toyota’s most recent Las Vegas dealer meeting)
- An unknown concept
I think the unknown concept that is unveiled will probably be a Prius coupe that we were all expecting to see last year. However, it could be a Prius pickup truck. We talked about the possibility of a Prius pickup truck in late September, 2010, and at that time we referenced news that discussed a car-based pickup shared between Prius and Scion: Scion would get the low-cost version that attracted younger consumers with lots of customization options, while Prius would get the higher-cost version with a hybrid drivetrain and great gas mileage.
Is Toyota's old A-Bat concept a future Prius brand pickup truck?
While we’ll always question the logic of a car-based pickup truck, there’s no denying that the marketplace anticipates a need. GM is talking about bringing back the El Camino and the next Ram Dakota will be based on a car. If Toyota decided to invest in a new Prius model in early 2008, there’s a pretty good chance they looked at building a pickup. The popular opinion at the time was that gas prices had really hurt truck sales and that there was a strong need for a fuel-efficient truck. Add in all the news we’ve seen and it sort of makes sense…
Here’s why Toyota should unveil a new Prius-powered pickup next month:
