Analysts predicting a drop in truck sales

DETROIT (AP) -- Ford's F-series pickup trucks and the aging Dodge Ram may be the biggest victims of an escalating pickup truck competition, with some analysts predicting a tough month for both models in March.
Automakers are scheduled to release monthly sales figures Tuesday, and some analysts predict that struggling Ford Motor Co., with its F-150 on the market for nearly three years, could see another sales decline or possibly a small gain.
Ford's F-series, the best-selling vehicle in the U.S., as well as the 5-year-old Ram, face heavy competition from new General Motors Corp. pickups and from Toyota Motor Corp., which recently entered the full-sized pickup fray with its new Tundra.
F-series sales were off about 12 percent in February compared with the same month of 2006, and Ram sales dropped 4.2 percent while GM pickup sales rose 29 percent. The Chevrolet Silverado knocked the F-series out of the top-selling vehicle spot in February for the first time in 20 months, but Ford vowed to retake the lead.
Jesse Toprak, senior analyst for the Edmunds.com auto Web site, predicted a March decline for the F-series, even though Ford recently came out with new heavy-duty pickups.
Incentives
"They're going to have continued problems with the F-series for the rest of the year," he said. "The only thing they can do is keep putting incentives on the vehicle."
According to Edmunds.com, everyone in the pickup market put up incentives in March, including Ford, which offered 3,000 or zero-percent financing.
Ford said F-series sales likely will be down double digits from March of last year, mainly because last March was the best month of 2006 for F-series sales.
George Pipas, the company's top sales analyst, said few buyers switch manufacturers due to new products, and that trade-in data shows only about 5 percent of pickup truck customers switch brands.
Toyota, which has had difficulty selling base models of the brand-new Tundra, is offering 1,000 dealer cash on the double cab Tundra and 2,000 on the regular cab, plus 1,000 in trade-in assistance.
GM, even though it has new models, also offered incentives on pickups last month of 1,000 and low-interest financing, according to Edmunds.
Analysts predicted more incentives to come, which is good for consumers but bad for company profits. Overall, several predicted March U.S. auto sales to be flat or down from a month that was the best in all of 2006.