Without an external driver like higher fuel prices, I don't see how we're going to slow this trend. For one thing, you've got all of the sex appeal of a passenger car but you've also got all that versatility. You can have one car do the job of two or three. Do I really need a pickup? Once or twice a year. Do I want a minivan or sport/utility that has 4 feet between the wheelwells? Or do I want something like the Dakota Quad Cab so I can haul all that stuff and still put my family in it? It's the versatility that gets you.
Lee: We've tried to answer this question about every two years for the past 10 years and the answer has always been wrong. How many people can want these things? How big can this market be? Every time, we underestimated what the demand would be and underestimated the breadth of the product demand, including powertrain demand. People want these things that have the widest tires on the road, and they want the sport wheels, and they want it to sound good.
That market didn't look like it was going to be there. There were people with lifestyle issues along the way, but now there's people with ego issues. I don't know that historically, at least in the powertrain area, we really consciously said we're going to go get this, but in the past few years we have. Based on some of the things we have coming, we think it's there and we're going to keep going in that direction.
Do customer needs or wants really drive new-car sales?Julow: In a simpler time, it was need-based. Forty years ago, if you bought a truck, it was because of a certain need. It's what I called the occasional use imperative: It wasn't needed every week, but I need it because I go hunting in the fall, skiing in the winter. I need four-wheel drive. I tow a boat, or I need a sport/utility because I put dogs in it. But to do some of these things I need a class III hitch. The customer had to rationalize the additional cost of the vehicle and the reduction in fuel economy, and this occasional use justified these things. As the market subsegments itself and we offer less and less compromise, you no longer need to rationalize. The Dakota Quad Cab offers very little compromise compared to a four-door sedan, yet gives a truck to anyone who ever thought they might need a truck. I think the occasional use imperative is now the occasional use like-to-have, because there is so little compromise in the decision. I think we'll see this pushed further by all the manufacturers.
How much emphasis do people place on engine power?Julow: It's a component of a truck, but not a majority. There is a component of truck sales that's walked its way right out of cars because there's nothing available. It says I want this kind of driveline, or I want this kind of performance, or feel, or sound, or torque from days gone by. And they look around and say, "Well, I can get it here and here, but those both happen to be trucks." It's significant enough for us to take into consideration. That's why we have the Dakota R/T. You can see people abandoning some two-door, V-8-powered vehicles (which I'll leave nameless) and running over to a Dodge dealer to get one of these Dakota R/Ts. It's worth cultivating this segment. If there was a bunch of modern sporty coupe rear-wheel-drive cars, I'm not sure how fast they'd fly over to the truck side. I think the R/T is the most fun you can have in a non-exotic production vehicle.