Truck sales have plummeted, with the Ford F-150 losing its spot as the top-selling vehicle in America to the Honda Civic.  Yet both Ford and Dodge are rolling out new full-size trucks this fall, both the result of years of expensive redesign work. 

The New York Times reports, "This year’s battle will be for pieces of a much smaller pie" than the automakers "ever imagined. … Ford and Chrysler have spent hundreds of millions of dollars overhauling their pickups, only to release them as demand for trucks went into freefall."   

According to the Detroit Free Press, the F-series "represents about one-fourth of [Ford's] total sales." Ford now says "consumers' shift away from trucks toward cars is part of the reason it is intensifying its cost-cutting and delaying its goal of profitability."  The company is exploring the idea of making a lighter, smaller truck, to be called the F-100.  "In the meantime, Ford has drastically cut truck production and announced an incentive program to spur sales of its F-Series. Ford is offering customers the chance to purchase or lease a 2008 F-150 for the same price employees pay."

Dodge, meanwhile, said last Thursday that "it expected to increase its share of the tough U.S. pickup truck market with the September launch of the redesigned Dodge Ram," according to Reuters.  The Ram "remains Chrysler's single best-selling vehicle, and analysts see its success as key to the automaker's turnaround."  It isn't known whether Dodge will match Ford's discount move.  "Officials acknowledged that there were more than $6,000 incentives on some Dodge Ram models, but declined to comment on whether the redesigned model would be launched with incentives."

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