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The late arrival to the party could very well be wondering why they bothered. Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA was quoted in Automotive News last week from the Paris Auto Show regarding the company's outlook on the Tundra.  Lentz noted that Toyota does not want to get caught in the Ford F-Series vs Chevy Silverado war for first place in sales, or market against the all-new Dodge Ram 1500 or Ford F150.  He acknowledged that many of the former buyers of pickups - commuters and those who wanted the "image" - have left the market for more fuel efficient vehicles (aka, cars) and likely won't return. Toyota expected to sell 20,000 units per month after a fairly successful launch year, but their September 2008 sales were a dismal 7696, down over 60 percent from the September 2007 tally...

The excuse for getting rid of the floor-mounted 4-wheel-drive shifter was to improve front seat legroom and reduce floorspace clutter.  As such, my 2005 Ram may be the last truck I own with such a floor shifter. Then I saw the new trucks introduced at NAIAS, the 2009 Ram 1500 and F150.  Both have introduced these huge full center consoles with floor-mounted automatic transmission shifters (the Ram is pictured to your right)... especially odd for the F150 which no longer offers a manual transmission...

The 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 and Ford F150 were revealed today at the North American international Auto Show.  As a current Ram owner and former F150 owner, I certainly feel qualified to offer my pair of pennies on these new designs.  So here goes: 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 I like the evolutionary design changes on the exterior.  The lines are cleaner, getting the aero value back down to where it was with the 1994 design.  I understand why the grille is no longer attached to the hood, but i will miss that.  I also have a problem with the rear "uni-bulb".  My 2005 Ram has separate rear turn signals/hazard lights, and since I drive in the dark every work night, complete lighting is very important to me.  A single bulb can be misconstrued by inattentive drivers, plus you lose brake light function when hazards are on - only the high-mount brake light actually functions in this situation.  There is certainly enough room in the new truck to allow for separate rear turn/hazard lights.  I think Dodge made a good move by creating a crew cab over continuing the oversized Mega Cab.  They may lose some bragging rights, but the truck will be a lot easier to handle.  One thing I find very annoying though - on both the quad and crew Cabs, the rear seat cushion is cut down in the center - this makes child-seat placement almost impossible - especially for a rearward facing infant seat, as there's not enough cushion to support it. Which leads me to the rest of the interior.  I like the new dash and gauges. The front seats clearly have improved bolstering for more back and side support, which is appreciated by those of us who make long commutes.  The increased number of storage bins will be useful for most buyers, and the materials used are definitely an upgrade.  But I have my complaints, too.  Still using the beige upper interior, no matter what color seats/dash/carpet you order (see my blog entry "Every day is a gray day") tells me the effort to improve the interior is only half-hearted...