While the overall growth might have slowed down to 4%, light truck sales were up 7.8%.
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Ford remains a leader in the pickup market, with its F-Series and other light truck segments.
Car-shopping website Edmunds.com forecasts that U.S. car and light truck sales in November totaled 1.1 million vehicles.
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But by then the minivan had been introduced, the first "light truck" that was really a family vehicle.
Toyota unveiled its largest-ever light truck in Detroit, and is thought to be planning several new American factories.
Buy a good hybrid car or light truck and drive it right, and you'll halve your oil use per mile.
Auto and light truck production hit a new low in this expansion in July, at 10.2 million assemblies (annual rate).
Post-recession, light truck sales were battered due to a plunging housing market.
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Daimler is also beginning a joint venture with Japan's Nissan to develop a light truck for sale in Asia and other emerging markets.
And because the new light truck is both full of new features and also cheaper to make, it should be even more profitable.
Its new launch will replace that light truck and become its main offering in the segment that now accounts for nearly half the American market.
The proposed solution was the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, a more survivable light truck that could serve the needs of soldiers, marines and special-operations forces battling elusive adversaries.
Sanluis supplies parts primarily for the North American light truck sector minivans, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles which has grown 6.1% a year since 1980, compared with 1.7% for all automobiles.
Not only does that mean that the Detroit Three could steal a larger chunk of the incremental sales, but the more profitable light truck category could boost their margins as well.
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Under the proposed rules, Chrysler may yet still get away with calling a PT Cruiser a light truck, but it will be required to get better fuel economy because it is so small.
Chrysler's PT Cruiser, a pip-squeak of a car that would have trouble hauling a rowboat, is classified as a light truck under the rules because the back seat folds flat to better carry cargo.
The versatile light truck was supposed to provide the latest successor to the ubiquitous jeep used by U.S. troops during World War Two, but it has turned into a case study in unhealthy procurement practices, so emergency surgery was necessary.
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What really threatened the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, though, was a proposal to refurbish the existing Humvee light truck so that it would no longer exhibit many of the operational deficiencies that had led planners to propose a new vehicle in the first place.
Now light-truck drivers with fishing boats and Airstreams to tow are calling in the tuners.
Its light-truck sales zoomed ahead 21%, compared with 4% for the category, says Ward's Automotive Reports.
By 2004, 1 million units of North American light-truck capacity will be added, bringing the total to 10.4 million.
But look out: Demand for SUVs, while still very strong, is flattening (see chart, below), while overall light-truck plant capacity is still growing fast.
Current CAFE calls for automakers' passenger car fleets to average 27.5 miles per gallon, and their so-called "light-truck" fleet to average 21.0 miles per gallon.
"Under Unreformed CAFE, the cost burdens and compliance difficulties have been imposed primarily on the full-line manufacturers who have large sales volumes at the larger and heavier end of the light-truck fleet, " the proposal reads.
The legality of that EPA rule, and another that imposes new restrictions on light-duty truck emissions, is currently being challenged through a number of law suits.
When looking at SUTs, a category that would seem to offer a lot to those with light-duty truck needs but heavy-duty families, the Avalanche takes the high ground.
It used a proprietary magnetic-pulse welding process, for example, to develop a lightweight, one-piece aluminum driveshaft that improves fuel efficiency for both light vehicle and commercial truck customers.
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One hugely affective cue is auditory: Thanks to resonator tubes pumping intake and exhaust sounds into the cabin, the BRZ snarls and burrs and howls like a garage-built retro rod, even when it's accelerating away from a light like an ice-cream truck (0-60 mph in about 6 seconds).
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Some industry insiders think what the Army is really trying to do in its revised solicitation is make the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program so unappealing that only commercial truck companies like Navistar and Oshkosh will bid for it.
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