Trends: A Look at the Light Truck Market

Jan. 1, 2020
Our industry watches the fate of the light-truck market very closely. According to SEMA research, sales of light-truck performance parts and accessories have doubled over the past 10 years and it's now a $13 billion industry at the retail sales level

New truck sales may be slipping, but they're still important to the aftermarket.

Our industry watches the fate of the light-truck market very closely. According to SEMA research, sales of light-truck performance parts and accessories have doubled over the past 10 years and it's now a $13 billion industry at the retail sales level, which is slightly larger than the entire annual gross domestic product of Iceland.

Light trucks are some of the most heavily accessorized vehicles, and at a Chevy or Ford dealership, trucks can outsell cars by a 2-to-1 ratio. So when the light-truck industry shows signs of weakness, it gets our attention.

A year-to-year comparison in unit sales reveals domestic light trucks have not had a great year since 1999. Domestic trucks are losing light-truck market share to the imports, too, dropping from around 88 to 84 percent of all light trucks sold since 2002.

Consumer enthusiast magazines are feeling a pinch, too. Since 2002, paid circulation for four of the largest consumer truck magazines is down 19 percent, according to figures published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the watchdog of consumer magazines.

However, the light-truck specialty-parts industry doesn't seem to be in dire straights, according to a recent monthly survey of SEMA's Light-Truck Accessory Alliance (LTAA) members. Jim Spoonhower, SEMA's VP of market research, said 47 percent of LTAA members had higher sales in July 2007 compared to July 2006, 19 percent were about the same, and a third were down.

In July, the best-selling products for LTAA members were tonneau covers, followed by toppers/caps, trailer hitches, billet grilles, and nerf bars.

What this means to your business: The new-truck market is soft and the headlines commonly associate this with recent higher gas prices, but the trend is nothing new. This is a long-term trend that started way back in 1999. Whether gas is the only guilty party is a matter of debate—consumer preferences do change after all—but since 1999, the average price of a gallon of gas has risen 140 percent. The government's CAFE fuel-economy regulations are forcing light-truck gas mileage to increase from 22.2 to 24 mpg in 2011, which will also cause more of a shift from trucks and SUVs to CUVs (crossovers) and cars.

The two best-selling vehicles in the U.S. are still trucks and the Ford F-Series sells 65-percent more units per year than the most popular car, the Toyota Camry. There are more trucks on display at the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas every November than any other type of vehicle. America loves its trucks and the market may not be growing, but it isn't going to die any time soon, either.

SEARCH-AUTOPARTS.COM TO THE RESCUE

If you're a specialty-parts retailer for trucks and SUVs you're certainly aware of how many parts are specific for year/make/model and even engine/transmission or submodel variations. You're also aware of how many specialty parts there are for late-model vehicles.

All of these parts can be troublesome to keep track of, let alone sell efficiently. Add in new products released by manufacturers and model-year changes, and you've got yourself a headache. That's why you should be aware of how Search-Autoparts.com can make your life easier.

Search-Autoparts.com, powered by DCi's CatalogRack.com, includes detailed product information on nearly half a million aftermarket parts. Of those, about a quarter are universal and fit any vehicle, but the rest fit around 30 million specific make/model/year/engine/submodel applications. A large number of these applications are for trucks and SUVs.

Search-Autoparts.com has more than 55,000 products for the 2007 Silverado alone. Add in all the possible year/model variations and it grows to more than 465,000 possible combinations.

If a customer walks in to your store looking for a part to fit a 2007 Ford F-150, there are more than 22,000 choices. With all year/model variations added in, it jumps to around 750,000 combinations.

King of the trucks, at least when it comes to year/make/model applications, is the Chevrolet full-size pickup that predates the Silverado. There are more than 3 million combinations for this truck (see chart to the left).

If those numbers don't convince you to log in and look for truck and SUV products, consider this: Search-Autoparts.com is part of the CatalogRack.com sales network, a system that had more than $1.2 billion in specialty parts accessed by resellers in 85 countries in the first eight months of 2007.

What this means to your business: If your job involves selling specialty parts and accessories for trucks and SUVs, you can save tremendous amounts of time helping customers with products for their vehicle by logging onto Search-Autoparts.com instead of thumbing through dozens of catalogs. Your customers will have a better customer-service experience and you'll be able to close the sale faster.

It's a free service for qualified aftermarket companies, so sign up today and see how Search-Autoparts.com can help improve your business operations.

Jon Hedges of Hedges & Company is a long-time veteran of the automotive aftermarket specializing in database marketing, strategy, and research. He can be reached at (330) 474-1650, or via the Web site www.HedgesCompany.com.

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