Off-Road Trends
Find below excerpt with comments by Douglas McColloch, editor in chief of Four Wheeler magazine and Melanie White, marketing manager for Hellwig Products. Puro Off-Road thinks that’s an interesting piece to read… Find the link to the originating content at the end of this post.The entire automotive landscape has changed over the past two years, but the effects of higher fuel prices and a deep recession may be most evident in the truck, sport utility and off-road segments of the industry. For the most part, truck racing is also in status quo. The NASCAR truck series has drawn a consistent audience, and the various desert and short-course off-road series continue to draw well—although desert aficionados have been clamoring for a less-expensive grassroots alternative for some time. McColloch said that the Stock Mini and Stock Full classes in the SCORE series allow for some “average guy” competition, and White noted that Ivan Stewart’s “Pro Truck” is designed as a cost-effective vehicle for both short- and long-course off-road racing. But the real news in the dirt is the King of the Hammers series, which McColloch said combines the thrills of high-speed desert racing with the technical skills of rock crawling and has grown from a small cult following to a full-on race series that will likely attract close to 100,000 fans this year.
“The King of the Hammers is basically about 135 miles of hard-core rock crawling and real desert racing,” said Pewe. “It’s one day and 100 entrants, and you have to qualify ahead of time. All of the desert racers thought they’d easily win it, and all of the rock guys thought the desert racers didn’t know how to crawl. So far, the rock guys have been right.”….
Also, “Small is beautiful,” said Douglas McColloch, editor in chief of Four Wheeler magazine. “There is likely to be a contraction in the number of truck-based fullsize V8 SUVs over the next few years in favor of higher-mileage unitbody all-wheel-drive midsize vehicles running smaller-displacement direct-injection engines. The market for a genuinely small pickup—à la ’80s-vintage Toyotas and Nissans—is ripe for the taking.”….
Whether for recreation or competition, all off-road activities require one common denominator: land. Conflicts over land use between enthusiasts and environmentalists are likely to continue, but divergent communities—including the businesses whose livelihood depends upon off-road and outdoors consumers—could unite under a single banner to make their voices heard….
As the soft murmurs of economic recovery creep into conversations within the industry, retailers might pay closer attention to these trends. “People don’t spend the kind of money on their trucks that they used to,” Carpenter said. “Retailers are going to have to find a way to make a profit without the easy big-ticket items. They will have to be more efficient, more up-to-date and more helpful in order to win a customer’s business.”
“We will almost surely see a proliferation of small-displacement, high-mileage, direct-injection diesel engines in midsize trucks and SUVs over the next decade,” McColloch said, adding as a caveat that both state and federal governments must first agree upon emissions standards that can be relied upon by the automakers.
“Nearly all of the OEMs—and/or their European partners—have some truly awesome diesel powerplants ready to bring to market,” he said. “The only hang-ups are uncertainty over government regulations and some perceived softness in American consumer demand for diesel, which has begun to slacken with the proven success of small cars, such as the Volkswagen Jetta TDI, which can deliver up to 50 mpg on the highway.”
Credits: Steve Campbell – find the full article “Truck, SUV and Off-Road Trends” at the SEMA news section
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