Toyota Deepens Discounts on Its New Pickup

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Toyota Motor continues to increase discounts on its new full-size pickup, the Tundra, another sign that it is not cutting into the profitable truck market as much as rival automakers had feared. Toyota dealers began offering a $1,000 trade-in incentive this week to Tundra buyers, who can combine that discount with existing cash-back offers of as much as $2,000.
Analysts say they are surprised to see such heavy incentives on a vehicle that went on sale less than two months ago, but Denise Morrissey, a spokeswoman for the automaker, said that such offers were “just part of how you do business.”
Ms. Morrissey said Thursday that higher discounts were available on some competing trucks and that failing to keep up could hurt the Tundra’s ability to attract shoppers. “In the truck segment, the customers really do expect them,” Ms. Morrissey said. “This is our first real foray into this segment. When in Rome, you know.”
The Tundra’s growing list of incentives is welcome news in Detroit, which has long dominated the pickup market. Although General Motors and Ford have publicly said they are not worried about losing sales to the Tundra, Toyota has shown repeatedly that it should never be underestimated.
So far the Tundra, which was redesigned to be bigger and brawnier, has fallen short of its publicity. Toyota, known for its commitment to vehicle safety, suffered a mild embarrassment last week when the federal government gave the Tundra a four-star rating in frontal crash tests — one star fewer than all competing models made by Detroit.
The incentives bring the Tundra’s price more in line with segment leaders, like the Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-series. Toyota points out that many standard features on the Tundra are costly options on its rivals, but its higher base price is seen as a deterrent to some shoppers.
“The Tundra’s relatively high price seems to have alienated many potential buyers who might otherwise have been swayed to consider a well-equipped, Texas-built truck produced by an import automaker with a solid reputation,” said Jesse Toprak, senior analyst at Edmunds.com, a Web site that gives car-buying advice to consumers.
Ms. Morrissey said Toyota would continually evaluate the Tundra’s standard and optional features. She also noted that the highest incentives applied to the single-cab model, which is expected to account for only 10 percent of the Tundra’s overall sales.
Toyota hopes to sell 200,000 of the trucks this year. The double-cab version is expected to account for 60 percent of those sales, and the CrewMax, which began arriving at dealerships last week, for 30 percent.



Toyota Deepens Discounts on Its New Pickup - New York Times