It’s not any real news that full-size pickup trucks are taking a beating in today’s economy. With gas prices over $4 per gallon and the housing market still in a funk, pickup sales are getting worse with each passing month. Here at Compete we’ve been studying the situation and have seen demand for large pickups (F-Series, Silverado, Tundra, etc.) fall to record lows over the past few months. So the question becomes, are large pickup consumers changing their shopping preferences? Are they shopping cars now that pickups are becoming too expensive to own? Are they shopping smaller vehicles like the rest of us?

Let’s be clear on one thing: there are still people out there who need a truck. They are the people who need them for work or who tow 10,000 lb. trailers and boats. But there are also a lot of people who owned a pickup not so much for the need but rather because they wanted at truck. Oh sure, that annual trip to Home Depot justified having a pickup, but the economy has had a way of separating the wheat from the chaff.

A good portion of pickup shoppers still only shop a full-size pickup. Those are the people who need a truck, but that number, not surprisingly, has been declining. That suggests pickup loyalty is not as strong as it was in the past. The rest are looking at other alternatives and shopping other vehicles in other segments. To be sure, they are looking at compact pickups, smaller SUVs as well as at some of the new crossovers on the market. You would expect that of someone who’s been in a truck.

But, in what is a perhaps a bit of a surprise, we’re also seeing a good number of truckers turning serious attention to compact and mid-size cars. In May those two segments were shopped twice as much as they where in November and continue to be among the vehicle segments most shopped by full-size pickup prospects. That’s a change from the past when they weren’t even on a trucker’s radar. That’s right, people who’ve motored around town with bed-liners and trailer hitches they rarely used are now looking to buy an Accord or a Malibu or even a Civic, a Corolla or a Focus. That’s a big change for someone who’s used to 8 cylinders and sitting high enough to look down on the cars they’re now thinking of buying. But then again, are you really a trucker if you’re not getting it dirty and hosing it out when you’re finished using it?

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