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FYI..Toyota Truck Pricing
Tundra prices top domestic trucks
Analysts say Toyota can use the marketing strategy because of the strength of the brand.
Christine Tierney / The Detroit News
As it prepares for what it terms its most important U.S. launch, Toyota Motor Corp. posted prices for the new Tundra full-size pickups that start slightly above the base prices of domestic trucks but below Nissan Motor Co.'s Titan -- the only other big Japanese pickup.
The 2007 Tundra, which goes on sale in early February, starts at $22,290 for a two-door pickup with a six-cylinder engine.
That compares with starting prices of $17,860 for General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet Silverado, $18,275 for the Ford F-150, and $23,700 for the Nissan Titan.
Toyota is offering three different engine sizes in 31 variations of the Tundra, including a $41,850, four-door CrewMax with reclining second-row seats and a new, 5.7-liter V-8 engine.
"That's the range we expected," said Jesse Toprak, top pricing analyst at online auto research site, Edmunds.com. "Based on the strength of the brand, they can justify pricing the vehicles a few percentage points higher than the domestics."
Toyota has invested heavily in the new truck, a bigger and stronger version of the current Tundra, to boost its share of the lucrative market for big pickups.
The Japanese automaker sold 124,508 Tundras last year, while Ford and GM each sold more than 800,000 full-size pickups. Nissan sold 72,192 Titans.
Toyota aims to sell 200,000 Tundras this year -- a goal most analysts consider achievable.
At Champion Toyota Gulf Freeway in Houston, in the heart of the pickup market, salesman Larry Johnson called the pricing "definitely competitive."
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