GM Ready to Take-On Tacoma Truck

Do you remember the Chevy Colorado? How about the GMC Canyon? Maybe your old enough to remember the Dodge Dakota or the Ford Ranger. What do all these have in common? They’re small/mid-sized trucks that have been phased out of production due to the dominance of the Toyota Tacoma. Well, it appears that GM is ready to challenge Toyota’s kung-fu grip on this part of the market. That’s right, According to Detroit News, GM will be launching two new mid-sized trucks in 2014 to once again battle with the Tacoma.

GM’s North America President, Mark Reuss, was quoted as saying, “Don’t think of them as Canyon and Colorado replacements, because they’re not. We’d love to have a truck like a Chevrolet midsize truck go really attack the West Coast with a lifestyle truck that is really beautiful and fun. It’s a different positioning than a semi-serious, duty-cycle truck that we might do with a GMC Canyon.”

This is a good sign, as the Canyon and Colorado mostly reached people looking for a 2nd tier Tacoma. We think there is room for a competitor to the Tacoma, but GM will need to do something drastic to win over buyers. Adding a sport package to an ugly mid-sized truck and thinking truck enthusiasts will buy it would be silly. If instead, GM releases a clean mid-size truck with some differentiating factor (top tier gas mileage, extra power, etc), they can definitely make a run at Toyota. The Ranger was a great mid-size truck that tons of people modified into pre-runners, but Ford failed to innovate and the Ranger was known for breaking down. If GM’s new midsize trucks combine clean style with the ability to lift it, Toyota might get a little worried. Let’s see what happens…