Pickup sales slide could spell trouble for Big 3

U.S. sales of full-sized pickups are down, and trade-in data suggest owners are moving out of pickups into cheaper, more fuel-efficient vehicles. But don't call it "SUV Collapse: The Sequel" just yet.

Through July, full-sized pickup sales were down 15.3 percent, and some pickup owners are switching to smaller vehicles. The defection rate peaked in April, when gasoline prices spiked to $3 a gallon.

But data from J.D. Power and Associates suggest that the migration to smaller vehicles has eased in the past two months. And the full-sized pickup's status as America's workhorse should keep it from tanking as badly as SUVs.

That's because 75 percent of full-sized pickup owners use the trucks for business, says Ford sales analyst George Pipas. "The full-sized truck segment is going to remain a very large segment in the United States," he says. "I wouldn't expect personal-use buyers to exit this market at the same rate we've seen full-size utility buyers in the last two years."

Still, full-sized pickup sales were down a whopping 35.9 percent in July. The decline comes as General Motors and Toyota prepare to launch updated versions of their full-sized pickups. As part of its turnaround effort, GM accelerated the launch of the 2007 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra by 13 weeks, to this October.

Meanwhile, Toyota has built an assembly plant in Texas to carve out a bigger share of the segment. More At AutoWeek