Testosterone Truck Crowd May Turn to Muscle Cars

Testosterone Truck Crowd May Turn to Muscle Cars

By Michelle Krebs

DEARBORN, Mich. - The Dodge Challenger and the upcoming Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang might get a sales lift as truck owners, who bought pickups to show of their machismo, seek more fuel-efficient rides.

Rebecca Lindland, analyst for Global Insight, told the audience at the forecasting firm's economic outlook conference held here last week, that the days of fashion buyers for full-size pickup trucks like the Ford F-150, Dodge Ram and Chevrolet Silverado are over. "The designer buyer is gone," she said.

But those buyers won't suddenly turn into wimps. They'll still want to flex their muscles, and they may well do it with an American muscle car that achieves better fuel economy than their old pickups, Lindland predicts.

That would be good news for Detroit automakers, whose muscle cars otherwise seem to be entering the market at the entirely wrong time.

Photo by Chrysler

2009 Dodge Challenger R/T 

Michelle Krebs:  is Editor-in-Chief of AutoObserver.com. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.