TOYOTA’S TRUCKIN’ JIHAD TO DESTROY DESTROY DETROIT TAKES A MUSCULAR TURN.

Sure, Ford Motor Company’s F-Series trucks are still number one in sales (albeit at around 30,000 fewer units sold so far as compared to last year).

So why worry?

TOYOTA.

Toyota is now three months into the launch of the new full-size Tundra – which is the final assault on the American market. While Toyota claims to only be seeking "10 percent share," it is clear Toyota won’t be satisfied until it wrecks any chance of survival for the Detroit 3.

Accordingly, Toyota’s Tundra advertising is aggressive.

They’re not jibber-jabbering any feel-good "Bold Moves" clap-trap.

They’re not banking on reputation or heritage or "thirty years" of doing anything.

They’re selling the objective performance superiority of their Japanese truck (assembled, of course, in non-UAW "Trojan horse" American factories as a ruse to diffuse fears about the imminent collapse of America’s biggest industry and to circumvent the only meaningful American vehicle tariff remaining).

Bigger brakes, stronger axles and more muscle under the hood are the central themes of the comparative ads.

When was the last time you saw a "Built Ford Tough" commercial that actually touted the starting and stopping superiority of Ford’s F-Series?

All of this must be confusing to the elite, hyper-intellectual "appliance motorists" (such as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, and the Japanese-loving Consumer Reports crowd) -- who undoubtedly can’t understand why their guiding light "‘Yoda" is irresponsibly hawking "gas guzzling" V8-powered heavy-iron as fuel prices begin their annual seasonal spike.

(See comments from these sorts of paternalistic "automobile experts" at http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/2006/09/click-clack-and-500-horsepower-ford.html )

The effete and genteel among us continue to "misunderestimate" the enemy.

Yet an item in the Automotive News (www.autonews.com) is bound to cause even more confusion: Jim Farley, Toyota Division vice president of marketing, said that demand for the super-sized CrewMax and the "top-dog 5.7-liter V-8" is "outstripping supply."

Apparently, only mistakes about supply mix are holding down Toyota’s impending conquest of Detroit’s last refuge.

Ernest Bastien, Toyota's vice president of vehicle operations said "We didn't come to the prizefight with all our tools.""The 5.7 has been 70 to 80 percent of our mix, and we thought it would be 50 or 60 percent," according to Jim Farley. "The 4.7 (V-8) and V-6 are not as popular."

At least Toyota's American operatives understand this IS a no-holds barred "prizefight!"

WHERE IS FORD’S RESPONSE?

Ford claims to be the leader, but does it actually lead?

Where’s the next-generation Lightning? A third-gen ‘bolt could have really schooled the Japanese invaders about real high-performance pickups.

But Ford aborted it. And then mostly disbanded SVT for good measure.

Where’s are the DOHC Modular V-8 options, which would have at least given Ford a better match-up on paper to the h-o-t Vortecs and Hemis . . . and now the muscular Tundra 5.7?

Nowhere to be seen. (Bean counters still rule in Dearborn)

Where’s the big-cube Boss/Hurricane engine?

Ford’s on-off-on-off dance has put this program too far behind to fight the invasion.

Where’s the turbo-diesel F-150?

Where’s the mild hybrid?

Without a doubt, Toyota will probably beat Ford in these niches, too.

Ford fiddles while the SUN RISES and Dearborn burns.

A WORD ON VIRGINIA TECH

Speedzzter’s thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this horrible crime.

Yet had even one of the occupants of the massacre site been armed and had minimal tactical training, many lives would have been saved.

If the Second-Amendment-hating liberals insist that our schools be "gun-free zones" (denying the occupants of their fundamental right to self-protection), then they absolutely must be able to provide security. Virginia Tech clearly failed to meet this obligation.