Wilson: Tundra, BEV will help Toyota grab sales

Don't expect Toyota dealers to take a victory lap or for the brand to ease up after the Japanese automaker wrested the U.S. sales crown from General Motors in 2021 after a 90-year reign. Instead, Toyota dealers will be busy in 2022 launching the Tundra hybrid pickup, a redesigned Sequoia SUV and a new battery-electric vehicle, the bZ4X crossover, says Danny Wilson, the new chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council.

Wilson, 49, dealer principal at Wilson Toyota of Ames in Iowa, also says that Toyota's SmartPath digital retailing tool will give its dealer network a distinct advantage as it competes for customers amid ongoing inventory shortages.

"With the introduction of this new Tundra, [Toyota is] all-in, back in" in terms of the full-size pickup segment, Wilson told Automotive News. He said Toyota has committed to its dealers to nearly double the production of Tundras in 2022 over 2021 levels, giving them a chance to compete in a lucrative market.

"We've got to be excited about the Tundra just because of the numbers that we're looking at and the people who desire that and the demographic that we're serving there. It's just really good for the brand."

Wilson's was among the dealerships that pioneered SmartPath for Toyota, and he says the digital retailing tool has given his dealership and its customers a better, more complete purchasing experience. But, he says, if there's something he'd like to fix, it would be the ability to give consumers who pre-buy or order their vehicles a transparent look at where the vehicle is in the delivery pipeline.

"It would be great to have some transparency, so that we could tell a customer that their vehicle was going to be here in two weeks or 10 days or four months, whatever, but be able to update them when something changes. Even if there's a delay, if we know the reason, we can communicate that to the customer, and they understand," Wilson said. "What we've all found during this period is that customers are incredibly patient if you're honest and transparent and can keep them informed. And we need to do that much better."