My Traveling Poll, Results.....

jtallon wrote:

patriotgrunt wrote:

Economic 101 would say you're wrong. BTW I'm not a fanboy of any particular brand. I've owned all three and I recently sided with you guys when another poster called Ram junk. I've done this before as a game with my boys and Ram has never dominated. It certainly has good representation but never 4x the Fords or 6x the GMs. The OP claims to hardly see a Ford doing work along I-5 both north and south. Do you know how unlikely that is? Take off the Ram colored glasses and come back to reality. The major hitch manufacturers cater to Ford's 5th wheel hitch prep package for a reason. Likely its because its a large market with lots of profit but that just the capitalist in me coming out.

Oh, I don't think Economics 101 would necessarily say he's wrong.

Niche segments of the market often don't reflect the proportions of the overall market. Niche markets, like hotshotters, often have different criteria or needs that cause them to cluster much more than the overall market. And Cummins was specifically referring to hotshotters, not ALL work trucks or RV tow vehicles.

For example, look at police cars. For a couple of decades, they were heavily dominated by Crown Victorias, with a smaller group of Caprices. They weren't at all brand proportional to overall sedan sales by brand or model.

Same observation could be made about ambulance chassis trucks being controlled by Ford for a long time. Again, sales weren't proportional to the overall vehicle brand stats.

Look at campers, namely dedicated full-timers. Do they buy fifth wheels by brand in the same proportions as the overall market sells? Lots of Forest River and Keystone entry level models? Or do they cluster in the higher-end models like DRV that better fit their needs?

Step outside vehicles for a moment, and look at computers. Windows computers have been dominant in sales for 20+ years. But if you look at the niche market of graphic designers, Macs held a commanding sales lead. Sales within that niche were not proportional to the overall market.

Now, I have no idea if Cummins12V98's numbers are reflective of the overall makeup of hotshotters. But it's certainly feasible, given that it's a very limited segment of truck owners. Those numbers may have very little resemblance to the normal market shares. But the broader you expand the scope, the more and more it will resemble the overall market breakdown.

I actually might agree with the OP if it was hot shot drivers only but he mentions RVers also which makes the population size too big. RVers are not some niche market like some of the examples you use. With the popularity of RVs these days, the market will reflect a closer sampling to what sales figures show.