Pickup tracks remain a hot commodity and builders are struggling to meet demand. They are refining recently introduced models, and meanwhile promoting healthy cash concessions and low- or no-interest-rate loans made necessary by intense competition, especially among Ford, General Motors and FiatChrysler-the Big Three, which have the bulk of sales. All this benefits buyers-not just in purchasing but also in quality-built, feature-rich products and backing of them-and manufacturers still make money, especially on high-end pickups with fat profit margins. Nissan, meanwhile, is coming up from the rear, not nearly close enough to make this a Big Four race, but nonetheless serious about pickups and business customers. Like its larger competitors, Nissan had a big presence at the National Truck Equipment Association's annual Work Truck Show in Indianapolis in mid-March. The show is a reliable indicator of business activity and once again was a big one. Absent was Toyota, which backed away from commercial customers several years ago because it had all the sales it could handle from retail buyers.
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