Light Truck and SUV Blogs

A friend of mind who passed away recently used to tell people, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” I have found that to be very true in the last nine months as we have attempted to launch a Light Truck and SUV project vehicle.

The road began in November of last year after the SEMA show. I asked my publisher, “Why can’t we coordinate a project vehicle?” He couldn’t give me a reason, so I got the ball rolling. I didn’t know what a long process it would be.

Within a couple of weeks, word had leaked out about the proposed vehicle. Aftermarket manufacturers already wanted to be involved with the build. The list of products was growing, and we didn’t even have a vehicle yet — we were still trying to figure out how we could acquire one. I didn’t know how quickly it would snowball and almost obtain a life of its own.

I happened to be talking to a PR professional about one of her customer’s products. I mentioned how I needed to acquire a vehicle soon so that we could start our project. She told me she might be able to talk one of the aftermarket manufacturers she works with into donating a vehicle to us. Thanks to her, we got an offer for a donated Ford F-150. But there was a small problem — the truck had been used by a sales guy and was three years old with almost 200,000 miles on it. That wouldn’t work for a show-quality project vehicle. I didn’t know I should have been more specific on what we were looking for in a vehicle.

So we re-grouped and tried to figure out another path. Low and behold, I received SEMA’s newsletter announcing that Ford was accepting applications for 2007 project vehicles. I thought, “This is just what we have been waiting for.” I put together a proposal and sent it to Ford. That was in January. The second week in May, we received our answer. It basically said our proposal didn’t fit into Ford’s marketing plan, and there were others that were “more closely aligned with this year’s program objectives.” After talking to several of our advertisers, I came to the realization that I didn’t know Ford is one of the tougher OEMs to work with when it comes to project vehicle donations.

Thanks to a tip from one of our advertisers, we ended up contacting Toyota about acquiring a Toyota Tundra for our project. I didn’t know about Toyota’s prototype vehicle program. Had I known this nine months ago, and how relatively painless the application process would be, I would have submitted our proposal to Toyota to begin with.

Well, we got an e-mail yesterday from Toyota. We have been approved for a 2007 Toyota Double Cab 4×4. We should be taking posession of it in a few weeks. Now the race to SEMA starts.

 Light Truck and SUV’s Project Tundra is now rolling. We have a lot to coordinate between now and SEMA. We won’t have the truck completely customized for the show (it will be a two-year project). But we should have the paint job and a few other projects completed by SEMA.

This whole process has been a learning experience for us. I didn’t know what we were getting into when I came up with this idea nine months ago. Now that it is underway, I am excited to begin installations and writing about them in the magazine and here on the website.

Based on what I have experienced so far, I would have to say that patience and persistence are two good traits to have when working on a project like this. What words of wisdom would you give to someone thinking about launching their first project vehicle?

Thanks for reading!

Joe Escobar