GM mulls new name for new Chevy Colorado midsize pickup

• Wants new %22lifestyle%22 buyers for new generation of its midsize truck
• Would also have new name for GMC Canyon smaller pickup
• Weighs that against buyer name-recognition for currents badges

General Motors is considering new names for its all-new mid-size pickup trucks expected to go on sale next year, a top executive said this morning.

The new trucks, which will be shown later this year and are likely to arrive here as 2015 models, are a new generation of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon.

"We're researching the names," Mark Reuss, GM North America president, told reporters this morning. "Do they mean something to people — or the trucks are so different, do we need a change of names, too?"

The Free Press reported earlier this month that GM would try to aim the new midsize trucks at "lifestyle" buyers. GM is developing U.S. version of the new global Chevrolet Colorado, whose rollout began in Thailand as a 2013 model. The company has said that the U.S. versions of the new truck will be built at its plant in Wentzville, Mo.

The midsize pickups will use traditional body-on-frame construction, like fullsize pickups.

Reuss, speaking at an event hosted by a Detroit-area law firm, said the trucks would have dramatically different styling and powertrains than the full-size Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. They will be aimed at luring buyers away from Toyota's Tacoma pickup.

"I think you're going to be surprised," Reuss said, adding that the trucks would "attack the West Coast" with a package that "is really beautiful and fun."

Other Detroit makers are far less eager to embrace midsize pickups.

Since emerging from bankruptcy reorganization in 2009, Chrysler Group has been mulling a midsize Ram pickup to replace the Dakota, discontinued in 2011.

But at a Jan. 30 briefing of investment analysts, Chrysler said it was delaying such a model until 2016 or so. It apparently hasn't decided whether to make it a true body-on-frame pickup, or a unibody pickup based on a Fiat European platform, as might be used for a commercial van. Fiat owns a majority of Chrysler.

The only unibody pickup sold in the U.S. is the Honda Ridgeline. Honda sold just 14,068 last year, according to Autodata, making it the least-popular pickup in America, even underselling the nearly invisible Nissan Titan, which found 21,576 takers.

Ford Motor has repeatedly declined to say that it would consider reintroducing its Ranger pickup to the U.S., based on a midsize Ranger model it sells in other countries. Ford discontinued U.S. Ranger production in December 2011.

Ford says that its fullsize F-150, equipped with the regular cab, short cargo bed and base six-cylinder engine, is trim and thrifty enough that it obviates the need for a midsize pickup. Plus, the F-150 would have more room in the cab, more space for cargo and could tow more.

Doesn't matter, it's still too big, say Ranger fans.

GM and Ford look at the midsize pickup market from opposite sides.

GM believes buyers of its new midsize Colorado and Canyon pickups will be customers it otherwise would have lost to Tacoma or, less-likely, Nissan's Frontier. Ford worries that a midsize Ranger would pirate sales from the highly profitable F-150.

On other topics, Reuss also said:

• The weakened Japanese yen is "a real threat" to GM but hasn't affected sales yet. As GM prepares to report first-quarter earnings on May 2, investors are watching to see if the company has been battered by the weakened yen. The U.S. automakers have called on Washington to pressure Japan to rein in its currency policies to avoid giving Japanese automakers the ability to sell cars to the U.S. at cheaper prices.

• The Buick Encore, a new compact crossover that hit showrooms in the first quarter, is "moving off our lots as soon as they come in, which is very encouraging for us."

• The company has no plans to lower the Chevrolet Volt's price, even after its March sales fell 35% from a year earlier. GM CEO Dan Akerson said in London last week that he believes Volt sales would soar if the company lowered the $40,000 price tag by $5,000.