Texas Is Pickup and SUV Country

Bloomberg Businessweek just published this graphic showing where new car sales are strongest--and of course Texas is a hot spot. Yes, North Dakota and Alaska have more registrations, but there's no question that Texas is pickup and SUV country.

The Texas State Fair, which runs for another 12 days, features a dedicated auto show and larger-than-life displays to catch the eye. With 300,000 square feet of auto exhibits, there really is something for everyone. Check out the listings of exhibitors in these photos from the fair's site. Texas-sized marketing!

The state is such an important market that Ford chose it as the location for a media sneak peek of its 2015 F-Series Super-Duty King Ranch Truck. Ford sells a new F-series pickup in Texas every 42 seconds.

GM builds a number of SUVs in Texas, including Chevy Suburban and the Tahoe, among others. Having signed on as the state fair's official sponsor, Chevy gets top billing and some Texas-sized bragging rights.

Toyota is in Texas, too, announcing it produced its 1 millionth truck in its local plant. The new Toyota Tundra comes in a special 1794 edition named for the ranch where the plant is located. But Toyota still has a ways to go to catch up to Ford and GM in the Lone Star State.

Why are SUVs and trucks so important in the marketing scheme of things? They deliver big profits to automakers. So even though fuel-efficient vehicles are increasingly popular, SUVs and trucks boost revenues and profit margins, big-time.