At Kevin Haner's construction company in Las Vegas, three of the four Dodge Ram pickup trucks are starting to get a little old. He may replace one if he gets a great deal, but he'll keep running the others until he's convinced that the housing slump has ended.

Haner's reluctance to spend is typical of contractors nationwide. This presents a huge problem for the Detroit automakers because truck sales are directly tied to new home construction. Pickup sales are on pace for their worst performance in 17 years, and GM, Chrysler and Ford still sell 91 percent of all full-size pickups in the U.S.

Even as Detroit tries to gain traction with new small cars and electric vehicles in a government-mandated shift toward greater fuel economy, it needs to sell more Rams, Chevrolet Silverados and Ford F-150s. Pickups often sell for $30,000 or more and typically command higher prices and generate more profits than small and midsize cars. They account for 22 percent of sales for the Detroit Three. Until pickup sales rebound, steady profits and solid financial footing will likely prove hard to come by.

Haner and others have reason to be cautious. While October new home sales were up 6.2 percent over September, construction of homes and apartments fell a larger-than-expected 10.6 percent, and building permits, a key indicator of future construction, slid 4 percent.

"I'm not inclined to take on any more exposure until I see that the building-housing market is thoroughly back out of recession," Haner said Wednesday after the Commerce Department released the latest reading on new home sales.

"Right now, construction companies are going out of business," said Erich Merkle, president of the auto industry consulting firm autoconomy.com in Grand Rapids, Mich. "And those companies that are surviving are making do with the existing fleet."

The housing slump has pushed U.S. pickup sales downward for the past three years. Sales routinely topped 200,000 per month as recently as 2007, but in February they fell to less than 89,000, the low point for the year. They're off 32 percent from the first 10 months of 2008, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank. Ford, Chrysler and GM combined to sell 843,000 pickups through October.

In Las Vegas, once among the hottest housing markets in the nation, building declined rapidly in the recession and is just starting to show signs of recovery, Haner said.

His work force surged to 25 during the boom years earlier this decade, but now its down to six. He paid off three of his trucks in 2007 while business was still good, and he's maintained them so they'll last.