@shadofax - so your claim is that cars today are no more reliable than they were in 1980? Or are you just being…
Car models in general are getting bigger but…it’s all about merchandizing. For example, the Corolla used to be the smallest, now it’s the Tercel /Yaris. Honda Civic gave way to the fit as it grew. It’s a way of making customers think they are getting more for their buck. They still make smal and light cars.
Depends on the car. I’d put a (new) 88 Civic or Accord up against a lot of today’s cars as far as general reliability, even if we rig the contest kindly and dismiss the newer technologies that tend to break, like in-dash nav, etc, and only consider whether or not it starts, runs, and gets from A to B with the fewest repairs. The overall trend is certainly toward greater (mechanical) reliability, but that does not mean that 80’s cars were all unreliable heaps.
As soon as you include carborators, steel, non stainless exhaust systems, points without electronic ignition and other longevity improvements, there is no contest…newer cars win hands down.
Agreed. But there were plenty of 80’s cars (including the aforementioned Civics) with those modernizations - though stainless exhaust was more rare.
I always thought for man,y many model years, the Corolla was the second size up. Not the smallest in other words. The smaller version from Toyota as I recall – smaller than the Corolla – was the Tercel, later called the Echo. Now it is called the Yaris.
I had a friend that had a Dakota, there are no midsize trucks anymore, he had to clean out his garage to get a new truck to fit! Why no midsize trucks?
You know what I miss? Those small, little trucks they used to sell. They were smaller than even the smallish Ford truck I see on the road now-a-days. Toyota and I think VW made them. Maybe others too. I still see the Toyota version on the road from time to time, but seldom the VW version now. They were about the size of a Corolla or VW Rabbit, only shaped like a truck instead of a sedan. I don’t think you could haul much weight, but if you needed to help a friend move by hauling their fridge, or a load of compost, they were just the ticket.
Crimenee I towed my boat to mn with my ranger, only 2wd sure I had to get a blazer to deal with a sand launch, but I am only commenting on mid size truck missing from new vehicle options.
I’m not sure what Toyota truck you mean, they did have a compact, but it was a frame-based one, not a unibody like the Rabbit pickup (and the Dodge Omni-based one, the Charger, and the Cherokee Chief-based one.
@GeorgeSanJose–You are correct. Even the small pickup trucks of the 1970s became larger. Ford put its name on a truck that it imported and it was the Ford Courier. Chevrolet imported a truck under its name and it was calle the Chevrolet LUV. The LUV stood for “light utility vehicle”. The Datsun, Toyota and Mazda trucks werre also about the same size. All of these trucks were body on frame construction. I remember a Consumer Reports test of these trucks and in a 5 mph front bumper crash, all the trucks were not driveable after the test.
I don’t think a Chevy Volt is very heavy.
I don’t think a Chevy Volt is very heavy.
Did you get run over today?
The 2012 volt’s curb weight is 3781 LBS.
I use to own a LUV truck. It was made by Isuzu. Ran fine…just a rust bucket after 5 years.
Small pickup trucks are still being sold in South America. Larger pickups are just impractical there.
I’ve been looking at smallish pickups, and the closest thing you can get to a small pickup (new) are the Toyota Tacoma regular cab and the Chevy Colorado regular cab with four cylinder engines. Everything else in both lines is larger and sits higher.
It looks like most car companies are getting out of segments in which they don’t compete well. The F-150 appears to be the only pickup in Ford’s line.
It breaks my heart a little to see Ford and GM cede entire segments of the auto market to its competitors rather then learn how to be competitive in the minivan and small truck segments. After all, if Ford can figure out how to compete with the Asian car companies in the small econobox segment, why can’t it do the same with minivans and small or midsize pickups?
There’s a new Colorado coming, supposed to be pretty good.
Good point, Mike. I hadn’t thought of that.
The auto industry lobbied for CAFE standards that allowed them to drop smaller pickups from their lineup. The smaller trucks were less profitable.
A few years ago I read a newspaper article about the fuel economy of newer cars being worse than that of older cars of the same model. The example that was cited was a late '80s Honda Civic CRX compared to a Civic sedan from around 2007. I thought the comparison was silly. They were comparing a two-seat, college kid’s toy to a sedan that a mother could take 3 kids shopping in and have room in the trunk for the groceries. Same model name, though. Face it folks, when marriage and kids come along, you need a bigger car!
Rod, I seem to have missed your point on the small pickups. My assumption was that the manufactureres discontinued them due to low sales and low margins. I also assumed that small pickups would be good for their CAFE ratings because they’d be classifoed as trucks rather than cars.
I know you to be a knowledgable guy. What have I missed here regarding small pickups and the EPA?