When it comes to power, whether it be wattage or horsepower, everyone is looking for an edge. I doubt any one would consider a Honda motor that developes 250 hp at 6500 rpm over a more suitable one that may deliver a little less overall, but more at 4500 in a working vehicle, In the same way, you wouldn’t buy a car stereo for your home rated at 300 watts per channel rms with 5% distortion over a dedicateded home stereo with 150 watts per channel at .0001 % distortion levels. IN a car, you can’t hear the difference and by the same taken, in a car, you aren’t towing a trailer running around at 6500 rpm.
Now, with mid size trucks, one would argue, they are now becoming “life style” vehicles and perhaps, because they can’t pull have weights and weren’t designed to, just are just better vehicles to take a few toys on long trips while doing a little off road venturing. These are all noble goals and we maybe seeing a change of power plants from truck to more car like and economical motors while still being able to pass everyone in sight…
Ford could well have been 30 years ahead of it’s time offering limited work load Rangers with Pinto based engines for years. Maybe it’s time they made a comeback. Calling them “lifestyle vehicles” also gives the auto maker permission to throw all the bells and whistles in while charging full size prices.
Whatever they are called @dagosa, the majority of late model pickups in my area are the fully equipped luxury models. Super cabs with all the bells and whistles and glitz. Even the city fleet pickups are equipped with automatic transmissions, AC and power windows.
And how much do the big exhaust tips cost? I have seen several of the Ram diesels with huge exhaust pipes which amplify the noise to make the driver’s presence known I guess. Maybe someone cares. As for me the sooner gone the better.
@RodKnox. I see it too, but on a much lesser scale. The area we live in has poor roads and lots of lakes and sporting opportunities. I can’t insist that everyone own a smaller or no truck and at the same time insst by implication they give up their ATVs, campers, snowmobiles and fishing boats. The approach I like now is to regulate their gas usage as they do in cars. The moderation in use of these behemoths which the more sane car owners who like to see has begun with full size trucks getting 28 mpg highway.
On the other side, the world is filled with those who will take a pupose built vehicle and make a show piece out of it. I give my neighbor a hard time about buying the biggest, most powerful boats too ( then I borrow them) …we “Americans” are definitely driven by excess and I admit to being as big a hypocrite when it comes to trucks. But then in Maine, a driver is negligent if he buys something with less then 8 inches of ground clearance and expects to drive daily anywhere, any time.
I’m personally hoping we see a revolution in small trucks. I have an old minitruck that I use for hauling yard stuff around and other random tasks. I parked it next to a new Tundra the other day, and it looked like a kid’s toy. But it’s rated to dump 1 ton in the bed and hauls everything we need it to haul without needing 3 acres of driveway to park on. Gets good gas mileage too.
It doesn’t have any of the luxo crap. It doesn’t even have an air conditioner or a radio, much less power windows and leather, but I know other people with the same model truck who have put all that stuff in theirs. To each his own.
There are some new small trucks (though not as small as mine) on the horizon that show some promise, but they’re still canted more toward trying to be a car rather than being what trucks should be - a vehicle you buy to do work.
When I was a kid the only people with pickup trucks were ranchers (farmers too, though we didn’t have too many of those in the desert), construction workers, and people with large properties that needed to haul stuff a lot. You would not have seen an F150 parked on the driveway of an in-town subdivision because such a vehicle was not needed there. I’d love to see us get back to that attitude.
I had a full size truck once, a 1973 Chevy half ton 6 cylinder. It “was” smaller then the "compact " truck I have now. Compact trucks are the same size of the trucks we had 15 years ago. They show no signs of getting smaller. Fortunally, they show a few signs of getting more efficient. If some one makes a small frame less unibody truck, it won’t sell. People want people room and a true truck bed and room for people, don’t mix. We have reached the sweat spot and they are getting no bigger but still remaining large. They are getting more fuel efficient and lighter to compensate for the size and weight of their passengers.
Before we get back to the attitude of liking smaller trucks, we have to get back to the size we were when we had smaller trucks. If you are 60 years old, look at the class pictures of 45 years ago and compare the people to the size of those in that age group today. We can never go back to small trucks on attitude alone. We as a population just don’t fit in them. We are taller and much, much heavier, .a difficult combination for small trucks.
Back to the truck and power discussion, this morning I had the pleasure of driving a very well maintained 85 Toyota 4-Runner with a 4 cylinder, 112,000 miles. Mechanically the truck is in near perfect condition and I’m sure it runs just about as well as it did when it was new. But holy cow, what a slug. You’ve got to make a reservation to merge onto the freeway. What a gutless wonder.
But remembering back, I suppose this car accelerates about as well as the Citations, Escorts, Impalas, and Reliants that were on the road in 1985.
“But remembering back, I suppose this car accelerates about as well as the Citations, Escorts, Impalas, and Reliants that were on the road in 1985.”
I almost hate thinking back and am reluctant to admit it, but how about 4 cylinder, 2-speed automatic, Chevy Luv trucks? I still had mine on the road in 85.
We are taller and much, much heavier, .a difficult combination for small trucks.
Hey look, I’m 6’ and can’t exactly hula hoop with a froot loop, but I fit in my truck just fine. Now, I wouldn’t fit in my truck with a TV and 4 captains chairs and a subwoofer the size of a hatchback and a big center console with drink holders big enough to fit buckets and all the other crap they’re stuffing into modern trucks, but aside from the fact that bench seats are inherently uncomfortable, I have no ergonomic issues whatsoever in that thing and it’s not even an extended cab.
Americans may currently WANT a living room sized cabin, but they don’t need it.
I almost hate thinking back and am reluctant to admit it, but how about 4 cylinder, 2-speed automatic, Chevy Luv trucks? I still had mine on the road in 85.
You must have lived in a southern state. I had a 74 Luv truck. It was rusted out by 79. Typical Japanese vehicle back then. Ran great…but was very prone to rust.
“You must have lived in a southern state.” No, way up north. This vehicle, a 76, made by Isuzu, sat for many years with only 85 miles on the odometer.
I had a chance to buy it and, for the price, I could not pass it up. It turned out to be pretty reliable, slower than slow, unbelievably uncomfortable bench seating, and terrible gas mileage (I think the auto trans used about 50% of the limited power). However, for the price, a great buy.
Mine was mechanically reliable…but rusted out real quick. When Isuzu started selling their vehicles under their own name…their first few years they had the same rust issues.
The mega, “Bubba Pimp” trend is absurd. I recently saw the Ram 1/2 ton, crew cab (the one with coils and IRS) and “all possible options” reviewed. I quickly realized that, subtracting curb weight from GVWR, that you could not fill tanks, and seat belts, and remain legal!
A shame to tell your friends, “Sorry, I either need a new truck…or everybody has to go on a diet!”
I think that the small pickup trucks grew just like the compact cars. I think about the early 1960s compacts–the Ford Falcon, the 1961 Buick Special, etc. By 1964, the Buick became much larger and was called an intermediate. The Ford Falcon became the low trimline of the intermediate Fairlane. The cycle then restarted in the 1970s with the Ford Maverick and we even had subcompacts like the Ford Pinto. I am looking for small trucks like the Chevy LUV and the Ford Courier to return, but under a different name.
My opinion…The return of the Chvy Luv will never come in the same package. It could not pass crash tests and have handling and power that enough would accept to make a market for them. Toyota went through this. They specialized in durable, work and off road vehicles with standard 10" ground clearance in some models. In 4 wd form they were panned by CR for their tendency to rollover. To keep the off road market, they got a little wider and a whole lot longer (127 inch in non standard cab models) . Width and length both add to stability. The Tacoma was enlarged and though not recomended, it was then deemed “acceptable”. Ranger never got a lot bigger but they never tried to encroach on the same market. Being that most trucks sold ( 52% of intermediate and 70% of full size ) are 4 wd, they ain’t getting any smaller then the are and built the way they are when offered in 2 wd.
If you get a unibody “truck” based upon an existing compact SUV, small truck owners should consider themselves lucky. Anyone with a back like mine is not going back to a short body on frame, four cylinder bouncy little truck. They may not be uncomfortable in 2 wd, but the four wheel drive market determines the viability of this type vehicle. Also, if they appear as a unibody, be prepared to pay as much or more then the compact SUV they were base on.
I’m a bit surprised that Honda is making a second generation Ridgeline, given the modest sales of the first. The second gen has more conventional styling without the buttress-like sloping bed sides of the first. They added stiffness, but were unpopular with owners as they made it difficult to reach over the sides of the bed. The Ridgeline got great reviews, but the styling was kind of weird. If the new one has the same strengths with better styling I could see it selling decently. It’s all the truck many people need.
When the DOT went sodium chloride crazy around here a few decades back,the imports suffered terribly then(the domestics didnt fare much better)Finally its not quite as bad as it was,the vehicles are definietly constructed better.
Anyway the bloated behomeths now are getting more efficient(why in the heck cant they make something old scale ,with a corresponding increase in MPGs.Being the redneck I am,I think a lot of these megabuck monsters are real nice till I get sick of riding in them and realize how plain they really are,most fall far short of the comfort of a big sedan,someone mentioned not being able to reach over in the bed on a Ridgeline,try it on a Silverado,I 'm starting to notice how the old parking slots dont fit the new infernal monsters and judging by the noise these newer Diesel pickups make,it must be a bear to keep exhaust systems on them and some must be hard to start,because the owners dont seem to want to cut them off when they are parked.It would really be crazy if the govt started regulating the size of vehicles according to need and purpose and density of traffic,obviously people are as a whole not going to
.Sometimes I think we Americans are just plain spoiled,I’ve heard that 40 billion dollars if spent wisely would go a long ways to alleviating world hunger(some individuals net worth exceed that) but I cant see that happening,we are to busy killing people and pampering ourselves during our short pitiful lives,if the maker calls,theres going to be a lot of stuttering(just imagine)
“Deus ex machina!”
It will all change when people finally quit buying these super behemoths.
The same situation exists with motorcycles. The weight and size bloat has taken them to the point where they totally miss the whole point of a motorcycle, being an economical alternative to a car, handy and easy to park.
It really hits you when you go to a vintage bike show and see just how small and compact those old Nortons, Triumphs, Harley Davidsons, and even Honda Gold Wings used to be and how huge and bloated modern motorcycles have become.
You didn’t used to need a ladder to mount off road bikes in the '70s either. Bultacos, Montesas, Yamaha DT1, CZs, etc. all so much lower than what they sell now.
It will all change when people finally quit buying these super behemoths.
They’re not going to stop. I know a few people who have these mega trucks. And every single one is built like the guy in the Captain America movie BEFORE he was transformed to Captain America. I guess the bigger trucks make them feel bigger.