Car enthusiasts and the general public often come at odds with their desires. A typical car buyer might get a white crossover while an enthusiast prefers a brown wagon. Enthusiasts like their beds long, their cabs regular, and their beds low, but everyone else keeps buying short bed crew cab trucks that tower over everything else.
Griffin guessed the size of Ford’s $30,000 electric truck against the fan favorite Maverick. Some people were sad that neither truck has a regular cab version. Moonball96 makes a good point:
Y’all, give it up on the single cabs. They aren’t coming back, especially for a vehicle this size. Most buyers don’t want them, stopped buying them, and the market responded. I owned a 2006 single cab F-150 for ten years – I bought it because I was young and thought it looked cool (and yes, it did look cool). But I can be honest with myself, and that is, it just wasn’t a very usable vehicle especially after I started a family. Now I drive a crew cab Nissan Frontier, it’s still ‘small’ compared to a full size truck but it gives me extra space for the car seat and anything else I want to keep dry, and I can make the short bed work for weekend warrior runs to Home Depot.
And I know you can take my argument and run it through the wringer, tell me I don’t even need a truck and can be happy with a mini-van or something (looking at you Technology Connections).
But… I still like driving a truck, so my little Nissan is a happy compromise. No more single cab, but no sedan either.
Yes, there’s no shame in liking trucks even if you don’t “need” one. As for regular cab trucks, I adore them, too, but most buyers have already voted with their wallets, and they want four doors.
Rob Stercraw also has a good way to look at this new truck:
For all of those bemoaning its gargantuan size when compared with whatever mini truck from whatever specified era…
Hey, it’s a step in the right direction – I for one embrace the trend and hope it continues. I owned a 1st gen Geo Metro in the day and recently was behind one in traffic. They were small when I owned one 20 years ago but holy shit – now it is ridiculously tiny compared to literally EVERYTHING around it.
Luxobarge:
For easy comparison:
Ford Maverick. L: 200 in; H: 69 in; W: 73 in.
Ford “Ranchero” (est.). L: 196 in; H: 64 in; W: ?? in.
Slate Truck: L: 175 in; H: 69 in; W: 71 in.
Telo MT1: L: 152 in; H: 66 in; W: 73 in.
Thomas wrote about 1,500 kW charging in China. Donut Lab caught a stray from Mechjaz:
I’m waiting for the Donut Labs version where they slow it down because drivers were getting upset they didn’t have time to do more than slam an espresso while charging.
86-GL got weirdly specific:
Please, I need to drive 900 miles wearing a catheter to confront my romantic rival in our astronaut love triangle.
The linked Wikipedia article is wild!
Finally, Antti wrote about the eternal Chevy Express. StillNotATony once again advocates for an SS version:
I still say they should do a limited run of SS versions. The ExpreSS, if you will.
Bring back AWD, bolt a supercharger onto the LS, slam it, stiffen the suspension, and paint SS stripes down the middle.
C’mon, GM. You know you wanna…
Have a great evening, everyone!
Topshot graphic image: Nissan
If the US got rid of the chicken tax (perhaps only on lighter vehicles) it would be easier to import niche products like small two door pickups and (my favorite) small cargo vans. I know, not going to happen.
Having a pickup as your only vehicle seems like a weird idea. Pickups are so task specific I had a pickup as my only vehicle, but I was pretty weird myself, and I was living in Manhattan. So pretty weird.
But I dont need a back seat, so regular cab it is for me.
It is an honour to make COTD with such tasteful content!