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
As someone without a family, my friends have cars. They can drive themselves. In all four doors I have owned, the rear seats have been removed. DRIVE YOURSELF YOU LAZY CHILD! (is what I imagine I would say to my imagined child).
I live a life that doesn’t need a crew cab. There are dozens of us (I bought a single cab from 1966)
Listen, I love love LOVE a regular cab. I grew up in them, I’ve worked out of them, I’ve owned them as business vehicles and personal ones.
The one and only reason antibody wants one is nostalgia and looks.
And when it comes down to actually purchasing a $40-$50k vehicle, you need a lot of justification to spend that kind of cash.
That second set of doors/ extra couple feet of closed, lockable storage is WELL worth sacrificing a couple feet of bed space for. People love to suggest contractor type jobs as the use case for needing an 8 foot bed, but guess what contractors actually use?
A crew cab with a set of racks that extend over the cab.
The only single cab trucks used in the work world anymore are pilot trucks, townships that only employ 2 people, and spare vehicles for utility companies.
For every contractor using a roof rack I generally see 3 contractors using a minivan. Oddly enough they really like Toyota Sienna’s. They generally fit more than a truck, have comparable payload ratings, and are far easier to load and unload.
The three-body problem continues to delight and confound. There is no general solution, but there are lots of specific cases with elegant representations.
The same is true in physics.
COTD of a COTD! . there’s a 9 dimensional sophon with your name on it. Or Jon Lovitz. I’d go dark just to be safe
I will die on ExpreSS Hill…
A worthy hill to die on.
I would join you but I’m dying on far too many hills at the moment.