Fifty years ago, the idea of a suburban family selecting a pickup truck as one of their two primary vehicles was rather unheard of. Today, of course, that’s not the case, as products like Ford Mavericks are high on the shopping lists of those who don’t really spend much time doing “pickup things” at all.
Because of this, more and more car companies are trying to get on board with pickups. The question for today is, which brands that aren’t currently offering pickups should be? I’m not talking about making a ute out of some regular SUV or sedan; I mean which ones should make a ground-up new truck?
Recently we’ve seen that Kia is reportedly going to sell a pickup in the United States. They’re currently making a truck for other markets called the Tasman, a vehicle so ugly it’s almost appealing. Yikes.
We’re told that the supposed-US-market Kia pickup won’t look like this, but that doesn’t seem to be the issue. Maybe it’s just me, but does anyone really want a Kia pickup, regardless of the styling?
Personally, I miss the days when Mazda was a big player with mini trucks. Their legacy goes back over half a century, including rotary-powered pickups. They weren’t a mechanical or sales success, but what a cool idea!
After that, Mazda sold the popular and affordable “B” series (also offered as the Ford Courier) before, ironically, simply hawking rebadged Ford Rangers until 2009. I’d love to see a revived B-Series as something like a gas-powered Slate or something, wouldn’t you?
There’s even a Mazda pickup for sale now in other markets that’s a nicely reskinned Isuzu that we apparently won’t be getting. That’s a pretty nice-looking truck that makes me want a Mazda even more.
How about Lexus? If I’m spending absurd dollars on a loaded Toyota pickup truck, I wouldn’t mind spending a few more to get the Lexus dealership experience, as well as some higher-end interior trim. Somehow a Lexus-branded Tundra makes sense.
What about you? Maybe a Volvo pickup truck strikes your fancy? Let us know!
Top graphic base image: Toyota
Mitsubishi makes some sense (from what I recall the L-series was well liked overseas,) Mazda perhaps a bit more. I don’t see the point of any European make other than VW selling one in the states. Maybe Dacia if they show up here.
Trucks from luxury brands don’t work, I think, because the Blue Collar crowd has made them such a part of their identity that even though an F-series or Silverado could be as well equipped as a Lincoln or Cadillac, the class separation between the Truck and everything else makes trucks from luxury brands, primarily selling to people with money, a hard sell. The shop floor and jobsite types will sneer at them, as if they’re being dangled just out of reach…even though they have a loan on their own rig reaching out the majority of a decade.
It’s like how a builder can drive an $80K truck and clients don’t bat an eye, but if he were in a BMW they would howl about the “ripoff” estimates
None.
Pickup trucks are stupid for most private uses.
A station wagon with an openable window in the rear hatch, or detatchable roof bars, will do the same job of getting your 2x4s home.
For commercial use, or if youre a really keen private DIYer, they are fine.
But your stuff in the back will get less stolen or rained upon, if you just use a van.
Michaelscottthankyou.gif
Follow-up Autopian Asks for tomorrow: what cars should have wagon versions that don’t?
Shouldn’t the question be which cars shouldn’t? The list would be much shorter.
Mid-engine 2-seater sports cars. They sure would look cool but can you imagine trying to navigate a cherry picker inside the car to do an engine swap?
I’d love Mazda to put out a spiritual successor to the REPU. Not necessarily a rotary-powered truck, but something small, sporty, and not a crew cab with a tiny bed.
GM should be making a true Raptor competitor, the fact that they aren’t is genuinely baffling. Otherwise, I’d love to see a Mazda truck back in the US, and the next gen Amarok would be nice to have and might help VW out.
GM can barely keep the NA motors together, unless they get rid of the DFM and variable pressure oil pumps, adding a power adder would likely only exacerbate the problems.
They could truckify the Corvette
Mitsubishi, Isuzu, VW, Kia, Hyundai should bring something in to the US. Mazda, Subaru, should ask Toyota for a truck. Mercedes should figure it out for the US. BMW already has the giant grills and builds many SUVs in the US they could figure something out too. Vinfast needs to bring the wild in and ⁷something smaller. Lucid should do something.
In a perfect world, please bring back cheap single cab trucks. It brings a smile to my face when I see well-loved S10s, Rangers, and B3000s that haven’t gotten the off-road or Carolina Squat treatment still happily driving around.
I would love to see a Lexus truck. It would be worth the premium over the Tundra if they put at NA V8 rather than the TTV6 that seems to be nightmare.
Forgot to say, if I can’t get single cabs, at least have Toyota bring a hybrid version of the Stout to the US. It might be the only new vehicle I would write a check for at the dealer.
You can buy a new F150 single cab for mid $30s.
Its huge though.
I have less than zero interest in the small or midsize trucks that most of these brands would be creating, but I’d love to see Toyota’s take on a Tundra HD.
There was a concept dually shown years ago; what would they do now is a fascinating question. At least to me.
Same, but I also wondered what a true Titan HD would look like.
Especially if they put diesel engines in them. A Tundra HD with a CAT engine? Nissan doing the most Nissan thing and using International?
It’d be so bizarre yet so freakin’ cool!
Toyota knows what they are doing. They make plenty of heavier trucks with Hino, but they watched the Titan and Titan XD try so hard, make realistically good trucks, but still not manage to take much market share from the big 3. I remember that Tundra HD and if anyone has a chance at the class 2b and class 3 trucks, it’s Toyota.
Now that the Outback has the dimensions of a Ford Explorer and no longer resembles a stationwagon from any angle I don’t see why Subaru doesn’t lop the back off it and bring back the Brat/Baja.
I’m going to say Honda now that they’ve basically cancelled the Ridgeline.
Dear Honda, the Ridgeline isn’t a bad product. But you seem to be hellbent, like many of your other products, to make it as boring as fucking possible. Build a few goddamn Ridgelines in something other than grayscale, and make the thing look just a little less like a last generation Pilot-van and you’d actually be able to sell it.
Also… maybe put a powertrain in it so it’s at least a little more efficient than a Silverado.
There was a rumor that Tesla was developing a truck back in 2019. All we got was a dumpster.
On fire no less!
Why? Full size trucks buyers are notoriously brand loyal as Nissan discovered after 20 years attempting to crack that market. Smaller trucks have a window but most if not all will likely be 4 door unibody reworkings of a CUV. I don’t expect Slate to make much of a dent, especially once Ford releases the Fathom.
Nissan had some really bad luck that didn’t help.
Their first gen Titan had a rear axle that you had to break in before towing. Lot’s of owners didn’t know and blew them.out.
The second Gen got that horrific Cummins engine that sealed the fate I f the line.
If things had gone well and they had lowered their price by $10,000 they would be as established as the Tundra.
the real issue was the redesign was not attractive. they pussy footed in the HD side of things and Cummins bit them in the ass with a crap design. nevermind the thing was not competitive as an HD truck.
I could see the Titan return with better styling and the 5.6 with some design upgrades. the thirst for a reliable V8 truck is not really fully quenched I think.
I agree that the looks didn’t help. It reminded me of a high top sneaker.
The XD was never meant to compete with the 3/4 tons of today, it was more of an in-betweener. The goal was to have a truck that matched the 3/4 tons 15 years ago. It did that really well and is more stable at towing and hauling than any half ton available, even today. The 5.6 V8 is a glorious engine, but the power doesn’t come on until higher in the rpm range, truck buyers want low end torque. They did get hosed with the Cummins, and Cummins felt that pain as well. Cummins had been using a similar V8 in medium duty application with some success, but modernizing it didn’t work. Fuel mileage wasn’t great, power was the same as a 20 year old 5.9 6bt, and reliability also wasn’t great. Cummins doesn’t fail often, but they did with that 5.0.
Budweiser
Chrysler needs products to sell. Make a Chrysler pickup that isn’t a Ram badge job. Maybe based on the mini van.
Call it the Imperial.
Imperial LeBaron.
leBoredom!
DO make it a Ram badge job, that’ll get the Ram faithful in their corner. While we’re at it, put Chrysler badges on everything in the Wagoneer line and kill the Jeep version altogether.
I think you could make a case for a “Rampaged” Pacifica. And, being an automotive mullet, they could call it Town & Country, for “Town in the front, Country in the back.”
Black roof from top of windshield to bottom of hatch
They could do a small/mid size one that’s a Chrysler design, and a full size one based on the Ram.
I’m okay with more pick-ups if they are smaller like the Maverick. I’d rather not see anymore full sized brodozers with hoods and window lines higher than sedan roofs. Same goes for the massive suvs.
KIA needs to sell civilian versions if this: https://org-military.kia.com/en/km450
That is a cutie!
Let Genesis get hold of it and it could be the Korean G-wagen fighter.
If they are just badge-engineered products from other brands? Then zero. Looking at you, Suzuki Equator
At least the owners can still get parts for them.
None. We’ve got enough cluttering the highways.
Land Rover and Mercedes (no, not the rebadged Nissan they did). A G-Wagen or Defender based pickup truck would be pure profit
All of them.
The compact segment is wide open and completely empty. There are no compact pickups to be had in the American market.
The “compact” Tacoma would be toe-to-toe against a fullsize F150 from the 1980s. The Maverick, same, but a little shorter. They try to tell us it’s a compact, truck, it absolutely is not. The Colorado, an ostensibly midsize truck, is larger in every dimension (except bed length) than a full-sized Chevy Silverado from 1992. These damned things are all enormous and don’t need to be.
Can the compact segment really happen now that CAFE has changed the definition of a truck again? Getting a Maverick sized vehicle to have a work rating ,payload and towing combined, of 8,500 pounds is going to be interesting.
Just make trucks that meet car emissions, lots of customers only want to carry some mulch or tow a 250lb dirt bike and don’t need 400 horsepower.
They all meet emissions. It’s the mileage quota that’s a problem.
I do think they could easily meet mileage if they made a <3400lb truck with an aerodynamic body and a reasonable ride height (air under the body is disastrous for drag), but I understand the matter of demand for American customers.
We have the exact vehicles I described in Brazil, they're the VW Saveiro, Chevrolet Montana and the like, but Americans wouldn't buy an economy truck, it just doesn't meet the average US commuter's expectation of spacious 5-adult seating, extensive off-road capability and imposing road presence. I do think there's a market for 2+2 extended cabs and lower ride heights if the vehicles are cheap and efficient enough to justify the lack of visual impact, but it's definitely a gamble.
Hyundai tried the aero route with the Santa Cruz. It didn’t sell well.
Small trucks can sell but r hey have to look like trucks. 1980’s mini trucks.
I honestly think if they look like 90s trucks, they could see decent success. Fairly retro cars like the Mustang and Charger can achieve decent drag coefficients, I don’t think the Santa Cruz failed because of aerodynamics, but because the design language draped over it followed the same approach as every other 2020 economy car, by cheaply copying the average 2012 luxury car. That sort of pretentiousness is great in the entry level commuter market, where people want to feel like they have a more premium product than they do, but it scares away small truck buyers who want “honest” styling. I think a Santa Cruz, with the same silhouette and drag coefficient but styled under the same mood boards and focus groups as the Telluride, might have been a hit, or at least much less of a dud.
I think the bed was too small and the marketing was too bad.
We’ll never know though.
I’d definitely agree with that. I reckon for comparison, the Subaru Baja was a moderate success, it had that rugged ugliness that makes people want to buy Crocs and adopt Pugs. Still a very niche product, I think it might have been even more successful if the cab was shorter and the bed was longer instead of the “all things to all people” short-bed crew-cab layout then ended up going with, but we’ll never know on that account, either.
I like your comparison. Good reference.
Thanks, I enjoyed shouting at clouds with you
I did too.
That’s been taken care of hasn’t it?
Maybe with the Slate
Mitsubishi.
They need a reason to get people into their stores.
Mitsubishi still sells cars in the US?
Or anything?
Maybe radios? I don’t know.
Air conditioners?
Hmm. Possibly.
They should throw in a free mini split in the the bed of your Mitsubishi truck sales event. Doesn’t roll off the tounge like Toyotathon or Honda days. Mitsubishi mini month?
I like it!
Another interesting question is “which brand should be making minivans that isn’t now?”
Especially with the resurgence of vans—including one from Mercedes and the rumored van from Volvo—a van/pickup duo from either of these brands would be interesting to see and probably gain market share. We all know that minivans are more practical than open-bed trucks for much of the daily toting that truck owners claim to need…
Another interesting question is “which brand should be making minivans that isn’t now?”
Mazda Is Again The Answer. Resurrect the Mazda5.
I wish they would bring back the cabover minivans from Mazda, Toyota and even Nissan.
They should bring back the MPV, so that the Wu Tang Clan can once again roll in one while making 40g’s per week.
Subaru.
The Ascent doesn’t really sell. Make the damn thing an AWD van for people who like to camp and have too many dogs. Print money.
I bet if they make a full EV version of the Sienna it will have a Subaru twin. But the market for EV minivans is minute nowadays compared to the market for hybrid minivans. I would be fascinated to see what The Bishop could come up with for the design language on all these options!
We definitely need more trucks and SUVs. (Also your headline could use editing.)
I hope that was sarcasm.
Nope. It’s a dream. A beautiful, beautiful dream.
I speak fluent sarcasm, the only other language I know.
Is normal (Chinese) user manual language for to make good economy for country
Lambo and McLaren LOL
Mitsubishi, Mazda, and VW need to sell their trucks here. Assemble CKD kits in the US or Mexico.
You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts!
All the supercar manufacturers should build trucks. Porsche. Ferrari. Aston Martin.
Hell yeah do it!
w00000t w00000000000000000000000t
Cadillac should bring back the Escalade EXT and offer it in V spec
Mazda Is Always The Answer.