The first generation was built in Turkey, but subsequent models have been built in Spain and Poland. But the chicken tax story is true, and may have gotten Ford in trouble.
What I REALLY don’t understand is the 3500 trucks with a topper/cap on. You need to tow a fifth wheel once a year, or what? Or getting 9 mpg on diesel fulfills some fetish?
Especially the duallies.
Dualies with out a lot of weight in the truck is bad in slick conditions. Ya need that pressure on the ground when you have that much rubber meeting the road.
Nah, those are “crossovers”.
Im a construction guy so work Trucks / vans are part of life. I survive okay without the 8’ bed but I understand the grievance.
As a carpenter I would carry a lot of 8x4 sheet goods of various types. I always had a false deck with full depth sliding drawers for tools, so the wide stuff could always go on top and didn’t have to fight with the wheel wells. Its a system I strongly recommend.
I hear you on the minivan thing wolfpup. A great vehicle format but maligned by stupid male pride. A friend that works in IT got a Dodge Journey a couple years ago. He insists on calling it a truck. He cringes if you call it a minivan. I think minivans are awesome. As someone that liked to play a lot in the mountains when I wasn’t constructioning minivans are frickin great. Fill em with bikes and packs and skiis and get to the hills. Fuck male insecurity.
Big 1 ton and 3/4 ton trucks and vans are great for heavy work and robustness but suck otherwise. I drive em but they’re not fun. Im management now so I drive a extended cab Frontier. Its a fun little truck, has enough punch and can still haul some material. I way rather drive it than one of our bigger work trucks or vans.
I guess the Maverick has some cool features for a mini-truck, like the tailgate can be locked at the same height as the wheel wells to support 4x8 sheets. I think the Transit vans are changing a lot of peoples minds about vans, too.
They’re definitely a different sort of vehicle from minivans, and are more akin to the old “full-sized” vans, like the Ford E-Series and the Chevrolet Van, which had commercial trim levels, and were hugely popular with contractors and other professionals who needed cargo capacity (as well as also being popular as the base for “conversion vans” for consumers).
If I’m not mistaken the Transit and Ram Promaster are front wheel drive, which allows for a lower floor, which creates an absolutely cavernous cargo area. That was, IMO, the same formula that made Chrysler’s minivans such a hit almost 40 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I agree that those vans are a step up in size and they are full sized vans. The Transit Connect would probably qualify as a minivan, though.