with half size cargo beds? Do pickups really need to be exclusively a family vehicle? It seems that no manufacturer has a two door truck in its line up.
It might be what you’re seeing, but you can certainly get exactly what you’re asking about. I just checked the Chevy website and they’re still selling the classic Silverado with 2 doors (no back seat) and a full bed. You just have to pick through the options to get to it.
I think what you’re noticing is the pick up becoming a status symbol. Just like people buying enourmous Suburbans when a crossover would be more than adequate, now you’re seeing pick up trucks for people that have nothing to pick up (but they still have a family they need to drive around). A friend of mine spent, I don’t know, maybe 80k on a pick up with all the bells and whistles. When he got it he mentioned (often) that it has a full size bed that will fit an entire sheet of plywood. This from someone that has likely never purchased, bought, moved or even been in the same store as a sheet of plywood. It’s all for show.
Most people buy pickups for uses like towing the boat up to the cabin or hauling wood chips or IKEA furniture on the weekend. Something that has somewhat less cargo space but more room for the entire family is more attractive for these users. If you have a two door truck you can still tow the boat or haul furniture, but how do you bring the rest of the family up to the cabin or to IKEA? Or if you’re not hauling something how do you bring the kids to their sports practice on a weekend afternoon since you don’t want to own another vehicle just for that purpose.
I get that maybe you’re a two car family and the spouse might have a sedan for the kids. But now you have to take two vehicles up to the cabin with the boat. And now only the person with the sedan can transport the kids.
If you use your truck for nothing but work and never need it as a family vehicle you can still order a truck with two doors and a full length bed. You just might not find many of those on a dealer’s lot since most people that buy trucks for businesses don’t go onto a car lot and pick out vehicles like families do.
A 4 door pickup does everything I want, and need. It’s as good, or better then every other option.
It also doesn’t help that car companies generally in N.America don’t actually build cars anymore so you have the option of a pickup or an SUV.
To the OP’s point, Toyota stopped selling their regular cab Tacoma in the US five or six years ago. Only extended cabs and four doors now.
Well, a number of years ago I bought an off-lease one-year-old Dodge minivan for less than a quarter of that price, and it could hold full sheets of plywood, too. So could the Dodge minivan that I got brand new before that one, and kept for about 13 years. And in both cases, the plywood, or the new flat-screen TV, or whatever I happened to put in it, did not get rained on or snowed on if the weather was bad. I simply do not understand the attraction of pickups, unless you live on a farm or a ranch, except as a symbol of some kind of rugged frontier-type masculinity or something.
On one single occasion I rented a pickup despite having the minivan. The only reason was that I was doing some major brush-clearing and had a huge pile of twigs and branches to take to the dump, not something I’d want to put inside a minivan.
Many of them are luxury vehicles. My neighbor has one like that, and he has a hard cover “cap” enclosing the truck bed. It has NEVER been off, which means he has never used the truck bed of his pickup truck. My uncle in Texas says the term down there is, “Texas Cadillac”.
The last time I owned a 2 door pickup truck (2002), my insurance went up because my agent told me anything with 2 doors is considered a sports car and the insurance is rated accordingly. I am not sure if that is still the case, but it may be a deciding factor for many buyers: 4 doors equals lower insurance rates.
Assuming we are talking about the US, surely it is allowed to use other types of cars besides pickups to tow boats etc? What am I not getting?
My disdain for pickups as mostly status symbols is clear from the previous post. But in all fairness, some pickups (e.g. Ford F-350) come with enormous engines and heavy-duty towing capability that can haul really heavy boats and other loads. I don’t begrudge anyone a pickup who has those kinds of needs.
That’s what I’m saying, it’s a status symbol.
As for the attraction of pick ups, I love em. I like how they look, I find them fun to drive, I would love to own one, but not only are they really expensive these days, since I don’t have anything to pick up, it’s like having a small car (WRT interior space).
Also, as for the hyper masculinity thing, while it’s certainly the case for some, it’s not for others. I’m certainly not hyper masculine, I just like them (but my Civic is a whole lot more practical). And the guy I’m talking about…on a sliding scale, he’s closer to Eddy Izzard than Rambo. But he enjoys the finer things and has a wealthy husband (who I’ve known for probably 20+ years). IOW, it’s more ‘boys and their toys’ and less ‘I have something to prove’.
I remember somewhere around the mid 90’s when Tahoes, Blazers and the other suite of, what would now be called, SUVs were getting really popular. People slammed them left and right. Everything from the ‘small dick’ jokes (which I still don’t understand) to them just being a status symbol. My dad got one when they came out (And is currently on his 3rd one). I can’t tell you how many times I explained, even here, that he got it because he needs it. He has the back seats out/folded down and still has that truck filled with stuff on an almost daily basis.
The 2021 Tacoma SR is a two door model. It has a back row of seats, but it’s not a full/extended cab like the rest of the Tacoma lineup.
Can you clarify that statement? Are you talking about cars physically made in NA? Big 3 based out of NA?
Honda has plants in the US and makes, at least, the Civic here. The first Big 3 car I thought of, the Camero, is made in Michigan.
Tho poster that mentioned pickups makes it sound as if you can’t tow a boat with a sedan (or other kind of family car), one has to have some kind of pickup, and if you get a 2 door pickup for your boat, you need a second car for the family.
In most (European) countries I am aware of, most cars are rated with some kind of towing capacity. So one can indeed have a single car to carry the boat and the family to the vacation place.
Surely the same is true in the US?
I was going to say the same about my not-sexy, not very expensive Honda Odyssey. (which, 20 years later, my son is still driving.) And I did buy sheets of plywood once, and carry furniture and lawnmowers and other bulky items in it.
Towing capacity of typical sedans (Honda Civic, Toyota Camry, Chevy Malibu, etc.) is going to be in the range of 1000 pounds: a small trailer or boat.
Current Ford F150 pickup trucks have a towing capacity of over 5000 pounds; some models can haul 11,000 pounds. F350 models can go up to 20,000 pounds.
What size trailers and campers and boats are common in Europe?
Gaah! I don’t want to defend pickups, but for those who really need them, they do have their uses. Yes, most cars are rated with “some kind” of towing capacity, but the question is, what kind? A suitably equipped F-350 can tow nearly 36,000 pounds (18 tons). Can your little Honda Civic do that? 
I’m the exact opposite I can’t understand why a person would ever own a minivan when they had the option to own a pickup. I just loaded twenty 10’ 2x6" boards in my truck to build flower beds the average minivan is only 7’ from the rear doors to the back of the driver’s seat so you would either need to have the lumber up between the driver’s and passenger’s seat or drive with the back hatch open. Even with my 6’ bed I just strapped it down and flagged it in 20 seconds. Sure a flat screen TV isn’t something you would want to load in the bed but I can do up to 5.5’ across the width of my cab so TVs up to 70" get loaded behind the driver’s seat. How do you load up washers and dryers into a minivan? We just bought a pair at home depot that were floor models and 40% off if we took them home immediately. I loaded the whole family (4 people) into the truck and the washer and dryer in the bed, it was very comfortable. As you said brush or the 2 yards of compost I’m picking up this weekend would make a hell of a mess inside a minivan and from what I can tell the towing on minivans is abysmal so even renting a skid steer for the weekend becomes a job you should rent a truck for.
Basically I can only see owning a minivan if you have like 6 kids and your life revolves around them.
Could be worse.
Can it hold full sheets of plywood AND passengers at the same time? My pickup can; the mini-vans I’ve used all required the passenger seats to be folded down or removed to fit in large objects.