Is that what Salt Life is about (I could google it, but it’s not that important)? I thought it was the new “Ron Jon’s Surf Shop” or “Salty Dog Cafe” touristy crap. I live pretty far inland, about 1,000 miles away from any US coast, so surfing or saltwater fishing isn’t exactly a native experience. Still, I see many, many “Salt Life” stickers. Now, there are the take-offs, like “Got Life” in the Salt Life font, or any semi-serious parody.
I suspect that, along with certain other goods like restaurant portion size or TV screen size, the smaller, cheaper option gives you 50% as much benefit while costing 75-90% as much as the larger option so very few people would pick it.
This seems to be a trend among some goods. I can’t quite figure out what they have in common which makes them behave like that. Saying that they must have high fixed costs and low marginal costs seems accurate in an abstract way but doesn’t really describe what happened, when and why that change has occurred. Is it fixed costs which are higher than before, marginal costs which are lower, both?
If your Tundra has the 5.7L V-8 motor, you’re going to really appreciate the uptick in MPG’s. I don’t know about the brand new 5.7 motors going into the Tundra now, but man, that i-Force (powered by Apple!) 5.7L is thirsty as hell.
there was this car site I used to comment on a lot where this guy would brag relentlessly about the “magnificent 5.7 liter 32 valve iForce V8” in his Tundra.
he always went silent when people (usually me) pointed out that the pushrod 5.7 V8 in Ram trucks was more powerful and got better fuel economy.
If you’re looking for “used” Tacomas and Tundras, prepare to be shocked at how much they go for. Same with Chevrolet, and probably GMC.
No, it absolutely has become that…it’s migrated into the Midwest at this point. It’s part of a general trend of pop-country kitsch, like something that Georgia/Florida Line would sing about. (Florida, various parts of it, are a big holiday hangout for Midwest/Southern folk in general, though they seem to favor Ft. Meyers, Tampa, and Pensacola over the eastern shore of Florida, which makes sense from a geographical standpoint.) Others might go to Gulf Shores or anywhere else in the Gulf of Mexico area, even if they don’t fish. Big big spring break/drunken-debauchery destination for high school and college students. You can probably buy “Salt Life” stickers at any number of tackle shops in the Midwest where there is no saltwater fishing to be found whatsoever.
Today’s heavy pickups are truly amazing vehicles to drive, though…from the standpoint of quality, a comfortable driving experience, and even fuel efficiency, they’re outstanding. When I go to Nova Scotia, I always rent a Ram 1500 or a Silverado 1500…they have the muscle to handle irregular rural roads and very steep hills near Cape Breton, they’re very comfortable to drive on the highway, and they handle spectacularly well in close traffic also - I can easily parallel-park in downtown Halifax with them. The backup camera helps a lot with that.
I bought a (lightly) used 2011 Ranger in 2014. it only had about 15,000 miles on it. two years later, I saw similar trucks with 50-70k miles listed for a couple thousand dollars more than what mine was listed for.
There are a couple things about a small pickup truck that make them uniquely useful. You can put a yard of mulch or a half yard of soil/compost in the back and load it in with a front loader–you cannot do this with a van of any sort. Plus, a van of any sort has carpeting and seats in the back, which few people want to have covered in mulch or compost. You can clean out the bed of the pickup with a hose–not so easy with a minivan.
The pickup is rear wheel drive and you can beef up the shocks so it’ll carry a lot more weight than you’d think. Minivans are front wheel drive, and if you put too much weight in the back they lug horribly and become extremely hard to drive with all the weight on the trailing wheels.
If you need the pickup bed to stay dry you can get a cheap fiberglass or aluminum cap to put on it that you can take right back off if you need to haul something tall or gross. Minivans don’t have this option.
Rear wheel drive pickup has a greater towing capacity than any front wheel drive with the same size engine.
A compact pickup with a 4 cylinder engine is very easy on the gas and is a lighter weight vehicle than a minivan, especially if you don’t have a cap on the back. They’re easy to set up as a camper too, just set a couple 2x4s (or in the case of my '92 Dakota, 2x6s) across the wheel wells and cut a bit of plywood to fit and boom, it’s a bed with storage underneath and you can still schlep the dogs back there. If the dogs are making noise you have the option of shutting the window in the back of the cab.
Small pickups are the bomb and we need more of them. They make excellent delivery vehicles too, you can park them in tiny spots and get around busy inner city streets easier than a fullsize.
shocks don’t carry weight. nor are they supposed to. they’re dampers. the springs carry the weight.
Well then, you can add an extra leaf and on some trucks there are some heavier duty rear ends that are an option too–and a good set of coilovers really helps with that side to side body roll when you have a goodly weight on. Some trucks can feel like they’re doing the samba in a turn even without being overloaded, the right set of shocks can make that go away.
But do notice I didn’t say you can overload the truck, just that you can put more weight back there than you’d think was comfortable. I like little pickups, I’ve had a grip of them over the years. They’re very practical and I wish there were more options to buy them these days.
Many good reasons given here as to why domestic manufacturers don’t produce (in the vernacular) 1/4 ton pickups. However, overseas production never ceased.
The reason they are not available here isn’t because of un-achievable CAFE standards the US imposes (most of these little imports would meet or exceed the requirement), but rather because of the “chicken tax” as first mentioned by Bumbazine in post #6 above. A 25% tariff on imported compact trucks is still in effect… Once domestics dropped out of production, this tariff guaranteed the demise of the market for 1/4 ton pickups in the US.
Everywhere else in the world they are still going strong!
It’s such a bummer, too, because small trucks have a niche that’s being overfilled by half ton plus trucks. My Dakota is just on the fine edge of being too big, but it’s got a short bed (six foot) and an extended cab so from a utility standpoint it’s really good. The V6 is good for power, but it sure would be nice to get over 20mpg with it, and the towing capacity (2000 lb at the bumper, more with the receptacle hitch I had installed) is a bit of overkill–I really wouldn’t mind having something more like the late '70s Toyota trucks I used to have or the little 80s & 90s Mazda and Isuzu trucks that were marketed as Ford and Chevy mini pickups. Those little suckers were bulletproof, hard workers and tough as nails and I really feel that there’s a place for those to come back, especially if we could get them as hybrids. And maybe with just a leetle bit more creature comforts. Only a little though. Nothing fancy, they need to be work trucks basically.
Agreed.
I’d buy a new one in a heartbeat, if available. But what are the chances of that happening? Near zero.
Even smaller and more maneuverable/faster than small pickup trucks, are “utes”, a type of vehicle that seems to only exist in Australia…essentially a car with a pickup bed. I think they usually have V8 engines, although I’m sure there are smaller and more fuel efficient ones available as well. They probably also have electric ones there now.
The sole American “ute” was the El Camino. I’m not really sure why they caught on in Australia but not in America.
Ford Ranchero:)
Perhaps the old International Scouts and Ford Broncos might fit your description too.
Don’t forget the Ford Ranchero and the Subaru Brat. Aside from the Brat they were a little more engine than strictly necessary–the fuel economy aspect wouldn’t be there. From a cargo standpoint those things have a down side in that the bed isn’t a separate piece, it’s all a unibody. When you carry a good heavy load in a pickup truck having the bed able to flex separately from the cab helps distribute the load better and keeps undue stress off the frame. It would depend on if you need a car that can occasionally carry some shit or a truck that can be driven around like a car.
Plus you get to help everyone you know move!
Subaru=Japanese. But if considering them… More recently, the Baja.
BTW: weren’t El Caminos and Rancheros box framed (not unibody)? I’m uncertain.
I think it might depend on the year they were made but I know at least a couple models of El Camino that were all one body piece, no separate bed.
And I’m not ruling out Japanese cars, just looking at vehicles that have been readily for sale in the US and Subaru is all over and sell a lot of cars. A lot of the small pickups were thinly disguised imports anyway, Japanese trucks badged as American but definitely not from around here. That type of truck specifically is something we could use now.