Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: supton
If there was a market, there'd be sales.
There is a whole lot more to it than that. Namely profit margins, CAFE, and safety equipment. Still, even with barriers to entry in a segment, ignoring it is shortsighted. Toyota is hanging on to this segment and GM is getting back into it for a reason.
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Compact trucks got sales because they were
cheap to buy.
Not necessarily. My parents bought a small truck specifically because they prefer driving smaller vehicles, and because full size trucks barely fit in their garage. Cost was way down on the priorities list.
I bought a small truck because the size was just right for me.
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Need a full frame with towing or heavy weight? Well, if it's a working truck... why not a real truck? Instead of paying nearly the same cost as a full sized, just buy a full sized in the first place.
Oh please...this again. Is your VW not a real car? It's small, so it can't be real. You need a Crown Vic or Sedan DeVille if you want a real car. Why didn't you buy one of those instead?
My "fake truck" has done more "real truck" stuff than the vast majority of "real trucks." Tens of thousands of miles of towing, and over 1K lbs. in the bed more times than I can remember. One time when it was covered in dust and mud, I took a load of scrap metal to the recycler...when they were weighing it, they put it down as a "brown F-150" on the scale slip...the truck is a black Ranger. No, I have never hauled a 4x8 sheet of plywood in it, because I have never needed to (according to many 1/2 ton "real truck" owners, trucks are for hauling a 4x8 sheet of plywood, and in the off chance they ever do that, they need a crew cab Long Horn Texas Edition).
My truck has also spent most of its life in urban areas. There have been MANY times I was very happy to have a small truck that could fit in tight parallel spots, alleys, etc. My truck has been parked and driven through many spots a full size simply will not fit.
And beyond the parking advantages, smaller vehicles just drive nice.
No other vehicle I'm aware of does all of those things as well. With a car, I'd sacrifice payload and towing ability, not to mention durability. With a full size, I'd sacrifice maneuverability and space efficiency.
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When I was shopping I couldn't justify paying nearly the same price for a Tacoma as for a Tundra, not when the Tundra would "do it better" at a slight mpg penalty (which I didn't care about as it was a low mile/year vehicle). If a Taco had been half priced I would have bought differently.
When I was shopping, I couldn't justify the inconvenience of carrying around extra space all the time.
Why would you expect the Tacoma to be half priced from the Tundra? It isn't half of a Tundra. It's more than 3/4ths of a Tundra, so I would expect it to be more than 3/4ths the price of one.
Originally Posted By: KzMitch
I think there's a market for them. But much of it has to do with profit. There's a lot more "meat on the bone" with a $35,000 sale than a $14,500 sale.
Exactly. It's not that the market isn't there, it's that there are a number of outside variables working against small trucks. Larger trucks are easier to profit on.
Unfortunately, our gov't has mandated small trucks out of profitability. The CAFE regs and mandated complexity of vehicles is just making it too difficult to build and sell good small trucks in the US. Most of the world has them, and buys them in huge numbers, but they aren't saddled with all the regulations we are.
The new Colorado is a good shot, and I have high hopes for it. The problem is though, the outside is almost the size of a Silverado, and the inside is about the size of my Ranger's interior.
My lowly unibody Jeep Cherokee has done more real work than a lot of the brodozers around. I know a few people who always brag about how awesome it is to have a "big truck" (4 door truck with micro 5' bed) ... yet they are renting trucks because they don't want to get theirs scratched or whatever they are trying to haul won't fit in the bed.
I've towed, I've hauled and I off road with my Cherokee. When I get a house, no doubt I will be moving building supplies around. The biggest I expect to go, if I get a truck, is a Ranger. And even with that, I'll probably just stick to using the Cherokee with a trailer.
Yup I'd much rather tow with the Cherokee than a Ranger. It's also got a real engine too
And as Supton said, that ranger is begging for a leaf spring to snap. It's probably lifted with several more leafs in them and is likely the only reason the rear bumper isn't sitting on the ground.
