Virtually every red-blooded male American retiree or retiree-to-be either vocally or secretly has a deep-held desire for a genuinely small pickup truck to either potter around town with, use to pick up a bag or two of mulch, or just to have something to drop the tailgate and sit on while sipping the morning coffee and adjusting the velcro straps on their shoes for the day. Frequently there is lamenting that Ford no longer offers the Ranger. Or Chevy the S-10. Or Dodge the Dakota. Well, there is a Ford Ranger, but the current one isn’t a real Ranger, it’s far too large and expensive, the “real” Ranger was the 1983-2012 one, you know, the fun-size one.
And the newish, supposedly popular yet rarely seen Ford Maverick is frankly still just too big comparatively, never mind that Ford doesn’t seem to really want to build and sell them for whatever reason. But Chevy’s been offering a genuinely small pickup in other markets for over two decades! Say what?
Yup, the Tornado (as it’s called in Mexico) or the Montana as it’s known in South America and other parts of the world; this competes with the RAM 700 and others of its ilk. Built in Brazil and South Africa, this is a gen-you-wine small trucklet. Unibody sure, but nobody’s bagging on the Maverick or Santa Cruz about that anymore so it’s a non-issue. This truck here though is a full 22″ shorter in length than a Maverick, which frankly isn’t particularly small on the outside, or certainly not as small as people were expecting (hoping?). Scale-wise this didn’t seem out of place next to the Subaru Forester on one side and the Jeep Liberty on the other. This is for the men that are comfortable with their equipment.
Today’s example is a second generation one, our own Dutch1960 caught a first generation version a year or so ago. This version here was sold in Mexico between 2012 and 2020, and in this case is the sporty “RS” trim which is mainly an appearance package, presumably there’s a steel-wheeled one as well. The Tirol sticker represents the dealer group that sold this one if I’m not mistaken, although for all I know this is a top seller in the Austrian Alps region as well. Surely it would outsell the Silverado there, if offered.
The bed looks pretty useful, it’s nice and deep, easy to reach into, and lined from the factory with a black plastic liner so as not to scratch up the paint with the mulch bags. Tiedowns are integrated into the bed rails (something sorely lacking in pretty much every current US-market offering).
There’s even a sidestep for extra convenience although you’d have to be really short to need it to reach into the bed, I’m sure it’s useful if there’s a high load or to tie stuff to the roof rack-ish-looking thingy. Which does beg the question as to why this step is not a thing in any other current truck design beyond HD GM trucks and as of this year the Ford SuperDuty line? The Subaru Brat had this as well, there would seem to be room in the lower bedside of most every truck sold today for one (or one on each side).
I know, I know, don’t remind me, it’s not imported here due to the chicken tax. Well, chicken tax, schmicken tax. If Chevy wanted to, they could easily build this somewhere in the upper 48 or in our proud and historic 51st state of Old Mexico like most everything else they build (GM is Mexico’s largest automaker by volume) or they could just as easily lobby Uncle Sugar to finally do away with the import restrictions altogether. Undoubtedly our friends up in the 52nd state across the river from you will buy an additional 10% of the overall volume as usual, and if they’re in Quebec they’ll unselect the A/C if it saves them another $50 and you a chip or two. Pure profit.
But no, I’m guessing American truck makers are scared of losing the only golden goose they have left. So as a result the American consumer loses out yet again. So much for freedom. Chevy’s scared of some good old-fashioned competition or perhaps buyers choosing something small, efficient, and useful for much of their actual needs instead of something far larger (and let’s be honest, obviously far more profitable IF people were to choose that instead of this as opposed to just doing without altogether and buying a Kia Soul or whatever which likely happens in more cases than one might think). Still, Chevy does build, sell, and update this elsewhere and presumably makes money on them there, otherwise why bother building it, right?
Here’s a crazy idea, the Chevy Bolt EV somehow has gotten super popular all of a sudden and after an announcement that it is being canceled, is now apparently going to continue to be built. Why can’t there be a Bolt pickup built on the same line? How much more could it cost than a Bolt hatchback or the newly added ever-so-slightly-not-that-you’d-notice-unless-they-are-side-by-side larger Bolt EUV hatchback? No way is a plastic-lined bed with a tailgate more costly than two rear doors and hatch. A small EV pickup with 238 miles of range like the Bolt? Maybe add electric AWD to not piss off and lose sales from all the snow-belters that also like good MPG (or MPGe) like Ford did? Here Mary, take my money! Why do I still not work for GM?
Some will invariably scoff and say it’s way too small and can’t carry anything. Well, payload is around 1,600 pounds which is more than many fancy full-size half-ton pickups boast. And the bed has a greater volume than that of the Honda Ridgeline which seems plenty big for suburban use. I’m not hating on those with a real need for lots of cargo volume, I’ve owned full-size trucks and see the point of pickup trucks big, bigger, and enormous; just pointing out that doesn’t automatically mean everyone needs, wants or will automatically buy more than they have a use or garage space for.
No, it isn’t huge on the inside but that’s alright, not everybody is plus-sized no matter what it may look like while you’re waiting to be seated at Cracker Barrel. And some people have an empty nest. Others are literally single. And let’s be real, folks; being in America, everyone has an extra vehicle (or half a dozen) anyway stashed somewhere on their property or parked in front of their neighbor’s house.
Inside it looks like many other smaller Chevys, and lookit, there are large knobs and buttons and even an honest-to-goodness ignition key hole to indulge everyone’s luddite fever dreams. As well as a stick shift to appease the burgeoning (or is it now waning?) “save the manuals” movement.
It even has a hitch! And look at that full-width bumper step to jump up on in order to swing a leg over the tailgate. It may even be that with the tailgate down it might be too low to comfortably load things without straining the back. Ah, a risk worth taking, I say; this is America, we have a domestically invented and produced pill for that potentially debilitating back pain even if it costs three times more here than anywhere else in the world! I for one dig this truck and will have one of our Canadian readers mail me cheaper pills if need be.
GM, I beseech you, stop hating the USA and its peoples. We made you. We can unmake you. Settle your strike, employ a few more union guys and gals, and build a small trucklet for America, preferably in America. Win one for the Gipper! Or just tell your lobbyists that you aren’t afraid of honest competition any longer and ask them to grease a few more palms in order to get the chicken tax removed, that’d frankly impress me even more. I love baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie, I wanna love Chevrolet too!
And before anyone complains that nobody except for pest-control guys and the auto parts store wants or buys regular-cab trucks anymore and that’s why we can’t have nice things, well, Chevy thoughtfully has that covered as well. The current generation of this truck which debuted last year is now available as a crew cab and by all accounts selling like hot tortas.
Does it look too large? It’s still 14″ shorter than that behemoth of a Maverick, so whose ass looks fat in that blue jeans color now, huh? Bring it, Chevy, stop the hate and show us some love! Heck, there’s your cue, call it the LUV and put the savings from the four fewer tailgate letters towards Mary’s pay package. U.S.A! U.S.A! Chevrolet! Chevrolet! Let’s Go Make Some More Mon-ay!
Totally agree! Just look at pickups from the 50s. Low side and rear liftover height. Now they’re the size of tanks and you have to lift the load over your head to load from the side.
That kind of looks like a 21st century El Camino. My friend owns a Maverick and it doesn’t look all that large to me. I owned 2 Rangers, an ’88 and ’96 and it looks about the same size. Of course I am basing my observations on the difference between the Maverick and the huge pickups everyone around here seems to drive.
I think they should sell it here. It would be more practical for a lot of people. I sure loved my El Camino as well as the Ranchero I also owned.
Right.
That Maverick is just a modern version of the 2000 Ranger I had. It is not too large.
The original 1980s Ranger (RCSB) is listed as being approximately 176″ in length, so about two feet shorter than a Maverick and with a 6′ bed. Adding the extended cab and/or the longer bed of course increased that dimension and over the years it somehow got longer due to styling and bumper differences as well. There was also a crew cab version (again, not sold in the US) that did end up longer than the Maverick.
It’s also kind of an apples-to-oranges comparison between a RCSB and a crew/4.5′. Like you said, the SuperCab and non-US crew cab were more comparable in length. The first-gen Sport Trac used the same frame, but its Explorer bodywork made it about 3″ longer.
The Maverick is too large? Hell yes it is, it’s two doors too large! How about bringing out a version that doesn’t try to do double duty as a sedan, and is just a pure pickup truck.
Because there’s essentially zero demand for a regular cab pickup, of any size.
Time has moved on; everybody likes having plenty of interior storage space for stuff or the occasional passengers. And there’s plenty of room for the bags of mulch Jim talks about.
How many 2-passenger cars of any kind are left on the market, other than the handful and dwindling number of sports cars?
The Maverick is brilliant; it’s a perfect combination of sedan, wagon and pickup. And the hybrid, which makes up 60% of its sales, gets 39 mpg. It’s high on Stephanie’s list of potential replacement s for her TSX wagon.
This little wart would be utterly DOA in the US. GM is not as dumb as some might think.
For what are supposed to be practical vehicles, modern full-sized pickups can sometimes be very impractical.
I remember growing up easily being able to load large items into the back of a pickup simply by lifting them over the side. And being able to walk into the bed simply by lifting a leg and stepping up on the open tailgate. Now both tasks are much more difficult with side leftovers now being roughly up to your shoulder.
Yes, modern trucks can now tow a zillion pounds, but is it worth having to struggle to load plants and mulch at the Home Depot, a task that is literally in the name pickup, and a task that the person in the clapped-out minivan parked next to you can easily do?
PIck UPs of this size don’t even sell in Europe. The simple reason starts with the fact that consumption is not significantly lower and the space inside is significantly limited. In Europe you can also get this with small panel vans that can be used all year round. This means that the number of units that can be sold is smaller, which is why the price can hardly be lower than a panel van. Even small panel vans like Ford Transit Connect etc. do not sell in North America. So why should small pickups sell?
The big advantage of the open bed is that you can reach through from every direction except the leading edge just behind the cab.
Well, that, and when it pulls double-duty as your personal car you look like a cowboy while with a van you look like a creep of some sort, and the Transit Connect-type vans as windowed seven-seaters didn’t catch on because they were no cheaper than the Chrysler minivans and somehow looked even dorkier. Image sells.
This earlier-generation Tornado is a pickup version of the Opel Combo which was based on the Corsa C.
No pickups of any size sell in Europe in any kind of numbers, they are a novelty item there. Plenty of people around the world do use pickup trucks year-round. Europe is littered with cars that are easily this size (or smaller) inside the passenger compartment.
The Maverick is the smallest pickup truck on sale here today. It’s small only when compared to every other pickup truck on the market here which is really no great feat. I think Ford will be the first to tell anyone that they somehow vastly underestimated demand for it (or was that done on purpose along with a teaser price for a version that was basically unavailable and also not distributed to stores as inventory; who would think that anyone might want a $20k truck with 40mpg? Duh.)
That demand did not automatically translate into higher sales of the Ranger and F150 when faced with (very) limited availability of Maverick. So it’s either produce and sell the Maverick at what I hope but am not confident is a profit for Ford or see those customers walk away to another brand as Ford doesn’t really sell much else at either the price point or the size and not everybody wants something even larger and/or less efficient. Many buyers of the Maverick are not “traditional truck owners”, they came from the passenger car segment that Ford has all but abandoned.
Ford increased Maverick production in June by adding a third shift, and the availability has improved. As to profitability, have no fear. Ford didn’t bring this out as a CAFE loss-leader. It’s a pretty simple and cheap vehicle to manufacture. Plenty of profit.
Ranger sales are down considerably, as the Maverick is more appealing except for the serious off-roaders.
True, it’s baffling that it took two years to add a third shift though with the first two years of production selling within about, what, a week after the order books were opened? I’ll also point out that Ford switched the pricing around for 2024, the hybrid is now the more expensive variant by quite a bit.
The least expensive Maverick was the $19995 plus destination hybrid XL if you could actually find/order one, that same configuration now starts at $24995 plus destination, a $5000 or 25% price increase. The 2.0 turbo is now actually $1500 cheaper than the hybrid and the entry point truck at $23495 plus destination.
Well, the chip/parts/shortage has been a very real thing, affecting all the car makers. Everyone has been behind the demand curve, although some categories (like full size trucks) are now breaking out of that. For instance, Honda is up some 23% this year, but still well below pre-pandemic levels. It’s not just a ploy to keep prices up.
Obviously Ford underestimated the appeal of the Maverick. Farley has said so, very explicitly. It was risky bringing out a whole new category of vehicle.
The new Montana in Brazil:
So much fun to read, and very appropriate points as well.
The Bolt/Pick Up idea is interesting. Volume (not weight) capacity of a Bolt pickup might mean I need to make an additional dump-run on heavy leaf and brush days, but the little Chevy’s current weight payload of 1600 lbs is more than my Tacoma’s 6 foot bed. As you noted (and by example), a 2013 Tacoma payload max is about 1,280 lbs including driver/passenger/fuel.
Wow.
Payload will probably go down in an EV version, but it’ll easily get me to and from the dump, more than once, and then to the early bird special with lots of remaining battery power to get back to my level 1 or level 2 home charger.
Question 1: Can we still install 2 easily removed plastic seats in the bed and call it a passenger car à la the Subaru Brat?
There is one market where a Bolt pickup might fly, and that’s with rural America, the places where having a pickup bed to throw lots of grubby material (gardening and plant material come to mind) is a frequent use. Running a small BEV pickup using cheap, plug-in rural electricity would be very appealing. Even now, there’s a few of those Chinese, Low Speed Vehicle (LSV) types that are used mainly for farm use since they’re limited to 25mph. A Bolt pickup would be quite a step up from one of those.
Unfortunately, for something actually street-legal, those consumers have invariably went with larger, more expensive ICE options. As others have pointed out, the Maverick/Santa Cruz are about as small as they’re willing to go, especially since they also have four doors. And, in the case of the Maverick, there’s the hybrid version which, at first, was quite a bargain.
A pity because a cheap, Bolt regular cab pickup might find a niche and be an unexpected hit with small farmers.
The real problem can be traced back to a quote by good ‘ole Henry Ford II: “small cars, small profits”.
Oh!
Someone was feeling very cheeky when they wrote this. Very enjoyable.
The manual brown diesel wagon, the V8 RWD coupe (or sedan): as Our Man In Colorado is doubtlessly, and wearingly aware, the prognosticators (like me) don’t buy ’em new. Neither would they with this little beauty, even if GM did chuck a few over the Mexican fence.
Emboldened by the general cheek in the air, I’ll suggest one way that these trucklets-that-everyone-wants-but-won’t-buy might be made to be huge – a rather large tax on gas.
(I’m running, no point chasing, I tell you).
The new Maverick is better than this Chevy or the old and awesome Ford Ranger. It is the most affordable vehicle and offers the best value of 99.9% of what is available today. It scores a 10 out of 10 with reviewers and is one of the only US vehicles often recommend unconditionally.
I’ll settle for the best.
I have much respect for the old Ranger, came reasonably close to buying one in my college days – mid ’80s. And, they are rather timeless and still look great in today’s traffic.
My understanding was that CAFE is what killed it, and it was too old and too difficult to bring it into compliance. I know that sounds weird, but such has been CAFE. The switch to sized based CAFE rules requiring light vehicles to have impossibly high fuel mileage expectations killed a lot of smaller vehicles in that time period.
How’d that work out for CAFE’s goals?
The Maverick is what the buyer wants today, not a 40 year old Ranger. Four doors are what sells, and it is well sized for today’s oversized vehicle fleet. The old Ranger looks like something I’d prefer to remember fondly, not get into an accident in with a Rav4 or CRV.
Put me in for another vote in favor of bringing that to the US market. Actually, I’ll be happy is someone would just bring out something with the dimensions of the ’96 Chevy S-10 club cab, 2wd. Eight years later, I go for a Ranger with the identical specs, and immediately discover they had to jack up the suspension two or three inches, which I found annoying. Why do you need to jack up a 2WD pickup?
I like small pickups. My idea of a ‘full size’ pickup is a 60’s Chevrolet, 2WD. Anything bigger than that is just personality overcompensation.
I don’t think GM is stupid, though history is full of decisions that may suggest otherwise, but I’m not convinced something like this wouldn’t sell here, especially as an EV but even with a small turbo 3 cylinder. Gas prices are NOT going down. As Jim says, Bolts seem to be selling well, ditto the Maverick although the Ford’s larger size may make it more marketable. Sure it wouldn’t be very profitable, but at least where I live GM needs something to get people to even recognize the brand; the Bolt owners I know would not otherwise be domestic car brand people. I’m careful to say brand because not much about GM’s small cars is actually domestic. I also think these would sell well in Canada, perhaps with revived Pontiac branding 😀
I think one problem here is that car manufacturers build things off of common platforms, and the platform under these is not up to snuff for U.S. safety or emissions regulations, as things currently stand. Now, building a trucklet off the Bolt, that seems the way to go.
Remember when Datsun and Toyota flooded the market with little pickups, along with the rebadged Couriers and LUV’s? I do. They seemed to sell like hotcakes back then…
The platform thing is valid as to how mid-production it might be difficult to expand distribution, yet this is now in its third generation and is now produced in the “accepted” format, i.e. four doors, small bed. At some point it would seem reasonable to think a maker might engineer aspects to make the thing compliant in more than one market.
I don’t understand the fascination with bloat, unless people are compensating for their perceived physical inadequacies.
One of the guys in the neighborhood bought a new Ranger recently, and kept his old one. I thought it made an interesting picture.
Wordless Outtake. This photo says it all.
Such an entertaining read, Jim, you’ve got a great sense of humor.
Remember me? I’m the luddite who favors rotary HVAC knobs, though a new CX30 I drove recently featured a button HVAC layout that was much more intuitive for me than in our Mazda3. That, or I’m just used to the silliness.
For years I lamented the loss of small trucks in our market, but now I’ve moved on. I had an S10, and experience taught me that any cargo in the bed must be brought home promptly, or risk pilfering if not bolted down, or vandalism. In the ’80s, I used to remove the front seat from my Nissan Pulsar, lay down a towel to protect that luxurious bordello red carpet, pop out the sunroof, and bring tall plants, other cargo, even an 8′ ladder, home. At this point, I’ll rent a truck on the very rare occasion if needed.
And if you do convince Mary to sell you a new Tornado (I still want to type Toronado), don’t forget to share it with us.
Couple thoughts…
The US government – more likely the lobbyists thereto – have effectively banned trucks like this. I don’t understand the details, but the smaller a truck’s footprint (wheelbase x track) the higher MPG a truck needs to get.
Also, Americans – by and large – don’t like small vehicles. Never have, never will, with some exceptions of course. In the 80s and 90s, if you wanted 40mpg you were forced into something tiny – Geo Metro, Ford Festiva, etc – but today there are all manner of hybrids that are much larger and still get 40+mpg.
In the US, Toyota no longer sells anything smaller than a Corolla. They don’t need or have to, buyers will happily drive a 45MPG Corolla hybrid.
Make it electric or just hybridize it like Ford apparently does profitably, and there’s your MPG that helps to offset the rest of the thirsty fleet. The rest of the world may not have CAFE, but instead they generally have high fuel prices that incentivizes the same thing.
It can be a win, after all even though the Bolt supposedly loses GM money on every one it’s sticking around (or there’ll be a replacement anyway) due to the fat emissions credits GM gets for each one they sell. They likely crunched the numbers and realized that they can’t seem to produce enough Hummer EVs and Cadillac Lyrics to offset all the V8 Silverados and Suburbans so a smaller EV has a purpose for them. The fact that plenty of people seem to like it and there is a shortage of them on dealer lots it is just icing on the cake.
Once everyone gets rid of everything small, one maker will still have one or re-introduce something small and everyone else will wonder why they didn’t think of that. Out of 300+ million Americans it wouldn’t take a very large fraction that enjoy smaller vehicles to add up to a good number of sales that might actually stick with that brand when they go looking again. Possibly the largest detriment to the sale of a small vehicle in the U.S. is the fear of being hit by a large pickup/SUV. So ironic.
Toyota is apparently looking at introducing a pickup much smaller than the Tacoma. Their dealers are clamoring for it.
Exactly, we have our absurd CAFE regulatory scheme to blame for the disappearance of truly compact pickups (and affordable wagons) from the US market:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/10/how-cafe-killed-compact-trucks-and-station-wagons/
TL;DR: CAFE is really more of a backdoor scheme for domestic-manufacturing subsidy and protectionism, which has perversely dis-incentivized production and sale of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles in the US, by setting fuel-economy targets for their vehicle size and type that can’t be met with performance and a purchase price that US buyers would find acceptable.
An EU-style de facto consumption tax based on tailpipe CO2 emissions, along with higher fuel taxes, would create market incentives favoring fuel efficiency by making less-efficient vehicles more expensive to buy and drive. But that would penalize the Big 3’s most profitable models — full-size cars, trucks and SUVs — so they created this scaled “footprint” scheme along with a fairly arbitrary car vs. truck distinction, allowing larger trucks and SUVs (and unibody CUVs/crossovers that technically qualify as “trucks”) to get away with meeting laxer fuel-mileage CAFE targets.
The US government – more likely the lobbyists thereto – have effectively banned trucks like this. I don’t understand the details, but the smaller a truck’s footprint (wheelbase x track) the higher MPG a truck needs to get.
I read the “reformed” CAFE reg when it came out around 2006. Not only did they abandon the sales weighted fleet average that CAFE had used for years, but the reg openly said the mathematical formula used to calculate target MPG was intentionally designed to make it harder for smaller vehicles to meet their target, as well as giving passenger cars a harder target to meet than equal sized trucks. To justify the anti-smaller vehicle slant, the reg trotted out that old line about smaller vehicles inherently being “less safe”. So, we now have the intended result of that reg: fewer smaller vehicles, and fewer conventional cars, and a lot more big trucks.
We have one at home. Its called a Chevrolet Utility here in South Africa. Ours is a 2016 model and I love driving it occasionally. It cruises quietly at the national speed limit, and has very comfortable and quiet suspension, two things that my Honda Jazz doesn’t do well. I’m 6’2 and there is plenty of room to push my seat back, and lots of headroom. Chev left SA in 2017 as they exited all RHD markets. Nevertheless these are still really popular, and prices hold up very well on the second hand market. My only gripe is GM gifted the interior with some cheap scratchy plastics, otherwise it’s a wonderfully sensible product. Half ton trucks used to be really popular here but all but the Nissan NP 200 [originally a Dacia] have disappeared, and that too is being discontinued soon. I honestly don’t understand why. Its not like we dont like bakkies, the one ton Toyota Hilux is the best selling vehicle in the country period.
A while ago my daughter gave me a book about seemingly silly laws that are still on the statute books in various places. Some you just shake your head at, some you wonder why on earth anyone felt the need to make such a law. Some are just so outdated, and you wonder why they’ve never been repealed.
Seems like that US Chicken Tax is another candidate, just clogging up the gears of free enterprise.
I like this little Chevy Trucklet .
I’m one of those Luddites who only wants the minimum to get the job done and decent driving characteristics as well .
The rotary HVAC knobs excel in no look operation .
I’d think fleets would be one buyer but the fact remains, no one wants to buy a single cab 1/2 ton or smaller pickup anymore .
More’s the pity .
Monday I drove 200 miles each way to an outlying junkyard in my 2001 Ford Ranger and it didn’t beat me up nor feel cramped going or coming home after the day spent working in the sun on junkers .
Who’d want to pee in a cup anyways ? .
-Nate
The 2024 Toyota Tacoma extended cab which was a two door in the first generation and a 4 door with suicide rear doors through 2023, is going back to two doors. Not small, and not a regular cab, but it will be interesting to see how it sells after decades of people expecting to get better rear access with extended cab pickups.
Sadly GM has discontinued the Tornado in Mexico this year. The only mini pickup available now is the Ram 700 which only comes in twin cab with a microscopic bed.
Does the Fiat Strada/Ram 700 not also have a single cab with a longer bed?
I love seeing these forbidden fruit from Mexico. I occasionally see Mexican-plated cars here in Virginia, and sometimes they’re a model or trim level that’s new to me – just last week I saw a Volkswagen T-Cross, and last month I saw an unusual model of F-150.
And I’ll join the legion of wannabe retirees who has a deep-held desire for a small pickup truck. I like these vehicles.
Now about the Tirol sticker, I think it actually refers to the Austrian Alps. That logo is used by Austria to market the region – go to http://www.tyrol.com and you’ll see that logo at the top of the page (screenshot below). That, combined with the Whistler bear sticker, makes me think the Tornado driver likes mountains.
As far as I can tell, the people who love small pickup trucks aren’t the same people who buy them new. And supposedly it doesn’t cost much more to build a big pickup truck than a small pickup truck. And I’ve heard the big 3 still make more than 10K per unit on each big pickup they sell. So if they build a smaller one, and potentially only make $6K, they see that as a loss. And Americans like big stuff. The 17+ foot ” full sized” sedan ruled the market until the oil embargo. And now 22+ foot double cab, 8 foot bed, “full sized” pickups. That won’t even fit in my driveway, let alone the garage.
It’s like the US income tax system, which is incredibly complex, with little if any attention to fairness. CAFE, emissions and more indirectly subsidize 20 foot long, 5,000 pound pickups being used as commute cars.
“And now 22+ foot double cab, 8 foot bed, “full sized” pickups.”
8′ beds are rarer than you might think. Only stiff-riding HDs offer them with a full crew cab, and as of next model year, only one half-ton with an extended cab (Toyota). When it comes to HD models, 6.5′ beds are much more popular.
“adjusting the velcro straps on their shoes for the day” Is this what you think men over a certain age do all day and what they wear? What a ridiculous opening to this article.
Not really Brandon ;
I see my peers wear what I consider non starter clothes and shoes daily .
I guess one you’re old you no longer care about what others think .
i’m old but never really did care what others thought so I dress neatly and conservatively, this include my lace up shoes….
Yes, I’m _still_ looking for any place to sells or will make me gloss black wingtips with steel toes and shanks .
-Nate