1. “A truck is a tool, no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.”

   4

2. Ironically some of the growth in truck grilles is caused by pedestrian safety standards

   7

3. You know why trucks and SUV’s all look the same? Surely folks have wondered why they look like they were all designed by the same person? Why does a Mercedes SUV look just like a Hyundai SUV?

   Government mandates. The front end has to have a certain “pedestrian friendly” profile and be able to satisfy CAFE fuel economy standards and government crash rating safety standards.

   Big, comfortable trucks are quite useful. Comfort is just an added bonus.

   3

   1. Well, that, and the laws of aerodynamics, coupled with the ability to do high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics, tend to move platforms with similar requirements, to similar design optimizations. For instance, many sedans trend towards “melted jelly bean.”

      4

4. If the grill actually works well to suck people under and run them over, is it really a gimmick?

   4

5. Indeed. He appears to consider that to be a bad thing…..

   1

6. I drove a ’79 Toyota pickup for years and years. 4-cylinder engine, 3-speed transmission. It didn’t like highway speeds, but would do them if pressed, and actually ran significantly better if I did get it up to speed regularly. By the time I sold it, it had enough miles to go to the moon and back (thank you, regular maintenance!).

   I loved that truck, but a two-seater doesn’t work well when you have a wife and kids to haul around.

   I agree with him that you can’t find mini-pickups like that today, but I disagree that that’s a bad thing, or that ultra-light-duty mini-pickups are necessary, or anything bigger than a razor-thin niche market. Vehicle designs in the late-’70s and early-’80s were driven (no pun intended) by fuel efficiency due to a global petroleum shortage. Everything got smaller and had the smallest engine deemed suitable to power it; anything that could run with a four-banger was sold with one, including trucks.

   Subsequent advances in fuel efficiency, engine design, materials science, etc., make today’s V6 engines almost as fuel efficient per mile as those days’ 4-cyl. engines, but with V6 power and torque and more elbow room. If you can have a larger, more capable and comfortable pickup without sacrificing fuel economy, why wouldn’t you?

   Besides, pickups are intended to be working trucks. If you want a work truck too small and under-powered to actually work, what’s the purpose of your pickup? Be honest with yourself, soyboi, and buy a Prius.

   (It is interesting to see the liberal/controller mindset is the same here as it is for firearms. He doesn’t need a work vehicle, so he appoints himself the arbiter of what you need for your work vehicle, the same as gun controllers don’t need a firearm for their self-defense but they certainly have an opinion what and how much gun you need for yours. Because it’s never about the item in question; it’s about control.)

   2

7. My only complaint? Why ya driving a gas motor in that 3/4 ton truck? Shoulda gone for the Cummins… Way more torque in case you get hippie hair wrapped up in the axle…

   2

   1. The Power Wagon doesn’t come with a diesel, only the 6.4 Hemi. It’s lighter up front and the smaller engine makes room for the long travel suspension and winch.

      Besides, the diesel is a $10,000 option. I don’t tow anything so there is no reason to spend $10,000 on the engine. Yes, the diesel is more fuel efficient, but I’ve done the math, and given the purchase cost of the diesel and higher cost of fuel, there is no point of convergence where the fuel efficiency of the diesel makes it worth the price of buying it.

      If I got a new truck, I’d probably get an F-250 Tremor, and I’d get the 7.3 gas in that.

      Diesels are great but they are so expensive that if you don’t need them it’s not worth the price.

      2

8. To be fair, the little 4 banger Toyotas are seriously awesome,

   1

9. I used to have one of those little 4 cylinder pocket pickups. A 1989 Chevy S-10, with 2.6L 4 banger under the hood and manual transmission.
   Despite it being almost old enough to vote when i bought it, and despite the smallish motor, that thing had guts, more than enough to plow over any rioter dumb enough to stand in front of it. That motor had more pull than the truck had traction, and running 100 mph was no great effort to it. Plus, despite being lightweight, the bodywork was all steel (where it wasn’t Bondo at least), with a bumper sturdy enough to shove a full steel dumpster 100 yards up an alleyway without damage to the truck. Oh, and the dumpster didn’t have wheels. And it did it all while running 27 mpg.
   Everything he claims is all we actually “need” in a truck, that thing had… And yet it would still have sufficed quite easily as a people-plower, at least until the drive tires got slick with guts and blood.
   I still miss that truck, but having to refill the oil reservoir every tine I refilled the gas tank got old.

   2

   1. We had one of those for the operators to use to do rounds and lockouts across the facility. Stop and go, often left idling for a half hour. Driven on asphalt, gravel, and sometimes no roads. It was not tough enough, and didn’t last long in that environment. One time someone opened the driver side door in a wind storm, and folded the door across the driver’s side front fender. Another time it sort of, kind of skidded into a water filled ditch.

      It wasn’t the age. It wasn’t the miles. It was the sheer abuse.

10. I like those little 4 and 6 banger trucks a small fuel efficient truck that can get me to and from work with some light hauling ability to offset my wife’s car is just what i need but i dont tow anything other wise i would be looking at a 3/4 to 1 ton truck. A modern equivalent to the old small chevy s10’s and ford rangers would be awesome, especially a crew cab short or mini bed option. I don’t begrudge anyone their larger trucks and if you use it for work you will need the power and size but i just don’t have the need or space for a large truck. I would think there would be a market for such a truck at least more market then there is for the mini cooper size cars.

    1. Nissan and Honda make essentially just that. We went with the Nissan Frontier – the cab was a little quieter.

       It’s kind of like a four door sedan with a small cargo bed and much better road visibility (thanks to height). It’s not really happy doing so, but you can get a version rated to tow up to ~7500 lbs if I recall properly. Or at least you could when we bought ours.

11. Stupid premise of the tweet not withstanding, I do not like the design direction GM has taken with the base model trucks. The hood is too round and it is pitched forward too much so you don’t have as good sense of the bumper you had with a good ol square body or the generation after truck; I drove a 80s K5 blazer for 15 years which had the same front as a truck. Another side effect of the tailgate higher stance is it makes it much harder to see anything while backing up since the top of the tailgate is like 2′ higher than it used to be. I don’t have much experience with the new heavier duty models or other brands so can’t speak to them. Other than the fact that I wouldn’t buy a new truck I wouldn’t buy a new GM truck purely for Thai reason.

    1

12. Not a fan of the bigger trucks but if it pisses off liberals then I am all for them! My dad has a 2019 Sierra and it is just odd to drive. I have a 2003 Chevy S-10 right now that I have had for years with a V-6. Bought it cheap just because I was renting a truck or van all too often. My son drives it now and it’s still kickin’.

    1. I don’t generally like the designs of the newest generation of trucks, especially the Dodge and GMC models. They’re too big and boxy for my tastes, like someone put my refridgerater on wheels. I’ve driven them, too, and I don’t care for how they handle.

       The “smaller” Fords, Toyotas, and Nissans — F150s and Rangers, Tacomas, and Frontiers, respectively — are much more pleasing to my eye. I can’t explain it well, just something about the “lines” (the profile, the contour, the visual balance, whatever you want to call it) is more appealing.

       I also don’t have a use for the amount of “truck” the larger models provide, so I can’t justify purchasing or driving one. That said, I don’t begrudge those who do have them, whether they “need” it or not. Your money, your choice. 🙂

       But yes, if I had a large truck or SUV, I’d spend a couple bucks to get that decal that goes over the tailpipe: “Liberal repellent”. (Alternatively, “Prius repellent”, “Democrat repellent”, “Hippie repellent”, etc.)

13. Also interesting is that article he highlighted from. It’s referencing a study of SUV vs. pedestrian fatalities — up 81% between 2009 and 2016 — and specifically acknowledges the study did not look at incidents involving pickups.

    But then again, as another Twitter user pointed out in a reply, SUV popularity doubled in those years, so it’s not unexpected to see the number of single-vehicle incidents involving SUVs go up.

    So Mr. Ryan L. Cooper is:
    – Quoting a source out of context.
    – Extrapolating out of context.
    – Not considering readily-available facts and data that run counter to his claim.
    – Drawing his desired conclusion, when ample evidence exists for another explanation.

    Why is anyone listening to him?

14. It’s worth reading the article. The facts, not the narrative. I read it when it appeared, couldn’t make much sense out of the narrative. But the facts are pretty clear. Trucks look bigger, but that’s mostly not real. They are indeed a bit taller. But they are about the same weight (give or take a few percent) and same size as their 25-year ago predecessors.
    The main change is the higher hood. Looking at my 10 year old Chevy 1500, yes, it’s pretty tall. The view of the road is quite good, though, the hood is barely in view. And that space is filled up, it’s not as if the engine compartment is mostly empty. (Not like my ’67 Ford Galaxy where I could actually sit inside the engine compartment to work on it…) So I wonder how much the taller hood is dictated by all the c*** that regulations force into the engine compartment.

15. Every person I know who owns a truck has one because they use it all the time. Even my next door neighbor who has an old 4 banger Toyota 4×4.

    Also, is this guy living under a rock? Pretty much all vehicles are getting bigger. It’s not a truck thing. Subaru Outbacks / Foresters etc. are WAY larger than they used to be.

    You literally can’t buy a car as small and light as the old AW11 MR-2’s anymore without going $$$ exotic.

16. Yup, bought mine used. I never buy new vehicles, hate paying the depreciation up front… My 12 valve cost me less than $15k for the whole truck. Nope, it doesn’t have Bluetooth or a fucking parking camera, but the thing consistently gets 19-20 mpg with a whole lotta fun.

Comments are closed.