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I can understand the appeal of pickup trucks but I've never even had the slightest of a desire to ever own one. I'm more of a sport sedan/coupe type of guy. The idea of driving something w/ poor driving dynamics and a mostly plastic fantastic interior is unappealing to me.
With that being said, I'd be more compelled if they were cheaper. I know that dealers put a lot of money on the hoods of these things, but it's just amazing how expensive even a moderately-equipped F-150 is. If I needed something w/ cargo room, I'd rather spend that type of coin on a small luxury crossover and rent a truck from Home Depot or U-Haul when needed.
I think the current market price for pickups is simply responding to demand. There is a sharp divide between the pickups bought for work and those bought either as a machismo statement or a weekend hauler. If you look at baseline fleet vehicles, the prices aren't too bad, but NOBODY in his right mind would buy one of these "commercial vehicles" for personal use.
I've never personally owned a pickup, but I've had them (briefly) as company vehicles, and fleet vehicles I had access to all my working life. My daughter drives an old 4WD Dakota, and I can speak with some knowledge to the utility of such a vehicle. Here's tip #1, passed down from my own practical experience and that of many friends who drive company trucks:
Never ever, ever buy a standard cab pickup.
Most of the time it's going to be a single-seater. If you carry anything with you that you don't want wet, dirty, or frozen, it's going to ride in the passenger seat. That means everything from your toolbox, to a load of groceries or your hunting dog is going to ride shotgun without a back seat, or at least a short "extended cab" cubby back there that will hold more than the jack and a quart of oil.
Then there's headroom - or back-of-your-head-room. Maybe you don't wear one of these, but I often do . . .
. . . and if you don't want your hat shoved down over your eyes every time the truck lurches, you're going to have to move the seat forward . . . at which point you will have your knees under your chin. If the seatback is relatively thin as it is on many mini-pickups, you'll be slamming your head, hat or no, into the back window in rough country, which is not as much fun as it sounds.
Some years back I drove a client's top of the line 1Gen 2WD Dakota several hundred miles across West Texas while he nursed the flu from the passenger's seat. It was a fine little cruiser, comfortable and well-mannered, particularly for a mini. I know it can be done, but some of the earlier small pickups (notably the un-lamented P'UP) were about three sizes too small for a rather large Texan.
In a parking lot last week I saw a new Colorado and was very impressed. Even in low-level WT trim, it was nicely fitted, appeared to have a relatively large comfortable interior, a few accessories, and an MSRP sticker around $25K. That's high by the standards of the last couple of decades where $25K would have bought a nice full-size pickup with a V-8 rather than an I-4, then again, my first fully-loaded 4X4 2500 Suburban was about $17K . . . in 1982. Times do change. You could buy an Egg McMuffin for 35¢ back then, too.
My perfect truck is one of these:
1953 Chevy pickup, I-6, 2WD, 3spd on the column (no engine/transmission options back then) w/ radio and heater. Period. Simple, practically indestructible, spacious, and repairable with a tool kit consisting of a screwdriver, a monkey wrench, and a pair of fence pliers. I've driven several excellent examples that were approaching 200K miles with only points, plugs, brakes, and tires. Restoration optional.
That's what is known as a "Sanford" truck, from the old situation-comedy TV show with Redd Foxx (I'm sure you remember it). On the show, Fred Sanford (played by Foxx) had an old beat-up early-1950s Ford F-100 that he and his son used for hauling things around in the junk business.
I had a close relationship with two '53 Chevy pickups, one was bought new by my uncle as a utility truck for his cropdusting company. It was the parts-chaser, supply truck, and support truck for over 30 years, and later in its career, the one truck that was still running all over South Texas when the El Caminos and new "sport trucks" had long since gone to that big junkyard in the sky.
The other was a bit over ten years old - the university bought it from an Air Force auction in San Antonio, after a long career as a "Follow Me" truck at Lackland AFB. It had spent ten years running up and down the runways with a pair of big orange and white checkered flags flying from the "headache rack" and enough flashing yellow lights to be seen from low earth orbit. Wish those zoomies would have let us keep those . . .
The trucks were oddly similar, cheap, stripped-down models, both in Chevy Truck Blue, the university truck having somewhat lighter blue doors for having had most of the "Property of US Government - Air Force" sanded off before it was auctioned.
They made me appreciate the value of a beater. I've had much nicer vehicles, many more fun, some a lot more powerful, but for value and reliability, these two were hard to beat.
I had a close relationship with two '53 Chevy pickups, one was bought new by my uncle as a utility truck for his cropdusting company. It was the parts-chaser, supply truck, and support truck for over 30 years, and later in its career, the one truck that was still running all over South Texas when the El Caminos and new "sport trucks" were long gone to that big junkyard in the sky.
Not surprising. The El Camino was never intended to be a real truck. It was simply a Chevy sedan body and frame with the rear doors and rear end cut off and a sheet-metal bed installed. It basically competed with Ford's Ranchero, though the original early-60s Rancheros were Falcon-based rather than mid or full-size-based like the Chevys.
The only "truck" feature of the El Camino (and the Ranchero, for that matter), was the shallow bed. I think the only reason Bill bought a '59 (and later, a '60) was that could order them with the Corvette options. Yes, it would FLY!
After the shop hands (and I know, a couple of his pilots) tore up drive trains and tires on Texas' back roads, making them uneconomic for commercial use. Rather than fund several budding Duke brothers, he went back to his customary Cadillacs . . . biting the bullet, as it were. OK, so it wouldn't haul 700 lbs of Wright Whirlwind engine . . . which the El Caminos could barely handle, but it got him out of the personal delivery business.
And paid for a fleet of new bottom-feeder pickups.
I can understand the appeal of pickup trucks but I've never even had the slightest of a desire to ever own one. I'm more of a sport sedan/coupe type of guy. The idea of driving something w/ poor driving dynamics and a mostly plastic fantastic interior is unappealing to me.
With that being said, I'd be more compelled if they were cheaper. I know that dealers put a lot of money on the hoods of these things, but it's just amazing how expensive even a moderately-equipped F-150 is. If I needed something w/ cargo room, I'd rather spend that type of coin on a small luxury crossover and rent a truck from Home Depot or U-Haul when needed.
It was unappealing to me as well, but in the 80's and 90's the small pickups were dirt cheap, we needed hauling room and there weren't as many great SUVs as there are today. The Chevy S10 with flared fenders had a little style to it and it had 2 back doors so we could actually haul people. Also, we weren't in a financial position to be driving the S5 and G37 that we drive today.
That said, I would never own a pickup truck these days. I agree with you. I don't see the appeal.
I've never had a problem with standard cab pickups, but then again I'm all of 5'7" tall and 150lbs and have always had a 4/5 seat car along with my truck. But yeah if you are a tall or big dude, you would hate my Tacoma.
As for the larger full size trucks, personally I kind of like the regular cab with the big long once piece or split bench seat. They're surprisingly roomy, even if you are a big dude. You can comfortably seat 3 normal sized dudes across, 4 if you squeezed, or 4 or 5 across if you were a bunch of skinny *** 110lb chicks.
As for keeping your stuff dry, just put a toolbox in the bed. That's what I have, its large enough to fit a set of golf clubs in there and it locks. Takes about 5 minutes and a monkey wrench to take it out if you need to use all the bed.
Or get a tonneu cover or a camper top. Seriously been thinking about a camper top for my Tacoma, as rarely do you haul something tall like a refrigerator that wouldn't fit, but you can still take it off if you need to.
05-17-16, 08:32 PM
