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Eric's Autos: No Country For Small Trucks
Eric Peters
No one makes a compact-sized 4WD pick-up anymore. Well, ok, there's
the Ford Ranger - but it's the only one left. Everyone else upsized
during the late Bloom - which of course has no wilted into a
dry-rotted husk.
Nissan - maker of my '98 Frontier - still sells a truck called Frontier but it is a mid-sized thing now and you can only get 4WD if you buy the fuel-guzzling, high-dollar V-6 engine - because the four-cylinder is barely adequate to pull the stripped-down 2WD version and the added weight/load of the 4WD stuff would be akin to a mechanical waterboarding.
GM used to sell a nice little truck - the Chevy S-10 and its cousins - but, like the Frontier, it got all pumped up when gas was cheap and credit easy into the mid-sized and hyper-macho'd Colorado and Canyon twins - the cheapest of which are priced starting around $17k (at least you can get 4WD with the available four-cylinder engine, but still). The nut of it is if you want a compact-sized 4WD truck you pretty have to shop Ford - or shop used.
Meanwhile, sales of the upsized, up-priced trucks are now in freefall. Which is bad for them but maybe good for those of us who would like to see compact trucks come back.
Not everyone needs a medium (let alone full-sized) pick-up. In fact, it's probably true that a large percentage of the people who bought these things during the Fed-fueled boom have no more "need" for them than the oldsters you see driving at precisely 56 mph on the Interstate in their V-8 powered, 300 and 400 hp luxury sport sedans.
Consumption - conspicuous or otherwise - is ok in my book if it's for some real purpose. But why have a 300 hp when you never drive faster than 10 mph or so over the posted limit? Or drive a 12 mpg 4WD V-8 truck when the heaviest load you haul is a load of groceries - and the only time you go "off road" is when your neighbor has his annual pool party and you have to park on his lawn?
I actually use my truck - and though it is small, it does everything I need. We live in the country, in a rural setting on about 10 acres - and both 4WD and the bed in back are necessary things. But six-cylinder (let alone eight) I can get by without. Nor do I need a bed big enough to haul home a Corolla.
But until sanity is restored, I will have to hope my 11-year-old Frontier keeps on truckin' - because there's no way I'll be blowing $20k (or more) to buy an oversized, overstuffed, overpriced and up-sized truck because of the gluttonous appetites of people who convinced themselves they needed upsized trucks they really don't - and the eagerness of every brand (except Ford) to capitalize on that sickness. 112,678 miles and still going strong - hopefully for a long, long time to come!
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www.ericpetersautos.com or EPeters952@aol.com for comments.
This news arrived on: 06/04/2009
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Posted Comments:
06-12-2009 10:55
Eric Peter wrote:
No Country for Small Trucks
I understand your reasoning but what about us that have 3 children and do have to haul or pick up things that are very strenuous on a small truck. We borrowed my dad's Ford Ranger to go to lumber yard once, after getting rid of our truck, but had to make 2 trips without the family because the truck could not hold us or the stuff we had to get. For my parents a small truck is ok but for us we need a full-size with 4WD for our area. Our Fords and Chevys have had over 200,000 miles or more and are still running and pulling without having to change out a transmission. It's not we want a gas guzzler but when you have a family and need a truck sometimes you have no choice but to get full-size for a family of 5. Especially when 2 are teenagers and 1 will be in 5 years.
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