From the ArcaMax Publishing, Automotive Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/automotive/s-559683-104288
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!
========
www.ericpetersautos.com or EPeters952@aol.com for
comments.