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I’d love to buy a new pickup truck, but today’s pickup trucks are all too big, even the smallest ones are just too large.
We have so many compact suvs these days and compact suvs even get smaller and smaller. Why not make compact pickup trucks? I am positive there is a market for compact pickups in America.
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I think it might be three reasons in no particular order:
1. Low demand for small trucks.
2. Pickup trucks have gone luxury.
3. Not enough profit.
I think the Nissan Frontier is as close to a small pickup on the market today.
CAFE standards have made it prohibitive. CAFE is based on wheelbase and a small pickup makes it hard to meet the standards. This is why even regular cab fullsizers are going away as well. The bigger the vehicle, the less stringent the requirement it has to meet. This is why all the small pickups that did exist, either no longer exist or have become bloated versions of their former selves such as the tacoma and the Colorado/canyon(was the S10/sonoma/jimmy). All the while the Dakota and ranger have ceased to exist. The ranger does exist in Australia so I’m told, but it is nothing like it was. CAFE encourages model bloating. We will never see a Honda accord/civic like the 90s ones again, nor will we see a midsize pickup as they were with these regs in place, perhaps they will get repealed or at least partially lessened.
I would say for the following reasons:
1) No one buys them
2) Generally have identical gas mileage to their full size counterparts.Vehicles in general have become larger. I know I watched a program showing how manufactures find back door ways to meet safety standards as they become harder and harder year after year.
For example,
Unless you’re a good sized man you can no longer put your arm above the door in most vehicles. Car manufactures have raised the door panel higher to provide more side impact protection along with air bags.
^This can’t be done for most people anymore in modern vehicles.Cars are safer, and to continue being safer manufactures are using size since in America we’re generally not penalized for the size of our vehicles in comparison to other countries.
[quote=”Chevyman21″ post=150913]CAFE standards have made it prohibitive. CAFE is based on wheelbase and a small pickup makes it hard to meet the standards. This is why even regular cab fullsizers are going away as well. The bigger the vehicle, the less stringent the requirement it has to meet. This is why all the small pickups that did exist, either no longer exist or have become bloated versions of their former selves such as the tacoma and the Colorado/canyon(was the S10/sonoma/jimmy). All the while the Dakota and ranger have ceased to exist. The ranger does exist in Australia so I’m told, but it is nothing like it was. CAFE encourages model bloating. We will never see a Honda accord/civic like the 90s ones again, nor will we see a midsize pickup as they were with these regs in place, perhaps they will get repealed or at least partially lessened.[/quote]
You can actually buy a Ranger in Mexico. I’ve seen a few in Southern Texas – Brownsville area. I believe. Also, CAFE can be beaten by other manufactures buying zero-emission credits, though only the larger manufactures would be able to afford that and i’m sure it would be counter productive in terms of profits if they truly wanted to bring a true “small” pick up truck to America that meets safety standards.
Tesla is infamous for selling their credits to the Detroit trio.
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