The Ford Maverick is the smallest, if that’s what you’re thinking. A bit larger, but with better towing and off-road ability, you’re looking at Ford Ranger, Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon, Toyota Tacoma, and Nissan Frontier.
Yikes?! A Ford RANGER is considered a small truck to you?? They’re part of the growing plague of stupidly large trucks in my part of the world!? :-/ I mean I knew the US had big trucks but I never thought the Ranger would be considered the small alternative?! We’re so screwed?! :-(
It’s so shocking?! I’m looking at a Ranger out in the car park right now and trying to imagine something bigger parked out there?! It wouldn’t fit within the bounds of the parking space?! Already if there were two Rangers parked next to each other there wouldn’t be enough room to walk between them, even if you turned side on :-/ Let alone having room to be able to open the door and get in & out?!
In fact I can see that it’s had a flow on effect whereby every other parked car has had to park on the extreme edge of their space to allow room to open the door and get out. If there was one more Ranger anywhere along the line someone would be likely blocked from getting in or out of their car!
The Ranger in the 80s and 90s was a perfectly reasonable size. The new ones are gigantic next to them, but they’re still smaller than almost anything available in the North American market.
It is one of the smallest available in US. Of course I’m referring to Tacoma with a standard cab, not the People Hauler 5000 it’s basically a minivan crew cab configuration.
The Tacoma would actually be my pickup of choice. I hate the modern styling, but the Toyota build is just so solid & Ford as of late has been disappointing. To say the least. The green movement is not only based on size, but how durable a product is & if it can last for many, many years of reliable operation. Unfortunately we do not have Hilux, but Tacoma is America’s version of Hilux.
Now this is just personal taste, but I really don’t like the looks of that truck. Cosmetically, I put it on the same level as the Chevy Colorado. Generally speaking, Hyundai isn’t known for quality builds like Toyota, not even close.
That said: the new Hyundai Elantra makes the short list of vehicles I’d be interested in, buying new. Scotty Kilmer praises its naturally aspirated, non-turbo engine & traditional build components. Thinks it could last a long time. 👍🏻
I love it so far, especially now that I got a bed extender so I can haul full sheets of plywood and such.
It’s got a ton of power under the hood. I average around 26/30mpg, but my wife averages 28/32-35mpg
It’s really roomy inside too. I’m 6’3 and this is the first vehicle I’ve driven where I didn’t have to move the seat all the way back. And people are able to sit comfortably behind me.
I highly recommend trying to get one with the tourneau cover on the bed, because it’s amazing. But don’t get the trailer hitch from them. You can save $3-400 having a local mechanic do it.
My only real gripes are that the AC blows too hard on its lowest setting (for me) if just the upper vents are blowing. The ride is also pretty smooth, so I often catch myself speeding without realizing it. Also that the steering wheel controls don’t have a play/pause button.
I’d skip the Santa Cruz largely since Hyundai/Kia are experts at cost-cutting that blows up big in customer faces down the line. (anti-theft, engines, warranty work, wiring, etc.) but your options are already limited so I wouldn’t blame you for getting it. I’d get the base engine/transmission though if you anticipate stop/go traffic or off-road use since the dual-clutch in the upper engine option is better than dry clutch models but IMHO still suspect.
I would lean towards the Maverick but neither are really “small” since they’re still pretty long.
There’s the Transit Connect if you want a cargo van that’s compact.
Youtubers being lazy and retouching content for clicks isn’t exactly a huge discovery. I don’t think that makes the content of the video any less interesting though.
“Retouching” is a very polite way to put it. I’m not commenting on the content, but I think it is worth pointing to the original video so they can have the views instead.
When my little 4-cylinder truck wore out in 2021, I looked so hard for one of the little kei trucks. But all of the ones I could find were $20k, or they were $15k and needed a lot of work to be driveable. And none of them were within 200 miles of my location.
I ended up with a used base-model F150 which only cost me $12k. It had 81k miles on it. As near as I can figure out, it started life as a rental truck for a hardware store called “Menards”. It has an 8ft bed, no carpet, no power locks, no power windows, no back seat, no touchscreen, and no color LCD screen in the gauge cluster. I use this truck for a small farm that my wife and I run, so it doesn’t get driven every day.
It was half the price of the next cheapest truck on the lot, and the next cheapest truck had twice the miles. But the next cheapest truck had all the whiz-bang fancy electronics, instead of being four wheels and a truck bed.
The Suzuki Carry is the one I really wanted. I’ve a soft spot for tiny suzuki vehicles.
Every time I mention not being able to find one in early 2022, people come along to show me where I can get one now. The issue was, I couldn’t find one when I needed it.
Have you ever towed anything? Towing a trailer of that size and weight with a car like that, even if legal, is sketchy as fuck. Especially on hills or mountains. Where I am from its legal to take that picture, it’s not legal to get on the road. For good reason. A capable truck is much safer for that purpose, for everyone.
Doing that in the states would be illegal. Our payload and towing capacity are calculated differently which vastly drops the ammount you are legally allowed to carry. For example a jeep wrangler in Europe has a towing capacity of 5000Lb (2300Kg) but the same exact jeep in the states can only tow 3500Lb (1600kg)
Speeds are a per state basis however a good chunk of them do in fact have separate speed limits for vehicles with trailers. For example, California limits vehicles with three or more axles to 55 MPH (88kph).
Well some people do. I did for about 3 years, 4+ times a week (work and hobbies) but those are all gone now so looking to trade it in.
Not defending the absurd legislation that makes these keep getting bigger but there are a legit few people who actually regularly make full use of everything a full size offers.
I had a 2015 Nissan Frontier a with a tow capacity of about 6500 lbs. Bought a hitch receiver and towing wiring…and never installed it. Never towed a damned thing with that truck, even though I had it in my brain that surely I would at some point.
I like the motto of optimizing for the things I do more frequently, not for the edge cases. It’s up to you to decide where that line is. But maybe if the need for something larger is rare enough, you can find another option like renting something. I know renting is a pain, but if it’s rare you don’t have to do it all that much.
I live in a blue collar neighborhood. Big trucks owned by tradesmen/women everywhere. They absolutely use them frequently for what they’re capable of. Some of them have a second cars for groceries etc. but I’m glad there are not two cars for every truck because parking would be a bitch, and wouldn’t save much gas. If they were to rent for the “rare trip,” it would be the grocery store. No one is gonna rent for a grocery store trip when they can just happily drive their truck. The store is closer than the rental agency.
My dad’s VW Touareg could tow like 7700 lbs, which is more than a lot of trucks and easily enough to pull plenty of boats and campers. Even a compact SUV that can tow 3500 lbs can pull some boats and campers as long as people don’t buy giant oversized versions of those, too.
So why not just use the van? At least the cargo space is covered from the elements. Most people who drove these yank tanks don’t actually need the truck part.
Open bed of a truck is very handy for very tall items or stuff that needs to be dumped like rocks, dirt etc… Or if your towing a very large load with goose neck trailer.
I can only recommend Our Changing Climates take on this: “Are Men Killing the Planet?”
The title is inflammatory, yes, but it’s a great video that drives home the point of masculine insecurity and a “dominance of nature” spurs a lot of the “masculine” stereotype behind trucks and SUVs.
This Pictures Shows the “Striezelmarkt” in Dresden. It has an underground parking lot with 400 parking spaces. But it’s recommended to use the public transport.
Who buys a truck for aesthetics and not for usefulness? The tiny one might be ugly but the bigger problem is storage in the interior of the car. You don’t even have a back seat in the small one. And also I doubt that the small one can haul large amounts of weight, like a trailer, where the big one can. Just because it is dangerous doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a purpose. Now, instead of having a car for getting around, an SUV for more people, something powerful for a trailer or heavy stuff, you have one for everything that costs the same price as one of those vehicles.
what gets me is the shear amount of paint there is, we drive about 30 miles and most of the way is like this with just little mounds of yellow dust and Im sure it all just washes away in the rain to places we dont want it to end up. Also apparently birds need to eat rocks and stuff to help break down food so they hopefully are just getting the little rocks and not the paint chunks
I was astounded when I saw stats on how many birds get killed by cars every year (I think it was posted here a while back). Its like an ongoing bird genocide. No wonder birds shit all over parked cars. We can’t even fault them for this, but it would also be illegal for us to join in. :D
I’d love to know the difference in average bird fatalities for a busy 4 lane highway vs a double-tracked rail line with overhead catenary.
This isn’t even to mention the other many ways we’re constantly actively contributing to the deaths of birds through suburbia, even indirectly. Aside from the obvious stuff like getting rid of the trees they inhabit in the rare urban areas, we even kill them in the places they can live, by having “outdoor cats” as if they arent an invasive species. Letting them predate on the local bird population can be hugely detrimental!
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