Tesla Motors Club
Recently when I was in town, I saw an old Mazda pickup parked at the grocery store, dwarfed by the huge trucks on either side of it. Next door was parked a blue Toyota pickup. These were the tiny pickups made in, I think, about the late 1970s or early 1980s.
Nobody is making anything like them today. What happened?
They were cute, they were practical, they were efficient. They didn't come with a lot of extras, or options -- I think 2WD, standard cab, long bed was about it. They weren't heavy-duty work trucks, but they were perfectly okay for moving furniture, small loads of building supplies, tradesmen's tools and equipment, things like that. And they must have been pretty durable, since I'm still seeing a few around.
They look startlingly small next to the big, full-sized pickups of today -- but they looked startlingly small next to the big, full-sized pickups of the 1970s too. That didn't stop people from buying them. Even here in Texas they became pretty popular.
Today the smallest truck you can get is a Ford Ranger, which is quite a bit larger than those old Mazdas, Datsuns and Toyotas. I think the car makers are missing out on something here.
Today there's a sort of craziness when it comes to pickup trucks. Here in Texas people are buying giant F-250s and F-350s and riding around town in them. If you watch TV commercials, I think car makers have sold people a fantasy that they're going to all become construction workers and drop giant pallets of concrete from a crane into the bed of their truck. It's absurd.
When we were working on the cattle ranch, we had a Ford F-250 to pull our big gooseneck cattle trailer. For the rest of our every day ranch work, a 4WD Ford Ranger V6 handled everything. For most people who don't work on a cattle ranch or a construction site, those little 2WD Mazda and Toyota pickups would be fine -- if anybody still made them. AFAIK the Ford Ranger is the smallest truck you can buy today, and there's talk of phasing it out.
I don't think this situation can last. I think the current trends and fashions in trucks are overdue for a "correction" as they say on Wall Street.
Nobody is making anything like them today. What happened?
They were cute, they were practical, they were efficient. They didn't come with a lot of extras, or options -- I think 2WD, standard cab, long bed was about it. They weren't heavy-duty work trucks, but they were perfectly okay for moving furniture, small loads of building supplies, tradesmen's tools and equipment, things like that. And they must have been pretty durable, since I'm still seeing a few around.
They look startlingly small next to the big, full-sized pickups of today -- but they looked startlingly small next to the big, full-sized pickups of the 1970s too. That didn't stop people from buying them. Even here in Texas they became pretty popular.
Today the smallest truck you can get is a Ford Ranger, which is quite a bit larger than those old Mazdas, Datsuns and Toyotas. I think the car makers are missing out on something here.
Today there's a sort of craziness when it comes to pickup trucks. Here in Texas people are buying giant F-250s and F-350s and riding around town in them. If you watch TV commercials, I think car makers have sold people a fantasy that they're going to all become construction workers and drop giant pallets of concrete from a crane into the bed of their truck. It's absurd.
When we were working on the cattle ranch, we had a Ford F-250 to pull our big gooseneck cattle trailer. For the rest of our every day ranch work, a 4WD Ford Ranger V6 handled everything. For most people who don't work on a cattle ranch or a construction site, those little 2WD Mazda and Toyota pickups would be fine -- if anybody still made them. AFAIK the Ford Ranger is the smallest truck you can buy today, and there's talk of phasing it out.
I don't think this situation can last. I think the current trends and fashions in trucks are overdue for a "correction" as they say on Wall Street.