Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Practicallity of Compact Pickups vs Full Size

Parked behind my truck is a late model Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab, it makes mine look small.
This shot shows how mine looks miniture by comparison.

But I walked around both and took a couple of quick measurements. My truck's bed is actually 6 inches longer, while it is almost 6 inches shorter in height. I asked the owner what his payload capacity was and he told me he hauled as much as 2500 lbs. Impressive, but I've over 1500 lbs in mine. So I asked him how often he uses that kind of capacity and he said very rarely. Now the Quad Cab is an enviable option, but enough "Compact" trucks have them now, that it begs the question "why buy a full size truck?" Of course Ford hasn't seen fit to give the Ranger or it's Mazda clone the B Series a Crew Cab, but that's another reason it's slipping in market share.

Now I've used my truck for just about everything, helping people move, bringing stuff to the dump, picking up trees from the Nursery, going off road, and into the city for dinner and a show. My truck is what we take on vacation (just the two of us) and we get fair fuel economy and travel in decent comfort. Now I do all this for lower cost of operation and insurance and I can park it anywhere.

There are few things my truck can't do that a full size can. One guy told me that he tows his Vette to the race track with his full size Chevy truck. My response was "I drove my Mustang to the track." You always have to bust on the Chevy guys, keep them in their place.

No comments: