Hoping To Raid The Midsize Truck Market
“Sure thing, drop it off, gotta go!” I exclaim to the Mitsubishi PR guy as quickly as I can while trying to hammer out the final details of an important business meeting as I am walking into it with two colleagues.
“What was that all about?” one colleague inquires.
“We get a Mitsu Raider for the weekend, so if we…” Read more…
The Best F-150 Ever Isn’t Even A Ford
That’s right. The best F-150 you can buy wears a Lincoln badge, and, for some reason, is called the Mark LT. Actually, the Lincoln folks won’t like that statement, but we call ‘em as we see ‘em here. If it looks like an F-150, sounds like an F-150 and drives like an F-150, then logic would dictate it must be Ford’s bread-and-butter pickup. But logic doesn’t always find a home in the automobile business, and that’s why Lincoln can add a little chrome—ok, a lot of chrome—to an F-150, and charge a premium for it. Neglecting the fact that you and I both know this is little more than a trim level on the work-a-day F-150, how did Lincoln’s second attempt to crack the luxury truck code turnout? Read on for that answer. Read more…
Isuzu is bound to be leaving America soon.
How else could you explain the company’s totally unimaginative, unoriginal lineup of trucks and SUVs? It’s as if everyone at Isuzu threw up their arms and said, “Enough already! We give up! Let’s just forget about this ‘create new cars’ thing and let General Motors do all our work.” Read more…
Har(d)ley-A-Davidson F-150
There is a hitch about special-edition vehicles: They have to keep getting more special or the latest attempt risks being showed up by an earlier version. This commonsense lesson is taught on the first day of Special-Edition Vehicles 101, but Ford must have been asleep in the back row, or at the very least, sketching GTs instead of notes. All of this is relevant because it explains our disappointment with the 2006 Harley-Davidson F-150. In short, we’d rather have a pre-owned 2003 edition in our garage than this latest “greatest” version. Let us explain. Read more…
There was a time when “compact truck” really meant “claustrophobic, micro-sized, knee-crunching truck that should only be bought by anorexic contortionists.”
But today’s compact trucks — well, there’s nothing compact about them. Read more…
Truck Driver Wanna-bes Rejoice: No CDL Required
Above all else, Ford consistently does one thing well, and that’s build pickups. We’re not talking just any pickups, but giant, imposing trucks with a commanding presence that the other guys just can’t match. In fact, it’s darn near semi-like in one of these things. You sit about eye level with fellow truckers, you occupy almost as much highway, and you burn fuel at a rate that would make even a Saudi cry. No doubt about it, one glance at the features and you’ll know the latest generation of Super Duty pickups is made for one thing: hard work. But there’s more to the story than an impressive spec sheet. What did we learn after a week in the cab? Well, we had a newfound appreciation for good coffee and for Ford’s latest heavy-hauler. Read more…
If you’re the shy type, don’t ever ride in this Chevy.
From the moment you step inside this wild truck — a power-top convertible, no less — you become the center of attention wherever you drive.
People roll down their windows at stoplights to ask what it is; you can’t fill the gas tank without being interrupted at least twice; little kids stare at it with open-mouthed amazement; and cops pull you over for no apparent reason. Read more…
Thinking Green
This truck is greener than just its paint job. Is it an environmentally minded full-size pick-up truck, or a multipurpose workaday vehicle capable of getting you to the work site and powering your tools? How about both? Who has ever heard of such a thing, I can’t imagine. This all sounds appealing to me, but unless the badge on the side says Prius, don’t expect any of your tree-hugging buddies to embrace it. Interested? Read on, I’ll explain. Read more…
This is a Tacoma?
Can’t be. A Tacoma is a dinky little Toyota truck with dinky little doors and a dinky little bench seat. There’s no way this truck — a big, tall, four-wheel-drive, four-door, honest-to-goodness truck — could possibly be a Tacoma.
It’s just not dinky enough. Read more…
There’s something magical about listening to Hank Williams when you’re driving a pickup truck. It’s like the two were meant to be together. They just feel right.
And when you’re driving a Nissan Titan, listening to Hank Williams via satellite radio feels just as fitting. Hank’s twang and country drawl inspire the feelings of good-ol’-boy America, but you know there’s something different about the delivery — something high-tech, fresh and foreign. Read more…
