The Glade 4.0

Have you looked into the Passport? I'm sure all the "real truck" guys here would pooh-pooh it, but it has a lot of cool features, and I trust Honda to build something that can do a lot of things, including the kind of dirt fire roads you'll probably go on, passably well.

I'm torn between that and a Nissan Frontier Crew Cab (which you can get with a long bed). Had an old Nissan Hardbody extended cab, really liked it, but it wouldn't do well for hauling around kids or elderly parents. That's why I liked the idea of the full crew cab.

Hauling plywood? Heck, I took home sheets of plywood in the back of my minivan not too long ago. You can make anything work, and I don't intend go hauling around plywood again any time soon. Short beds are fine for what most of us do, I suspect.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Well, see, there are two or three factors at work, here.

The first is that the truck market was never commoditized into disposable cars that you were supposed to replace every 5 years, the way the American car market was. You think back to early 80's stuff, and you never hear of cars from that era being around or lasting a long time, because they weren't engineered to. The trucks, on the other hand, lasted 20 years and 400k miles or whatever.

The second is that the gung ho, big truck audience are also, well, a bunch of rednecks (often middle class, suburban rednecks, but still), who are the ones putting the gun rack in the back window, the big-ass red, white, and blue eagle decal obscuring their rear field of view, and the "Guns Don't Kill People, I Do" bumper stickers. These guys will buy American, and it's no surprise.

Finally, all the compact trucks get made overseas (and Europe doesn't really get into even that) because the Japanese and Koreans don't have any space, so it doesn't even occur to them that somebody would want a 16-foot long vehicle. That takes up the entire length of their apartment AND half the next one over when they park it on the street. Also, you can't drift in a full-size.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Good points, Kaffis. Not only parking, but culture. Large trucks are for companies or business use, or for the one guy in the village who has the means and need for it - and who will let you borrow it in return for a future favor, etc., or rent it.

I neglected to make the point earlier that I believe the reason that Ford is the "No. 1 selling truck in America" is because of fleet sales. So many municipalities buy Fords for their street crews, etc., and Chevies or GMs much less frequently.

Now, obviously, the folks doing the purchasing have had some kind of good experience with Fords, but I think that bureaucratic inertia has a lot to do with it.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

All good points.

But for me, I guess I'll settle on being content with borrowing my mother's Frontier when I can to get my pickup fix.

Been that way for a long time.

_________________
The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones