Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
Here's my problem: from the late '60s (Toyota Stout - I owned one once, rescued from a junk pile) to the early '90s, several manufacturers - Toyota, Nissan, and others - managed to build and sell a lot of small pickups. A good many of these are still running, some as beater work trucks, some like mine as second vehicles, some modded for off-road (check your local Craigslist), when there seem to be few "full-sized" trucks of the same vintage left.
So that begs the question: If people bought small trucks not that long ago, why wouldn't they buy them now? And If automakers could sell them then, why can't they make & sell them now?
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Long ago, just like today, full size trucks out-sold small trucks. And just like long ago, compact trucks are built and sold today, however, the smallest of them sell the worse, aka Chevy Colorado, and the largest sell the best...aka Toyota Tacoma.
The Tacoma is the best selling compact truck in the US, but Toyota sells about half as many Tacomas as Dodge sells Rams, the worst selling domestic full size truck. Combined together, Full size trucks outsell compact is a ratio of almost 5:1 And those are the figures from 2008 where gas prices were close to $4.00 per gallon.
Now to you and me, it's a no brainer to buy a Tacoma over a Ram. Quality being the main concern, then price, economy...etc. But we are in the minority. For every one of us, there are two Ram buyers.