[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by The Rooster

The fact that small trucks have gotten bigger is my point. The manufacturers that have kept their trucks small have sold less and less of them. It's because people don't want them.

There's a bit of chicken and egg going on here. People can't buy small pickups if the manufacturer chooses not to build them. Consider Toyota, which currently makes a mid-size pickup (Tacoma) and a large one (Tundra). The mid-size consistently outsells the large one:

In the first seven months of 2010, Tundra sales were about 54,000, and Tacoma's about 60,500. Toyota sees 2010 US pickup truck sales near 1.5 mln | Reuters

So people do buy the smaller truck. Couple that with the number of smaller '80s Toyotas still on the road, and I don't see how you can argue that there isn't a market for small trucks.