I got an 87 F150 that hauls trash and kayaks... what's my status?

And those people who do buy trucks would often be happy with a much smaller one. They don't exist. No, not even the Maverick. That's "well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it" for trucks.

In memory of my 95 extended cab

In memory of my 95 extended cab

The Slate is the currently the only modern option for a mini-truck (if it releases).

98 Ranger XLT extended cab. I've added trailer brake control for livestock hauling and a modern stereo with bluetooth, handsfree calling, and a sealed 10" sub cause I'm a metalhead.

It's got the pushrod V6 that will last forever, in 99 they switched over to those awful self-destructing cassette timed V6s.

It throws no codes. Redid intake manifold and valve gaskets about 18 months ago, but I've got increased Idle RPM and minor oil leak again. So, I have to redo it, looking for a more permanent fix.

My truck does 10x the work most of those oversized pavement princess trucks do. It's a little truck for our little play farm.

I had an 06 Ford Ranger (actually a Mazda). RWD with a 4 cylinder and a 5 speed. No frills at all. That was a phenomenal truck. You could put snow tires on it, throw some sand bags in the bed, and go just about anywhere.

2 things:

1. The new truck has 4 doors. That's a crew cab.
2. Part of the reason for today's massive trucks is a change in CAFE regs starting in 2012 that bases fuel economy standards on vehicle footprint. It's easier to make a larger footprint than a more efficient vehicle.

I'll ask again, any data to actually support this. Been asking 6 years now and rarely get a response. And when I do it's t9 secondary sources that all link back to a private industry report with no methodology or a MSNBC report with some of the shittiest questions for a poll I've seen

Towing and having a real back seat. I'm really not sure what's so complicated.

Both can tow. The new Ranger can tow more because it's really a mini F-150. Buying a compact pickup to get back seats is dumb.

It doesn't bother me that larger trucks exist, but some of us want compact pickups.

There's 2 F series trucks for every square mile of this country. Do you think they are all out there hauling loads and trailers, off roading and actualling being used for truck stuff, or do you think that the vast majority of them are single occupant highway battering rams built to make small men feel big and important?

Remember, 2 per square mile, and that just one series of trucks, from 1 manufacturer, going back just 10 years.

In the absence of hard statistics, I think a gut check on the sheer scale of trucks being sold in the US will suffice.

98 Ranger XLT extended cab. I've added trailer brake control for livestock hauling and a modern stereo with bluetooth, handsfree calling, and a sealed 10" sub cause I'm a metalhead.

It's got the pushrod V6 that will last forever, in 99 they switched over to those awful self-destructing cassette timed V6s.

It throws no codes. Redid intake manifold and valve gaskets about 18 months ago, but I've got increased Idle RPM and minor oil leak again. So, I have to redo it, looking for a more permanent fix.

My truck does 10x the work most of those oversized pavement princess trucks do. It's a little truck for our little play farm.

Thanks for making driving on the road with you awful.

Everyone I know uses them pretty consistently to tow. I know of one or two people who don't use it well. I think a portion of them probably could get away with a ranger.

In the absence of any real data, trying to roughly include my small suburban town just outside of rural (more used and working class users) anecdotally it wouldn't surprise me to see anywhere between 20-35% of owners not having any sort of real use for their truck. I'd wager that most of those owners are new owners as well.

That's not to say there aren't dumb idiots living in downtown NYC being morons. I just don't think it's remotely as crazy as the fuck cars community would have you believe.

98 Ranger XLT extended cab. I've added trailer brake control for livestock hauling and a modern stereo with bluetooth, handsfree calling, and a sealed 10" sub cause I'm a metalhead.

It's got the pushrod V6 that will last forever, in 99 they switched over to those awful self-destructing cassette timed V6s.

It throws no codes. Redid intake manifold and valve gaskets about 18 months ago, but I've got increased Idle RPM and minor oil leak again. So, I have to redo it, looking for a more permanent fix.

My truck does 10x the work most of those oversized pavement princess trucks do. It's a little truck for our little play farm.

2 things:

1. The new truck has 4 doors. That's a crew cab.
2. Part of the reason for today's massive trucks is a change in CAFE regs starting in 2012 that bases fuel economy standards on vehicle footprint. It's easier to make a larger footprint than a more efficient vehicle.

I can see how 2 can be gamed by car makers, but I don't know how I would fix it. Seems intuitive larger cars will use more fuel, e.g. can't use the same standards on 18 wheelers and sedans.

Are there good alternatives? Is my intuition dead wrong

Nice. Mine was Cayman Green, a couple of shades lighter than yours and a 4-banger, but similar otherwise.

My current daily driver, which I won't upload my own photo of because it's literally enough to dox me (by people who know me IRL), is one of these:

It's not an SUV, but air suspension allows it to rise taller than some crossover SUVs, providing decent clearance. And on the road you can lower and stiffen it for better handling (or keep it in the comfort position for normal height and soft suspension). Both axles are always being driven, with front and rear diff locks being electronic, based on the ESP system.

It doesn't do as much work as your truck, but then I don't live on a farm. If I did, I'd have a truck too. It does however do significantly more work than any of those pavement princesses. In particular, it's been used for towing trailers, I've had the entire trunk, with rear seats folded down, filled when I moved most of my furniture. I've gone off road in it because I needed to go to the woods. Everything was muddy afterwards.

I'll use yank units for the fun of it, so it's got around 250k miles on it. It's a remapped 3.0 diesel, so it does over 40 mpg very easily unloaded, and can keep up with pretty much anything on the road because of the ridiculous amount of torque it puts out. I paid less than 2k EUR for it (paid pretty much exactly 2000 USD given current exchange rates actually). With all the torque it has, you could also easily tow way more than the legal limit of such a vehicle - which I've never needed to.

It's also rusty, scratched up, dented, etc. Some of the unnecessary extras don't work (park distance control? lol no, it's shorted out) It's not the best car I've owned, but it's the best one I've had for getting shit done. 3 months and 6000 miles so far, I've spent ~500 to replace some safety-critical neglected parts (brake, suspension) some of which will last the next 100k miles and some hopefully indefinitely (updated to a newer, more reliable ABS module).

It wasn't cheap for the first person who bought it, but neither are modern trucks. It was cheap to buy used though, unlike trucks. Parts are cheaper too, but that's partly because I'm in Europe.