By Jeff Glucker
I’m in San Antonio, Texas this week and I just drove the new 2022 Toyota Tundra. I can’t yet talk about how it drives. But it does make me wonder what buyers are looking for in this space. I’m curious what they want both in terms of powertrain options, interior gadgetry, and overall exterior styling. What do you think a modern truck should look like, and what should it have?
Ford helped shift the full-size truck segment mentality a bit when it started stuffing EcoBoost engines into engine bays. The V8 engine isn’t quite as necessary as once deemed. Ram started to change minds when it swapped out the rear suspension for a multi-link setup and delivered the best on-road riding truck in the segment. And now you can even count Rivian into the fold as the R1T rolls out to its first customers.
So as I stare at the new Tundra, I’m curious about what you think a ground-up build of a new truck should have and how it should look?
Kamil Kaluski
Why can’t a new truck be like an old truck? I remember when a friend bought a truck with a handful of luxuries (a/c, V8, auto, upgraded paint and deluxe interior), but still quite a few non-upgrades (manual windows, AM radio, steelies), and when we found out the price had exceeded $10K (by about 500 bucks), none of us could have believed anyone would pay that much for a truck. Sometime after Y2K, a mom-of-four who I worked with bought a nice-enough-but-fairly-unadorned crew cab to haul around her family, and $23K seemed like too much to pay.
I remember the first time I saw a truck with a $60K window sticker, and 70K, and 80K.
I want a truck that will tow a 6,000 pound trailer, fit three adults comfortably, and if a high school sophomore starts saving his paychecks bagging groceries after school, he will have been able to pay cash for the truck by graduation.
warning: unpopular opinion ahead!
I want basically the opposite of what the internet wants. I live in a rural area, and I use my truck as an actual truck. I don’t want a box on wheels the size of a Ford Courier to “haul a few bags of mulch” with. I like a truck big. Dealing with snow and mud for half the year, I want ground clearance. I want/use/need at least a 6.5′ box, and I don’t really care if I can’t reach in over the sides because I usually have a tonneau cover on anyways. I’m done with finicky, small turbocharged engines and will not settle for anything other than a normally aspirated V8. I want a 3:73 or 3:92 gear ratio for pulling (really, wtf GMC? A 3:23 ratio only for an AT4?) Seatbelt laws, and p.i.a kids makes it a given that I need a full crew cab, and it sure is nice having seat warmers and satellite radio and other fancy “accoutrements.” My car trailer alone weighs about 2000lbs empty, so then add a couple of SxSs or my tractor – I need actual towing capability. Really, the only thing about ‘modern’ trucks I don’t want, is the hyper-macho, angry looking super-sized grill the designers seem to be favoring. Give me a classic looking truck (NOT retro however) that acts and works like a truck. And let me have one in Forest Green!
Even as the sort of avidly non-truck person who wouldn’t consider anything but the Maverick (because it’s cheap and economical), pickups in rural places make fine sense to me. I just wish they hadn’t gotten as tall as they have.
probably like the Rivian. big, ridiculously capable, but not shouty. of course it does cost like seventy grand.
tbh I really have come around on the cybertruck and am now pretty excited to see it on the street. is it what a modern truck should be? I dunno, but at least they’re taking a risk. maybe a modern truck should explore what a truck can be, instead of just putting thicker and pricier leather on the same things we’ve been driving for the better part of a century.
if it’s my money, I’m buying a 4×4 turbo Maverick.
Outside the USA, what the rest of the world sees when you say ‘light duty double cab medium truck.’
Because they’re not all pretending to own a ranch somewhere and they need an actual truck, not a large car with an open trunk.
There is still a way to machomize it though.
Well, and these and Hiluxes and Tritons and such, right?
You mean utes? Like a Ford Ranger?
Full-size trucks are the most popular trucks in America and are treated like the flagship products of the Detroit Three automakers, the interior part and and body design make me fan.
Well, and these and Hiluxes and Tritons and such, right?