OT: Whatever happened to mini-trucks?

Like the Daihatsu trucks shown on this web site?

think they have morphed into the Tundra ;-)

Visit a college campus or a golf course if you want to find those little trucks. The guys who take care of the grounds will be driving them.

But I don't need anything so big as a Tundra. I miss the little HiLux size trucks, too (i.e. Chevy Luv size)

Is Toyota getting hit with Detriotitis? Make the vehicles a little bigger every year? A little more powerful? I hope not. That's what I was hoping to get away from when I started buying Toyota 30 years ago. I wanted development more like the old VW, i.e. technologically better each year. A lesson Toyota seems to have gotten by the 1970's, but Detroit seems to have forgotten. Not everyone needs a V8 SUV, but Detroit wants to sell only the big vehicles so they can make beaucoup de dollars.

Remember the 70's? The Exploding Pinto? The Gremlin? The Sh*tvette? Against that, the Toyota Corolla TE3x was almost a no-brainer. Chrysler didn't even have their own small car in the 1979 model year. They imported something called the Colt from Mitsubishi. I didn't buy one because the dealer wanted to sell me only a spud ugly green 1978 model and wouldn't let me look at a new 79 (This was in April of '79) I looked at the Sh*tvette, the Corolla and the Datsun B210s. The Toyota was the best of the bunch. Dad already had a TE31 2 door sedan from 1977. I remember Mom and Dad fronting me enough extra to get the AM radio, my first. (The 72 Carina had a Radio Delete Plate that said TOYOTA on the dash.)

Charles of Schaumburg

They were using them on the campus of then-Quincy College in 1977 when I went there. They were also using them at Abbott when I worked there in

1999. But they're not, as Crocodile Dundee put it: Roadwise. They can't apparently be licensed for the road in the US anymore. If they were, at least one or two of them would have turned up on Ebaymotors by now.

Charles of Schaumburg

They can be, but it's supposed to be by special exemption only. They don't meet the full rules with 2.5 MPH Bumpers, Airbags, Side Impact Protection door beams (no doors), etc. But there are some campuses that are spread out and they have to drive on city streets between buildings.

They allow you to put CA plates on the GEM Electric and other 'Urban Transportation Vehicles' with the proviso that since it can't go over

35 MPH it is surface street use only.

The rules get bent all the time when they need to be - the Disneyland Hotel Trams had to cross West Street, so they had license plates issued, even though they didn't meet all the rules - Harlan, Clark or Towmotor airport tug tractors with Commercial truck plates, and 'specially constructed' passenger trailers with trailer plates.

And we're not even going to go NEAR the fact of one tug towing five trailers at once when the normal on-road limit is two, three if you stretch it by counting the fifth-wheel dolly between the trailers...

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Wesleyan University has several trucks that look like overgrown golf carts, with Connecticut license plates.

I think they're Mitsubishi vehicles.

There probably is not enough profit in one of those small vehicles for Daihatsu (owned by Toyota) to dedicate production capacity, when they can make a vehicle with a larger market. As Bruce mentioned, safety issues would make small vehicles difficult to license for use on roads.

Cushman

seems to have a large share of the small utility vehicle market now.

John Deere and few other companies still make them:

You can also see them at your local professional football field carrying off injured players.

Jeff

Rust?

mike

I wonder why they quit making regular small trucks. IE: like the usual toyota, etc trucks they made for years. Small, and didn't drink gas.. Basically a corolla with a truck bed.. I recently tried looking for newer model small trucks, and they don't seem to make them any more unless I missed them. It's all the big heavier stuff, 4WD, SUV, etc, ad nausium... You can't even find a small cheap truck any more... So I ended up buying a corolla instead... And with gas prices spiking again, I'm not regretting it so far.. The 05 corolla is getting quite a bit better mpg than my

89 accord, even though both weigh about the same.. The corolla gets 30+ even in the city.. The accord is lucky to get 30 mpg on the highway.. They need to make a dinky 35-40 mpg truck... They could slap a corolla engine in a light truck body, and off you go.. But they would rather sell bloated SUV's and 4WD's.. More profit.. I don't think I'd want less than a 4 banger in a truck, unless it was a really hopped up 2-3 banger.. I don't mind good mpg, but I don't want it to be totally gutless.. MK

snipped-for-privacy@wt.net wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:

I also had reason to look around lately for a replacement for my lil red '94 pickup & was blown out over fact that EVERY truck on the dealers lot was a huge over-bloated \ double cab\ monster w\ a price tag to match. I don't get it. Thought we had an energy crises of some sort. As a result of what I saw, my pickup is now in the body shop having extensive body work done.

Local Toy dealer is advertising a Special, 2007 Tacoma Single Cab, 5 Speed, No AWD, no nothing $9995. Considering this is the price a 'stripper' was selling for 6-7 years ago, that's not bad at all!

But there's only one!

The problem is still with consumers. Most of the purchases are still the big 4WD with big wheels and tires. The 2WD stripper trucks typically sit there.

I recently tried to purchase a 2WD with the extra cab, base tires, and base suspension for my business. I was frustrated to find that I could only get a 4-spd automatic with the 4-cyl while the V6 can be had with the 5-spd automatic. I would suspect that matching the 4-cyl with the 5-spd automatic would yield better gas mileage, towing capacity, and acceleration. But, what do I know about trucks?

Actually some of the bigger engines with bigger trannys seem to yield better gas mileage.

I had a 93 Corolla with the 1.8 and the 3 + overdrive auto transmission. It got 39 mpg, and even when it had 230,000 on it, still got 28 mpg.

I now have a 95 Corolla 1.6 with the 3 speed auto trans. The best I've gotten out of it is 28 mpg, averages about 26. The gears are longer, i.e.

3d ratio is higher a bit, but takes longer to get there, too.

Charles of Schaumburg

I agree in certain situations that bigger engines yield better gas mileage. This typically occurs when the smaller engine is overtaxed and the transmission has to be geared lower or has to stay in lower gears longer. The bigger engines have adequate low-end torque to be geared taller and be less stressed when carrying a load.

In this particular example, the 2.7 ltr 4-cyl engine is sufficient to haul a base pickup with the extra cab. The cargo won't be very heavy with the modest transportation needs of my business Even with the

4-spd auto, it yields better EPA ratings than the V6 with the 5-spd auto. Undoubtedly, the 4-cyl engine would be more economical with the 5-spd auto.

Unfortunately, Toyota doesn't believe that there is sufficient market for that so the combination I wish for is not offered.