Truck Rankings:

So the Toyota did great in all the opinion categories...no surprise. What was interesting is which truck was rated the most reliable - the Ranger.

And what exactly do the interior and exterior ratings mean? I owned a 2006 Frontier, my SO's Father has a late model Tacoma and my Mother has a 1999 Ranger. Despite being by far the smallest, I find the Ranger the most comfortable to drive with the best controls. If I was going to buy a mid-size truck today, I'd probably buy the Tacoma BUT..after having spent three years in theFrontier, I moved back to an F150. The current "mid-sized" trucks don't get particualy good fuel economy (espeically if yu get a V6 with an automatic) and they can't match a full size pick-up for capability, so they seem to be "wrong size" vehicles to me. I suppose if you don't actually need a work truck they are OK And if you can do with a stripper (like the two door short box four cylinder manual transmission Tacoma), then I suppose a Tacoma has its uses (like a parts delivery trucks), but for most applications, I don't see the point. Most people either need a truck for work or they don't. If a mid-sized truck is all you need, I'd say it is likely you don't need a truck at all.

Ed

I have an 89 Toyota Pickup V6 with access cab and regular sized box and a Lear top. It suites my needs perfectly. The extra space behind the front seats is handy for overnight stuff and our laptops when the wife and I stay in motels. Don't do lot of hauling in the city but it's great for travelling back and forth from Canada to the US for the winter months and for our gear when we go camping up in the Canadian Rockies in summer. There's still open territory you can go where you might not see another person for weeks. The areas we go have no regulated or manmade campsites which is a blessing.

An SUV or station wagon would not be roomy enough to haul everything and having the V6 is good on the highway.