Few will be surprised to hear that Chrysler Group will end production of its Dakota compact pickup truck next Tuesday, as sales of all small-to-midsized pickups have cratered over the last decade. Indeed, the Detroit News reports that the end of Dakota production will result in the layoffs of only 39 employees, although that number may climb as high as 150. In any case, the end of Dakota production is just the tip of the iceberg: Ford’s Ranger goes out of production in December of this year, and GM’s Colorado/Canyon twins will be discontinued sometime next year. Though Dodge plans to bring a minivan-platform-based AWD “lifestyle pickup” to market as a 2014 model, and Chevy is planning to build a North American variant of its new Global Colorado for the 2015 model-year, we’re looking at a several-year interlude in which no American OEM will offer a small pickup in the US. And looking at this chart, you almost can’t blame them…
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Tagged as compact pickups, Fuel Economy, History, Industry, platforms, Trucks, Utility
Recent Comments
lilpoindexter - If my GF was shopping for a new car, and she told me she was considering one of these, I would be sad.
probert - I agree. With all the rabid Tesla bashing it is refreshing to see how the DOE money...
probert - It does mean something in terms of who controls the capital. A foreign company...
canddmeyer - Nice vehicle, or so it appears, but for that kind of money I’d lease it or look elsewhere.
CJinSD - I was still seeing these as daily drivers regularly in the ’80s. There were very few other cars from 1960-1962 still on the...
Luke42 - Yup — the car business, and many of the companies, are global. Which car is more...
CJinSD - I forget the exact details, but I believe it was because the government stated that in 1965 all cars used in government fleets had to...
Luke42 - One Ford is really turning Ford from an American company in to a global company. Note...
Luke42 - DARPA is a successful research funding agency. They’ve got a great track records,...
Ryoku75 - It was probably more the push-button transmissions and early issues with the slant six that did some of these in, they were sorted...