America’s love affair with the pickup truck is long from being over, and for good reason.
Modern full-size pickup trucks are more capable, efficient, comfortable, and technologically advanced than ever before. They really have become the jack-of-all-trades choice amongst the automotive world. So when an all-new pick-up debuts, it’s a big deal.
In the beginning, someone created the buggy. Now the buggy was primitive and lacked more than a couple of horsepower, and darkness was over the surface of the automotive world because this buggy had leaf springs.
And some engineer said, “Let there be a functional suspension,” and there was a coil spring – and, if you liked Mopars, maybe a torsion bar. And this engineer called the coil spring good and the leaf spring crap. And so, there was day and night, buggy suspensions and a reasonable ride, and the engineer created cars in his own image, and old trucks were the serpent.
And so, trucks from time immemorial have been infested by poor-riding leaf springs because they could handle great loads. But these trucks, they did handle like the Leviathan, so some have moved to the proper coil spring, good and true, to hold up their cargo. The 2022 Toyota Tundra has been so blessed with coil springs, among many other improvements. But is it good?
DukeisdukeThe US Postal Service uses some of these, complete with a custom grille that replaces the three-pointed star with a white-painted USPS eagle logo.I've never seen very many of these. About 50/50 split between the commercial versions and passenger versions.
DukeisdukeIt's interesting that the Olds has a column shifted three-speed, while the nicer Buick still had to make do with a floor shift.
DukeisdukeA '51 Chevy Styleline De Luxe 4-door next to it, in the same color (Fathom Green) as the one my grandfather owned. It has a couple of accessories visible - bumper guards, like on my grandfather's, and the rear fender moldings above the taillights, which his didn't have.
ScottDo any car companies research demographics?going after a shrinking car buying market isn’t a recipe for success.hazrd a guess that most people in their prime car buying years don’t know anything about broncos or give a sht about a heritage model. Going to die on the vine. Bad strategy and failure for future growth
MaintenanceCostsThe Jeep 4xes are impressive vehicles, even after accounting for the expected Stellantis/FCA lack of reliability. A Wrangler is not of any use to me but this powertrain in a Grand Cherokee L will be on my test-drive list when it inevitably happens.I just wish the gas engine were something other than a coarse and ugly-sounding four. These cars with either the Pentastar or the six-pot Hurricane would rocket right to the top of the list, although I'm sure they would sacrifice a couple of mpg when running on gas.
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