Smaller Trucks, Bigger Loyalty: VW Sees a Place for Truly Compact Pickups

Volkswagen has been flagrantly displaying new pickups at trade shows for a couple of years now, and with good reason. Domestic trucks have grown very large. In 1993, you could still purchase the Ford F-Series in a format where its maximum length did not exceed 197 inches. Today, the F-150 gets no smaller than 209 inches with a standard cab. Meanwhile, the now mid-sized Ranger, sold only in SuperCab and SuperCrew guise, grew from to 181 inches in overall length to a whopping 211 inches within the same timeframe.

The supersizing of the North American pickup created an interesting opportunity for manufacturers, and Volkswagen took notice.

Read more
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X I've mentioned before about being very underwhelmed by the Hornet for a $50000+ all in price tag. Just wasn't for me. I'd prefer a Mazda CX-5 or even a Rogue.
  • MaintenanceCosts Other sources seem to think that the "electric Highlander" will be built on TNGA and that the other 3-row will be on an all-new EV-specific platform. In that case, why bother building the first one at all?
  • THX1136 Two thoughts as I read through the article. 1) I really like the fins on this compared to the others. For me this is a jet while the others were propeller driven craft in appearance.2) The mention of the wider whitewalls brought to mind a vague memory. After the wider version fell out of favor I seem to remember that one could buy add-on wide whitewalls only that fit on top of the tire so the older look could be maintained. I remember they would look relatively okay until the add-on would start to ripple and bow out indicating their exact nature. Thanks for the write up, Corey. Looking forward to what's next.
  • Analoggrotto It's bad enough we have to read your endless Hyundai Kia Genesis shilling, we don't want to hear actually it too. We spend good money on speakers, headphones and amplifiers!
  • Redapple2 Worthy of a book