#trucks

Today’s Rare Ride is the rarely seen Dodge version of Mitsubishi’s most famous off-road SUV. It’s a Raider, from 1987.

Trucks make money. A lot of it. Witness the relentless march of average transaction prices, hauled into the stratosphere by all things with a Crew Cab and four-wheel drive. Manufacturers have yet to find the ceiling so, spurred by consumer demand and financial reward, they continue to crank out ever-more outrageous (and expensive) variants.

This time, it isn’t the latest Platinum Southfork Rhodium Kryptonite festival of leather and wood. Chevy, keen to take some of Ford’s lunch, has been rumoured to be building a true competitor to the mighty F-150 Raptor. The race truck you see here is the best indication yet that someone on the Silverado team has dirt under their fingernails.

Appearing midway through 2014 as a 2015 model, the Chevrolet Colorado and its GMC twin, the Canyon, are growing long in the tooth, which isn’t too big a concern in a segment that hosts the Nissan Frontier. However, consumers like alterations that show their truck is newer than other trucks.

As such, there’s a 2021 model-year refresh on the way for General Motors’ midsize pair. Just don’t expect wild changes.

The Environmental Protection Agency has gotten around to tinkering with Ram’s l atest EcoDiesel V6, and its early findings should put a smile on the faces of the folks in Auburn Hills. However, the estimated fuel economy of the latest (and totally legal) 3.0-liter diesel comes with an asterisk.

While the oil-burning Ram 1500 does seem to beat out Ford’s 3.0-liter Power Stroke both in terms of power and efficiency, both Ford and Ram take a backseat to General Motors.

Never have pickup trucks mattered more to an automaker, especially domestic automakers. As sedans and coupes fall off, trucks make up an ever greater percentage of a company’s sales, and the greater (and quickly rising) average selling prices of these hulking family vehicles means there’s a pot of gold waiting for those who succeed.

While the full-size pickup front-runner hasn’t changed since the early 1980s, Ford’s F-Series faces growing competition from two traditional foes. Both Fiat Chrysler and General Motors have newer pickups on the market, and it’s eating into the popularity of the untouchable F-Series.

If a company is going to introduce a bevy of changes to one of its pickup trucks, Texas is definitely the place in which to do it. In fact, it is a popular urban legend that the Lone Star state’s piece of the pickup pie is so large, one manufacturer splits its national marketing efforts four ways: North, West, East, and Texas.

Nissan is a small but active player in the North American pickup truck game, not unlike the plucky Corgi in the dog park yapping at the Great Danes and German Shepherds. For this upcoming 2020 model year, the company has shovelled several cubic acres of development dollars at its Titan full-size truck.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has a history of releasing special edition vehicles, with Black Edition and Night Edition trims being among the most recent inclusions. Despite having unique names, there isn’t much difference between the two. Both attempt to replace as much of an automobile’s exterior features with dark plastic as possible, with one taking things a step further than the other.

While wholly unnecessary, considering all of the above can be accomplished through aftermarket purchases, FCA has done well by offering various special edition vehicles with unique, factory sanctioned customization. In addition to being an easy way to get customers to spend a bit more on a new vehicle, it also helps keep old models fresh and in the media — encouraging posts like this one.

If you have less than one thousand foot-pounds of torque, are you even driving a truck? That seems to be the message Ford tried to convey during its spec reveal of the 2020 Super Duty line on Thursday.

In an event held on the sidelines of the State Fair of Texas, where attendees view all things large and powerful with the same rapturous admiration as a Ziplock bag of pills discovered at Burning Man, Ford detailed the output and towing capability of its revamped, third-generation 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel V8. A diesel, Ford was proud to relay, that tops Ram’s torquiest Cummins by 50 lb-ft.

A senior manager who led the team of diesel engineers behind Fiat Chrysler’s maligned EcoDiesel V6 has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiracy to mislead U.S. regulators and the public.

Following an investigation by the Department of Justice, Emanuele Palma, FCA’s senior manager of diesel driveability and emissions, faces multiple charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., wire fraud, and violation of the Clean Air Act. He’s also accused of lying to the FBI and Environmental Protection Agency investigators.

All of this stems from the EPA-led outcry over auxiliary emissions control devices found on the company’s previous-generation 3.0-liter diesel truck engine.

A new trim level here, a revised bumper there, general fiddling. Sometimes, there’s just no way around it — a manufacturer’s vehicular offering is overdue for replacement. Today we want to discuss the models on sale in The Current Year that have lived past their reasonable shelf life.

While Ford Motor Company doesn’t have any trouble offloading F-150s and Rangers on a truck-hungry populace, there’s always another way to sweeten the pot. To boost the appeal of its full- and mid-size offerings, the automaker will now offer off-road levelling kits, perhaps saving a unlucky pickup from scraping its chin.

Developed by Ford Performance Parts, the kits are a dealer-installed affair, offering buyers a way to leave the store with a touch more brawn.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas is slated to receive a $391 million investment earmarked for streamlined pickup production. The manufacturer wants to merge the Tacoma and Tundra models onto a common platform, something we’ve mentioned in the past, and Toyota’s Tuesday announcement solidifies those rumors.

The new platform is meant to make hybridization easier and provide the basis for the entirety of the automaker’s global truck line — including SUVs like the Sequoia.

Today’s Rare Ride is a first-generation SVT Lightning from the first year of production. Let’s find out what happened when Ford decided to turn its F-150 into a sport truck.

Despite the amount of electric vehicle hype soaking today’s society, Ford’s upcoming electric F-150 pickup remains shrouded with mystery. What kind of power can customers expect? Range? Payload? Towing capacity? There’s few details of this looming creature, and even fewer details of General Motors’ EV pickup.

What’s left is enthusiasm from the Glass House and come-down-to-earth predictions from auto analysts.

It’s Fix-it Friday, apparently, and the ailing vehicle news hasn’t stopped rolling just yet. You’ll see.

Over at Fiat Chrysler, it seems the only thing capable of stopping the mighty Jeep Gladiator is its manufacturer, which just issued a stop-sale order to prevent new pickups from leaving the lot and potentially dropping their driveshafts.