My how trucks have grown...

ShawnG said:

In reply to irish44j (Forum Supporter) :

My Tacoma is an '03 so still a compact truck, not good at truck things (for me) means:

Can't pull the wife's horse trailer.

Can't pull the travel trailer we own.

Can't pull the flatbed from work when I need to borrow it to haul hay which is twice a year for about three tons of hay each time.

Can't carry my motorcycles because it ends up on the bump stops.

Can't haul landscaping supplies for yard projects.

I like my Tacoma. It's paid for, it's cheap to run and it's WAY more useful than a car or a minivan.

For doing truck things that my Tacoma doesn't do, we have the wife's 3/4 ton Suburban. If that won't do it, I borrow a bigger truck from work.

Yes, I think bro'd out trucks are silly too and a lot of times they're hauling sailboat fuel but where I live, plenty of trucks have to earn their keep.

Wife unit manages a horse barn for a living so she uses her Suburban for truck things quite a lot and it's been more practical for her than her F-250 was.

 

I'd say you have several very valid reasons to own a large truck (or SUV) lol....

TopNoodles said:

For real though, if you don't mind being judged by people, crew cab trucks today rival minivans as a family hauler.

The main difference is that a minivan is going to get about double the MPGs compared to any big pickup/SUV and have a smaller overall footprint even with larger passenger capacity (i.e. it'll fit in your garage, or in the low-height parking garage, or in a standard car parking spot.. Even my Sequoia can't match a minivan as a "family hauler," and it has way more interior passenger space than any crew-cab pickup. 

That said, minivans now are bigger than they were back in the day, too. 

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

TopNoodles said:

For real though, if you don't mind being judged by people, crew cab trucks today rival minivans as a family hauler.

 

The main difference is that a minivan is going to get about double the MPGs compared to any big pickup/SUV and have a smaller overall footprint even with larger passenger capacity (i.e. it'll fit in your garage, or in the low-height parking garage, or in a standard car parking spot.. Even my Sequoia can't match a minivan as a "family hauler," and it has way more interior passenger space than any crew-cab pickup. 

That said, minivans now are bigger than they were back in the day, too. 

I get where he is coming from.  If you have a family of 4 (which I think covers a surprising number of minivan owners), a truck will seat them all just fine and carry more stuff than you will in a minivan.  The interior space isn't really that necessary.  I'm not a fan of trucks, but the bigger minivans aren't that much better.

Our Odyssey averaged ~20mpg.  It was rated at 19/26.  Same year F150 was rated at 16/21.  In retrospect, I think a smaller crew cab truck may have been a better vehicle for us... and this is why the Ridgeline exists.  A fullsize would have been tolerable, but it was the wife's DD and she would not have wanted to deal with that.

FWIW, according to the Google the 2020 Odyssey is rated at 19/28, and the F150 is rated at 21/28

irish44j (Forum Supporter) said:

 

The main difference is that a minivan is going to get about double the MPGs compared to any big pickup/SUV and have a smaller overall footprint even with larger passenger capacity (i.e. it'll fit in your garage, or in the low-height parking garage, or in a standard car parking spot.. Even my Sequoia can't match a minivan as a "family hauler," and it has way more interior passenger space than any crew-cab pickup. 

That said, minivans now are bigger than they were back in the day, too.

The Honda Pilot gets 20/27, the Odyssey 19/28, Ridgeline 19/26. The Chrysler Pacifica gets 19/28, Durango is at 19/26, Ram 1500 can get 22/32. It doesn't seem like there is that big a gap in mileage anymore.

Our fullsize CC was a 24mpg highway cruiser back before the prevelance of E10. Now it's down to 21-22 but it's also almost 15 years old so I'll give it some leeway here. DD to work is between17-18mpg. For reference, the Tiburon is 22-25, 27 if I absolutely baby the everloving piss out of it (shift before 3k rpms, super light throttle, speeds below 60 etc). GM cloth seats are amazeballs for long trips. 2WD rides great and the only reason we want out is because we've been in there for 30 hours. It's original window sticker was 16/22. Worst we've ever gotten was 12mpg towing the C4 from northern Arkansas/Southern Missouri. I averaged 14 and 15 towing civics out to Lincoln, NE for nationals. Holds 6 comfortably, tows 6700lbs and has an open bed for messy/oddball things.

The newer trucks are just too tall for me. 

I'm on my second Colorado now and it's the biggest truck I've ever owned.  When I got my first one I parked it beside my nephews 90 Chev shortbox and was surprised to see that they were the same size.

But does it ever look silly parked beside a modern full size truck. I wonder what my first truck, an 87 S10, would look like in a modern parking lot.

Back when I had my 74 Hilux these were always my favorite pictures to take. Half ton truck, didn't need all that silly extra space and the short bed was 6' long too!