Pickup truck: Encyclopedia II - Pickup truck - Types of pickups

Pickup truck - Types of pickups

Pickup truck - Compact pickups

The compact pickup (or simply pickup, without qualifier) is the most widespread form of pickup truck. It is built like a mini version of a two-axle heavy truck, with a frame providing structure, a conventional cab, a leaf spring suspension on the rear wheels and a small I4, I6 or V6 engine, generally using gasoline. Compact trucks sold in the North American Market include:

• Toyota Tacoma
• Ford Ranger
• Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon
• Nissan Frontier
• Dodge Dakota
• Mitsubishi Raider

In Europe, compact pickups dominate the pickup market, although they are popular mostly in rural areas. Only Japanese makes such as Toyota (Hi-Lux), Mitsubishi (L200) and Nissan (Navara) have typically built models for this segment, with few entries by European manufacturers, the most notable of which is perhaps the Peugeot 504 Pick-Up, which continued to be sold in Mediterranean Europe and Africa long after the original 504 ceased production. Opel, Ford and VW have occasionally sold rebadged versions of Japanese products, built by Isuzu, Mazda and Toyota, respectively. Eastern European manufacturers such as ARO or UAZ have served their home markets faithfully for decades, but are now disappearing. The near-majority of compact pickups sold in Europe use Diesel engines.

Pickup truck - North American full-size pickups

A full-size pickup is a large truck suitable for hauling heavy loads and performing other functions. Most full-size trucks can carry at least 1,000 lb (450 kg) in the rear bed, with some capable of twice that much. Most are front-engine and rear wheel drive with four wheel drive optional, and most use a live axle with leaf springs in the rear. They are commonly found with V8, V10, or Diesel engines. The largest full-size pickups feature doubled rear tires (two on each side on one axle). These are colloquially referred to as "duallys" (dool-eez), or dual-wheeled pickup trucks, and are often equipped with a fifth wheel for towing heavy trailers.

Until recently, only the "Big Three" American automakers (Ford, GM and Chrysler) built full-size pickups. Toyota introduced the T100 full-size pickup truck in 1993, but sales were poor due to high prices and a lack of a V8 engine. However, the introduction of the Toyota Tundra and Nissan Titan marked the proper entry of Japanese makers in the market. Both of these trucks are assembled in North America.

As of 2005, five pick-ups are sold as full-size in North America:

• Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra
• Dodge Ram
• Ford F-Series
• Nissan Titan
• Toyota Tundra

Pickup truck - Other pickups

The two Australian-built utilities (the Holden Commodore Ute and the Ford Falcon Ute) currently in production are rebodied versions of large passenger cars, as were the now out of production American Ford Ranchero and Chevrolet El Camino. Consequently, they are much lower-slung and more carlike both in appearance and performance than other pickups. Volkswagen and other European manufacturers have also introduced similar designs at one time or another, but they have not been popular and the designs were typically dropped after a few years. Currently the Subaru Baja and the Honda Ridgeline are the only car-based pickup trucks sold in North America. Another derivative is the Ford Explorer Sporttrac, which is a vehicle similar to the Ridgeline as it is based on an existing sport utility (body on frame construction) though it predates it. The bed is made of a plastic material.

In North America their is a sub-class pickup size known as mid-sized. It includes the Dodge Dakota and it Mitsubishi derivative. The Chevrolet Colorado and GMC twin are also in this class. The compact trucks are slowly growing in dimension into this class.

In Latin America, single cab pickups which are based on supermini cars, are fairly popular. They are called "compact," in contrast with "mid-size" (Ranger, S10, Hilux) and "full-size" (Ram, Avalanche, F150), and also nicknamed "picápinhas" in Brazil. Best-sellers are models such as the Chevrolet Montana/Tornado, Volkswagen Saveiro and Fiat Strada.

In Western Europe, Skoda and Fiat have, on occasion, tried to engage the public's attention to this segment, with little success, as panel vans are more popular as light commercial vehicles in city areas, and Japanese compact pick-ups more capable in rural areas' rough terrains. In Eastern Europe, they were quite popular as commercial vehicles until the turn of the millennium, with makes such as Dacia and IZH offering cars for this segment up to 2004.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Types of pickups", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki