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John Roe
2015 Chevrolet Colorado Z71
The all-new 2015 Chevrolet Colorado Z71 is built with the DNA of a true Chevy truck and is expected to deliver class-leading power, payload and trailering ratings. Colorado goes on sale in fall 2014.
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The Toyota Pickup dominated the small truck market back in the 80’s much like it does today; although, there is only one other competitor in 2014.
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VW seriously looked at North America as a viable market for their new Amarok pickup. However, with the small truck dying off, they are sold globally except here.
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With the demise of the Ranger, Dakota, Colorado, Canyon and B-Series, the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier are now endangered species.
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Rejuvenated powertrains in the Frontier and the return of the Colorado and Canyon signal a resurgence for the small truck.
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Nissan Frontier Diesel Runner Powered by Cummins
To survive strict CAFE standards, the next Frontier will likely employ diesel power, much like the Colorado and Canyon.
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Nissan Wieck
Frontier Diesel Runner
Frontier Diesel Runner.
Words by Budd Stanley, additional photos courtesy of GM, Ford, Toyota, VW, Nissan
I remember in my teenage years, everyone had a compact truck. My first ever vehicle was a 1983 Toyota Pickup King Cab; my friends all drove Mazda B2200’s, Nissan Hardbody’s or Ford Ranger’s. The compact pickup was alive and well in the 80’s and 90’s. And why wouldn’t they, these trucks were excellent for those who didn’t need a work truck, but wanted something versatile and economical at the same time.
The Good Ol’ Days
The list of small pickups in the late 80’s and early 90’s was massive. The domestics ruled with the Chevrolet S-10, GMC Sonoma, Dodge Mighty Max and Ford Ranger. The imports also made a good go of it despite having one hand tied behind their backs with the Chicken Tax. The Toyota Pickup, Toyota T-100, Nissan Pickup and Mazda B-Series all sold in large numbers. Even the little Suzuki SJ410 pickup gave the small truck buyer a multitude of options. Everyone built one, and if they didn’t, they were trying to find a way to get one into their lineup.
By the mid-90’s, the tide began to change for the compact truck. All of a sudden, they were all getting much bigger. The Toyota Truck was replaced by the larger Tacoma. The Nissan Pickup replaced by the larger Frontier. The S-10/Sonoma for the Colorado/Canyon, the Mighty Max for the Dakota, the B-2600 for the B-4000, and so on, and so on. By 2000, the compact pickup was dead, in its place a fleet of bulging overweight replicas wearing mid-sized suits.
The Downfall
The bubble burst in 2002 when small trucks lost sales at an incredible rate, the segment as a whole was bleeding out. Not surprisingly, the first death was the ill-fated Suzuki Equator (yeah, they sold that here) that died at birth in 2010. Then in 2011, we got our first real casualty as the Dodge Dakota went the way of the Dodo. But 2012 was when the mass execution took place, the Ford Ranger, Mazda B-Series, Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon all got axed. What’s worse, Mazda, Ford and Chevrolet were all still successfully selling these trucks in the global market, just not here in the truck capital of the world.
Just before the extinction, Volkswagen was just about to introduce their own mid-size truck, the Amarok. With all the doom and gloom spreading throughout North America of the doubtful future of the mid-size, there came hope that we might actually have an addition, from Germany of all places. Being truck loving North America, VW would be foolish not to sell their Amarok here, and indeed, VW gave this continent a good look. However, when the Amarok was launched in 2009, VW could see the writing on the wall and were very specific in their intent not to sell the Amarok here.
So how did this happen? How did the largest truck market in the world get so bleak that Volkswagen, one of the largest automakers in the world, chose to sell their all-new mid-sized truck everywhere in the world except here in North America. The reason, a one-two punch by the Chicken Tax and CAFE.
The Chicken Tax was a tax created in 1963 by the American’s as retribution for a tax the Europeans put on American chicken. America was flooding Europe with underpriced poultry, killing off the European farmer, so they taxed Yankee chicken. The Chicken Tax was a 25% tariff on potato starch, dextrin, brandy, and light trucks. At the time, American automakers didn’t like losing sales to the VW Bus (Type 2), so they tacked on a commercial vehicle tax. Eventually, the tariffs on potato starch, dextrin, and brandy were lifted, except for light trucks.
For those who don’t know CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy), they are the governmental regulatory standards that are intended to improve the average fuel economy of vehicles sold in the United States, and therefore here in Canada. To put it in layman’s terms, manufacturers have fuel economy averages they needed to meet for both cars and light trucks. The problem was companies like Chrysler could list the PT Cruiser as a Light Truck, thereby giving the company a passing grade.
CAFE changed the formula in 2006 by calculating a vehicles “footprint” by multiplying the wheelbase by its wheel track. The smaller the footprint, the higher the standards as a car like the Smart Fortwo or Toyota Yaris are light enough to score well. As full-size trucks need to be large, powerful and durable, their standards are handicapped due to the working nature of the vehicles. The problem for the small truck is a crossover of formulations due to the heavy-duty build on a smaller footprint. This puts them in a kind of black hole in the CAFE formulation that all but requires manufacturers to axe this segment to pass the regulations. It is for this very reason that you have seen the demise of the station wagon (a car), as it is replaced with the Crossover (a light truck by CAFE description). Ironically, CAFE has completely missed the sole reason of its being, by encouraging manufacturers to build larger and less efficient vehicles.
And Then There Were Two
When the dust had finally cleared from the mid-sized Armageddon, only two trucks would be left alive. The Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier. Honda also had their Ridgeline holding on by its fingernails, but concentrated on full frame 4WD’s. Both of these trucks had side-stepped the Chicken Tax by being domestically built imports, surviving one of the greatest automotive segment gutting’s of all time thanks the fuel efficiency of the rest of Toyota and Nissan’s lineup.
Being a fan of small trucks, I was also gutted. At first, I figured it was just the corporate greed of the manufacturers. My thinking was if they give all their attention, latest designs and technological breakthroughs to the full-sizes and left the mid-size trucks to wither and dye from neglect, then more people will turn to full-size trucks and manufacturers will make more money.
It was a good theory four years ago when this was the actual trend. The full-sizes were getting more and more advanced while the mid-sizes were being neglected. That was until I had a nice long chat with an engineer from GM who explained the complex and confusing formulas of CAFE and why they were the reasoning behind the death of GM’s mid-size trucks along with many others.
About Face
I have written all too many eulogies of the compact and mid-sized pickup in the last five years. Then I heard something amazing last year. General Motors were reviving the Colorado and Canyon twins. Then another piece of good news came across my desk earlier this year, Nissan is finally paying some much needed attention to the Frontier, with a new redesign and powertrain upgrades in the works. Toyota is also soon due to reveal a redesigned Tacoma in the next year or so. Then just last night I heard that Volkswagen is once again looking at North America, and rethinking their choice to stay out of the market. On top of this, Jeep has been humming and hawing a pickup version of the Wrangler for a couple years now. Chances are they are waiting for the next generation architecture to make this a reality. Indian commercial vehicle maker, Mahindra, tried to import their mid-sized truck a couple years back, but like VW was turned off by the Chicken Tax.
What is the link between all these new mid-sized trucks planned, or rumoured, for our market? One, TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) negotiations are currently underway between the U.S. and Asia over economic trade. The Asians are focused on doing away with the Chicken Tax during these negotiations, and it looks as though the Yanks might finally give in. We could see the tax lifted, or at least amended in two years time.
Two, small displacement, highly efficient diesel powertrains are the answer to CAFE. GM will be offering their mid-size duo with a 2.8L turbo diesel inline-four. Likewise, Nissan and Cummins have been working for several years on their own 2.8L turbo diesel, which just happened to be placed in a Frontier concept vehicle at the Chicago Auto Show. The Volkswagen Amarok also makes use of diesel, in the form of a 2.0L TDI. When the next Wrangler gets revealed we fully expect that it will get the full EcoDiesel treatment. Toyota, while dominating mid-truck sales, has kept quiet about the impending redesign of the Tacoma. However, we do know that Toyota has also recently become good friends with Cummins, much like Nissan. Toyota is also hard at work on a Hydrogen Fuel Cell powertrain.
So, does this mean the mid-size truck is saved; the segment will live on and prosper? While it may seem so in the short term, I believe that the survival of the small truck will be a long hard battle for manufacturers. The current rash of standards and regulations are not looking good for any large vehicle, the reason why you are seeing an influx of new efficient diesel engines and lightweight construction such as aluminum. The truck is always at risk, lets hope technology will insure its survival long into the future.