Why We Can't Have Small Trucks Anymore - Blame the EPA

Ever wonder why we don't have any small, rugged trucks in the US anymore? Remember fondly those 80s Toyota trucks, the Ranger, the S-10, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, or Nissan Hardbodies?
It's not just consumer demand or companies driving for higher profits. Our EPA sets fuel economy standards that prohibit small trucks from meeting mileage requirements, as well as incentivizing larger trucks and SUVs with lower MPG requirements.

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[Smedleydog]

EPA: Your small truck doesn't get good enough fuel economy.
Auto Manufacturer: Okay we'll make it bigger and get even worse fuel economy.
EPA: That's better.

[kennethmendenhallii]

This is actually a story about how car makers and their lobbiests hobbled the CAFE standards so they could pull small trucks with small margins and sell you huge trucks with huge margins. See also: the Chicken Tax.

[saxon]

My brother in law spent 3000 totally restoring his 88 Ranger. 5 years ago i would have called him crazy. Today he's a genius

[ralphnorris-vkff]

It's not just small trucks, but try to get a work truck. If you want a single cab with crack windows, rubber floor mats for work, that a special order! Epa has nothing to do with that. It's profits!

[errorsofmodernism]

This formula also acts as a hidden tariff barrier on small, imported foreign trucks and establishes a bias towards larger domestic production

[thepianist]

Those very small trucks in the 80s were very useful – especially for teenagers who did odd jobs such as mow yards, cleanup gutters, etc. etc. We used the heck out of these little trucks, which you could buy for a couple thousand or even like 1000 and we were pretty productive with them.

[theguy]

As someone who’s been wondering why trucks keep getting more massive this video was incredibly helpful

[diegosuarez]

This is why I held on to my Dakota. Still runs like a champ. Anything breaks, i fix it right away.

[LuigiGodzillaGirl]

My dad was a farmer, so he had multiple vehicles depending on his needs. The one he drove the most a little red 1990 Nissan 5 speed manual with an extended cab. Its body was rusting and falling apart badly toward the end, but the engine was a trooper that reached 300, 000 miles while never burning a drop of oil. It was also the most fuel efficient pickup in his fleet. They truly don’t make em like they used to.

[dereklenzen]

The irony is that if you are simply hauling stuff, the older small trucks are so much more practical than the newer big trucks because the bed is lower. A man of normal stature can pick up something bulky like a hay bale and lift it over the side of a small truck. For a big truck, however, it's easier to lower the tailgate and then proceed to climb up into the bed to move the hay bale into position. This requires a lot more effort and carries the risk of falling off the bed or slipping and hurting your leg while climbing up there.

[martinschulz]

Those old small pickups were very useful and were good commuter vehicles. We actually used the small trucks for what they were built for. Most of these modern monstrosity trucks are like luxury vehicles and are only used for things like grocery shopping and never leave the paved roads.

[cranecams]

Cash for Clunklers took so many classic, cool trucks away forever 😢

[spelunkerd]

I had the opportunity to rent a fairly new diesel Toyota Hilux while on African Safari. Over 6 weeks I put 8000 km on it, mostly off road. After that experience I realized why Toyota captured the market in Africa. It is by far the most popular vehicle in Africa, by a huge margin. The truck is robust, reasonably powerful, easy to fix, and everywhere. What a disappointment I couldn't find one in North America.

[steelblue]

As an Australian, where smaller utes are still very much the go-to for pretty much any practical purpose, I had always wondered why the US just has such unreasonably large machines. This is a really interesting answer!

[Unknown_Ooh]

This is absolutely mind boggling that they want more fuel efficient trucks but they wont let small trucks come out 😂

[bwmedina]

Fascinating, usually the explanation you see is “changing consumer tastes.” I miss my 2001 single cab S-10 and would totally buy a small truck if they ever started making them again.

[TheDanavanhuber]

Imagine how fun a small pickup would be with the new engine tech combined with an actual small truck chassis

[ClassicnKustoms]

Down here in Brazil, those new “pick up” trucks such as F150s and Rams are considered trucks, because they got so big and heavy. And you even have to get a new type of license to drive it.

[theozonewizard]

I'm from Europe so I'm looking at this maybe a bit differently, but it seems obvious that these rules are really a protectionist trade policy in disguise. They're made to protect the domestic automakers and their workers against international competition. If you let the automakers write the rules, this is exactly what they would look like.

[horvathbenedek]

Just gonna point out, 48-49 mpg (or 4.8-4.9 liter per 100 km) is absolutely insane. Most compact and subcompact full ICU cars made in the past 10 years have a trouble hitting that, nevermind a full sized car of any type. I don't know what politicians were huffing when they drew up this chart, but it's very obvious they had no idea if what they were doing.