Ranger vs Tacoma - Ike Gauntlet

FishOnOne wrote:

mich800 wrote:

rjstractor wrote:

Bionic Man wrote:
Useless as a tow vehicle or pickup?

FLT had two large men, and a 5000 pound trailer, and stated they were within the payload specifications.

My point exactly. They had two guys and a 5K trailer with only 10% tongue weight, and they were absolutely maxed out on payload. Nothing left for another passenger or any cargo. Put two more big dudes in the back seat and you can't pull a trailer at all or put anything in the bed. Useless. Granted, I'm sure the truck can easily handle an overload of a few hundred pounds without issue, but if Toyota just did what little they would need to do to up the payload to the 1300-1400 lb range that would make the truck much more useful for its marketed purpose.

"that would make the truck much more useful for its marketed purpose" Which is towing heavy trailers around? I am not sure any of the mid/small trucks are being marketed to those wanting to haul around a heavier trailer.

The vast majority of these midsize trucks I see on the road and not pulling, but are used for commuters and some utility companies run these as meter reader trucks.

The biggest problem with these midsize trucks is keeping the cost's much lower than the full size trucks in order to generate sales while making a respectable profit.

I do agree with this point. These trucks are not substantially cheaper, and the mpg is not significantly better than the fullsize gas trucks (diesel not withstanding). You have to want one because the smaller dimensions fits your lifestyle and the price and mpg advantages (as small as they are) is just icing.

Back to the point of the Ranger performance up the Ike, the Toyota essential performed equally as well without being turbo charged. Either the Toyota is just an overperformer or the weight wasn't enough to challenge either of these trucks, but the way older Toyota was just as capable as the newly released Ranger. Not just in engine performance, but overall performance. I don't consider that to be a significant win for the Ranger. Will the Ranger be enough to grab significant marketshare from Toyota? I don't think so, they will grab some for sure, but I think they needed to set the bar higher to have significant impact on this segment.