#compact pickup

Small pickup before they were cool I wasn’t sure if it was on my dime or Jeep’s when I received an email almost five years ago this past week inviting me to a media event held in California introducing the new Jeep Gladiator (JT). I was just giddy to find out they were paying for my flight and overnights to Sacramento, CA to go off-roading along with other automotive media types. It was a trip…

Hybrid still available in compact pickup, but gas turbo I4 standard … Just two years ago both Ford, the leader in truck sales, and Hyundai, now No. 4 in the US, smartly introduced compact pickups, recreating a market that boomed here for years. That was before pickups grew into monster trucks that dueled with each other like muscle cars did in the 1960s and early 1970s, each getting bigger and…

Compact pickups are back, finally, and Ford has a fine one in its new Maverick, a hybrid.

Ford returns to the compact pickup market with a hybrid … Finally, finally, finally the nation’s leading truck maker has returned to the compact pickup market as Ford introduces the Maverick pickup. Oldtimers will recall the original Ford Maverick as an inexpensive compact car that did not distinguish itself, but this Maverick is gonna be great in the marketplace, just like Ford’s previous…

Santa Cruz is the wave of the future, a sophisticated and refined compact pickup with room for four adults!

Well-timed compact pickup reflects crossover roots … Few ideas are totally new in the auto world, but often they feel new, or simply put, the time is right. Take Hyundai’s brilliant new Santa Cruz, a crossover’s crossover, a mix of crossover comfort and convenience and a pickup’s utility. Meshing the two most popular forms of transport today seems as smart at Reese’s mixing chocolate and peanut…

2022 Ford Maverick pickup preview with photos

New compact hybrid truck starts at $19,999, on sale this fall … Ford recently announced a new compact pickup, surprising the market by not calling it Ranger, as its compact had been known for years. Today it shows off the new Maverick pickup. Boomers will remember the Maverick name from a compact car Ford sold in the 1970s, but for today’s intended buyer Maverick may seem appropriate for a…

Die-cast: DNA’s Subaru Baja

Subie’s small Baja pickup looks great in 1/18 scale …

Leading sometimes is a lonely game. Just ask Subaru.

Its Baja, a 4-door compact pickup based on a car platform was one of the first of its kind and can easily be seen in today’s multitude of such pickups. But it was not a sales success, selling just 30,000 units in three years.

But Baja was a leader, make no mistake about that, and DNA…