Comparison Tests
Should we call 'em Costco Cars? How about Bradley Shopping Vehicles? We're a nation of big appetites and high credit limits. We gotta get all that stuff home, then haul away the postconsumer jetsam. These big boys never say no to any civilian-size load.
Seriously, folks, consider the possibilities: one vehicle that will do it all. Life is short. Why make two trips? Bring yourself and four—or even five—carpoolers home from work and grab a month's worth of horse hay on the way.
Remember when four-door pickups were oddities? Railroad crews and oil drillers used them to pack sweaty guys into remote landscapes, but regular folk never gave them a second thought, except to pronounce them "monumentally misshapen." That was then, and this is a time of modern choices greased out the showroom door through the magic of 96-month paper. Drive your life style! Drive your dream! No limits! No fear!
No pain, either. This latest crop of full-size pickups, when stretched out to full two- row seating, are no-pain people movers.
Well, 11 to 13 mpg is not so painless, and parking them will intimidate pilots who never got comfortable with the world as shown in the side mirrors. But there are joys, too. Sitting way up there gives you the traffic-copter view, and strip-mall maneuvering is your chance to make Bimmers cringe.
Model year 2004 is a big one for four-door trucks—two fresh-baked designs and two more that have been four-door-ized for the first time.
America's perennial bestselling model, the Ford F-150, is all-new this year after long-playing the old number since 1996. The Ford tracks the modern pickup evolution started by Dodge in 1994 with its Ram—bigger cab, smaller box, more life-style aids and comforts. More appealing looks, too, outside and in, because costume is now a big part of truck appeal. The F-150 is styled to look brawny yet leading-man handsome. From the outside, it pulls your eye as it passes.
All-new, too, is the Nissan Titan, as Japan's historically No. 2 automaker, long a trusted name in compact pickups, grabs for a share of America's rich market in full-sizers. Contrary to Toyota's approach—step by step up the size ladder until its Tundra is almost big—Nissan reared back and loosed "the Hulk." The Titan is high, wide, and aching for a showdown with all comers. Cab space tops all the others. It doesn't mess around with halfway engines, either: big horsepower is the only choice, 305 from an all-aluminum DOHC 32-valve V-8 backed by a five-speed automatic.
The light-duty Toyota Tundra and the Chevy Silverado are carry-over trucks that both get four-door cabs for the first time in 2004. The Tundra, like everything Toyota, has a silence and sophistication about it that makes it the Miss Manners of the truck world. It drives superbly—car guys can easily relate to it—but it doesn't swagger. That's a problem for truck buyers. So Toyota has muscled up the body to create the Tundra Double Cab. The front sheetmetal and certain body parts are brought over from the full-size Sequoia SUV. So the acreage of front iron is up, as is useful cab space. But the aura still says, "After you," in that cautious way. We'll see if that matters.
GM seems to be the last of the full-size makers to get the message that folks really do want four-door trucks. This Chevy is headed for a mid-2004 introduction. We got the first preproduction sample. Late, yes, but with good credentials—the Silverado has been a 5Best Trucks winner every year since we started those trials in July 2001.
These new models face off against the Dodge Ram, which is so much a believer in four-doors that it axed its extended cab in the 2002 redesign. Since then, two-door and four-door are your only Ram choices. Naturally, we asked for a Hemi.
That makes five new trucks, each with the largest available engine and four-wheel drive. We set up an epic trek across the gritty desolation of Death Valley. Last one to Costco has to haul the birdseed.
