Comparison Tests
What's happening with trucks? Four doors, that's what. The four-door share of light-duty-pickup sales has zoomed from zero in 1999 to half of all light-duties sold today.
These trucks, also called "half-tons," are full-sizers meant for ordinary use, everything from delivering refrigerators and towing bass boats to standing tall on Saturday night in the honky-tonk parking lot. Half-tons are as American as Levi's and John Deeres.
For model year 2007, we have two all-new players. After an eight-year run on the previous version, Chevy's new Silverado arrived last autumn just in time to host late-season tailgate parties. And the long-awaited full-size Tundra should be in Toyota dealerships near you as you read this.
Ford has been the perennial top-seller in this class. Its current F-150 was all-new in 2004, and it earned a place in our 5Best Trucks pantheon in '04, '05, and '06. The full-dress FX4 SuperCrew for this test weighs in at $40,650 with leather and the largest-available, 300-hp V-8.
Pickups may be as American as Sam Colt's six-shooter, but it was Japan's Nissan Titan that grabbed the top prize in our last comparison of this class in February 2004. Japan's pickup? The Titan is built only in Canton, Mississippi, making it about as American as fried catfish. The defending Titan SE reporting in for this test, at $39,005, is the only truck of the group to duck under 40 grand as tested.
From Dodge we have a Ram, as red as a fire truck — would you believe Flame Red? — packing a Hemi V-8, of course. Like the F-150 and the Titan, the Ram carries over into 2007 with few changes from last year.
The new Silverado offers two different interiors, what Chevy calls the "pure pickup" layout, with a 40/20/40 split-bench front seat, or the luxurious LTZ bucket-seat package shared with the Tahoe SUV. The test LTZ has leather, a sunroof, and power-sliding rear glass along with 20-inch alloy wheels, wearing 275/55 Goodyear Eagles, and a 367-hp Vortec V-8.
We tested these trucks about four months before the Tundra's debut. Our leather-lined preproduction truck was powered by the larger of two V-8s, the 381-hp 5.7-liter, backed by a six-speed automatic. Let's just say this about the scrappy all-aluminum four-cammer: Toyota didn't bring a knife to the gunfight. The Tundra, like all the other trucks here, is a four-by-four with trailer-towing equipment.
In search of expert insights about trucks, we brought in a blue-ribbon panel. Building contractors famously wear pickups like UPS drivers wear brown. So we recruited a pair of high-mileage builders from the scenic town of Sedona, Arizona. Marvin James hung up his hammer last summer after 46 years of pickups dating back to a three-quarter-ton Studebaker. Ethan Foster's conservationist sensitivities show in the weathered, early-'80s paint of the signs that mark his jobs. Both of these men work out of heavy-duty diesel four-by-fours.
The half-tonners assembled here are designed for lighter loads, but our expectations — and those of our panel — were no less demanding.
