Last year, as always, among America's top best-selling vehicles, there were numerous pickup truck nameplates – Ford's F-Series keeping the crown, followed by the Chevy Silverado and Ram's trucks in third place.
They were not the only ones – GMC's Sierra placed seventh, and Toyota's mid-sized Tacoma was eleventh, even as it switched to a new generation. However, a special mention is owed to Ford's unibody Maverick compact pickup truck, which not only asserted its dominance over its only other rival – Hyundai's Santa Cruz – but also sold more hybrids than Ford's F-150 PowerBoost.
America's favorite mini truck hit over 94k examples last year compared to Hyundai's Santa Cruz with almost 37k – and that performance was better even compared to a larger mid-size pickup truck like Honda's Ridgeline, which also uses a unibody construction and sold 52k examples in 2023. The appeal of the Ford Maverick is owed to its rugged design, affordable starting price, and the availability of a hybrid powertrain, of course.
However, more challenging times are coming for the pocket-sized pickup truck in 2024 – our spy photographer partners have caught the first glimpses of the 2025 Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup truck testing alongside its 2024 sibling, and the general consensus is that the South Korean automaker will aim for a more rugged look that will set it further apart from the Tucson crossover SUV. But what if Ford got attacked by one of the Detroit Three?
It's already common knowledge that the rumor mill believes Stellantis won't sit on the sidelines anymore, and it might bring the Brazil-made Ram Rampage to North America to battle the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz. However, the imaginative realm of digital car content creators believes that it's GM that could deliver the most decisive strike if Chevrolet is allowed to bring back the El Camino moniker for a competing unibody compact pickup truck.
More precisely, Dimas Ramadhan, the virtual automotive artist behind the Digimods DESIGN channel on YouTube, is the pixel master who has taken up the task of CGI-revealing an El Camino revival based on the same four-door coordinates as the Maverick and Santa Cruz use. Given the history of the original El Camino (produced across four generations from 1959 to 1987), it's easy to understand if some fans might frown at the sight of a crew cab El Camino, though.
Also, do you think it's wise for Chevrolet to recycle the looks of the current range of crossover SUVs for a potential El Camino comeback, especially since that didn't work too well for the Hyundai Santa Cruz when opposing the Ford Maverick, which has more in common with the Ranger and F-150, stylistically, even though it's built on the same underpinnings as the Bronco Sport and Escape crossovers?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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