Currently, according to the sales tally from the US automotive market's performance for last year, the pickup truck segments are divided unevenly between Ford and Toyota.
More precisely, Ford holds the record for the 47th year in a row when its F-Series is America's best-selling pickup truck nameplate. General Motors would argue that, overall, it sells more full-size light- and heavy-duty pickup trucks, but that's only when mixing the deliveries of both Silverado and Sierra nameplates. The mid-size pickup truck affair is a lot clearer as Toyota's Tacoma, even during a year of switching generations, holds the crown from afar.
Last but not least, the unibody compact pickup truck is making a welcome return in North America. The US sales were copiously dominated by the pocket-sized Ford Maverick – which sold nearly three times as many units as its only direct competitor, the Hyundai Santa Cruz. It also sold almost double the tally of Honda's Ridgeline, the only other unibody truck on the market – but this one is a mid-sizer. As such, many see it as a missed opportunity that GM or Stellantis don't attack Ford's newly appointed compact pickup truck throne.
Naturally, even the imaginative realm of digital car content creators is well interested in the fate of the sector. For example, many pixel masters believe that Toyota or Subaru should actively come back to fight the Maverick and Santa Cruz with hypothetical Stout or Baja mini-truck revivals. Others, on the other hand, think this affair should also implicate Ram Trucks. More precisely, the Halo oto channel on YouTube provides fresh automotive info corroborated with their virtual designs; now, there are some new CGI ideas about a fresh pocket-sized Ram pickup truck.
However, I think they confuse the situation a little bit when calling out for the rebirth of the Dodge and later Ram Dakota moniker to brawl with the Maverick and Santa Cruz. Initially, the Dodge and Ram Dakota model was a conventional mid-size body-on-frame vehicle that carried the honor of becoming among the first in the segment to feature a V8 engine under the hood. As such, a revival would be more appropriate as a sibling of the Jeep Gladiator – fighting alongside it against the N400 Toyota Tacoma, Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon, Ford Ranger, Nissan Frontier, or the Honda Ridgeline.
Instead, the rumor mill – and we tend to agree – believes that Ram Trucks will introduce a North American version of the Brazilian Ram Rampage later this year. That one, a proper unibody compact pickup truck, will directly compete with the Hyundai Santa Cruz and the Ford Maverick segment leader. In fact, wouldn't it be nice if Ram made a show of force and revealed both the US-bound Rampage and a reborn mid-size Dakota this year?
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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