Small pickup trucks may prove 2022's hottest new trend

Article content

Would you like to meet every dad at your kid’s school? Show up at pickup time in a Hyundai Santa Cruz. You can see it in their eyes: the sparkle of a DIY weekend project, bike park trips made easier, the thrilling anticipation of cleaning out the garage and taking a trip to the dump.

Article content

Of course, moms can do all that stuff too, but based on observed behaviour, it’s mostly dads who get really excited about it. And they get really excited about small trucks.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Small pickup trucks may prove 2022's hottest new trend Back to video

The return of the small truck as an automotive trend might seem unexpected, but the evidence was there if you looked. While minivans and sedans continue to wither on the vine, crossovers and full-size pickup trucks are the major growth segments. It was only a matter of time before some bright bulb in product planning looked at the sales charts and said, “Both? Both would be good.”

Thus, the Santa Cruz, which is basically a Hyundai Tucson designed for somebody who actually lives in Tucson. Smaller than Honda’s Ridgeline, the Santa Cruz offers an enclosed, weather-proof bed, crossovery ride and handling, and four-door, low-floor practicality for hauling the kids around.

Article content

It can not in any way take the place of a hard-working full-size pickup truck. It is, on the other hand, a really good weekend helper, whether that’s the aforementioned bike park trips, or taking out the trash. [Dad joke sidebar — Q: Where does the Lone Ranger take his garbage. A: To the dump, to the dump, to the dump dump dump.]

While the Santa Cruz has a slightly active-lifestyle vibe about it, the upcoming Ford Maverick is a bit more work oriented. Based on the platform that underpins the Escape and the Bronco Sport, the Maverick is only available with four-cylinder powertrain options, and the base model comes with a hybrid.

Article content

A hybrid?! Somewhere an old-timey cowboy in an F100 just spat chicory coffee all over his truck’s sun-cracked dash. But, the reviews are in, and it’s not just the city slickers that are impressed by the Maverick’s cheap and cheerful approach to utility. While I’m personally not ready to forgive Ford for killing off the delightful Fiesta ST in North America, I will grudgingly concede that they’ve done their homework on this.

If you’ve ever tried to live with a full-size truck in an urban environment, you know it’s not always ideal. I recently spent some time in the ultra-capable F150 Hybrid, but struggled to really make use of its full utility. People who tow regularly or need a bigger box for camp-toppers and so on will always need a full-sizer. For the rest of us, a Maverick would make a flexible, camping-friendly alternative.

Article content

Both Subaru with its now-defunct Baja, and Honda with its Ridgeline have got to be a little annoyed that Ford and Hyundai are here stealing the headlines. (Well, Subaru’s probably a little too busy printing money selling Crosstreks and Foresters.) But the age of the little truck is now, and if the Baja missed getting the timing right the first time ’round, don’t be too sure we’ve seen the last of it.

So who’s next? Well, the obvious choice would be Hyundai’s partner company Kia. The two entities share platforms, and Kia’s Sportage is near-identical to the Tucson that the Santa Cruz is based on.

Kia could differentiate its truck offering in the way most of its products do: by aiming a little less conservatively. Remember the craze for compact sport trucks? People used to fix up Mazda B2200s and Chevrolet S-10s as stylin’ street machines. Those people used to modify their rides on a tight budget, but have grown up now: a Kia that’s flashier than the Cruz might work.

Article content

Beyond a possible Kia, any other incoming small truck would be pure conjecture. Nissan has just launched the new Frontier, and likely doesn’t have the R&D funds to gamble on a new segment. Toyota continues to do very well in the mid-size market, with sky-high resale values for the Tacoma. The idea of a plug-in pickup based on the RAV4 Prime is tantalizing, but don’t hold your breath.

But if we’re making wishlists, there’s really only one nameplate that we’d like to see making a comeback, and it’s from the Stellantis galaxy of cars. Specifically, it’s a theoretical crossover between Fiat and Ram.

In Europe, Fiat makes a competitor to the Ford Transit called the Doblo Cargo. It’s mostly found in van form – vans are how Europeans get their work done — but there’s also a pickup truck version available.

Article content

Back on this side of the Atlantic, the domestic-market version of the Doblo is called the Ram Promaster City. A few minutes with a Sawzall and some duct tape, and I give you: the Ram Promaster Rampage.

Yes, the return of the Dodge Rampage. Built in the early 1980s, you don’t see many of these around today, but they were cool enough to warrant their own recent Hot Wheels casting. Rampages offered basic, small-car, four-cylinder transportation, along with a useful pickup bed.

Since Dodge discontinued the Dart, Stellantis hasn’t really had a small car hit domestically. Perhaps they shouldn’t bother trying: the Ram full-size pickup truck was able to take a big bite out of Ford’s F150 market share by offering (among other things) a slightly nicer interior. Why might a modern Rampage might not pull off the same trick?

Article content

Make no mistake, if Hyundai and Ford start moving serious metal — and the Ford order books are filling up — no manufacturer is going to simply abandon the field to the competition. The Maverick and Santa Cruz could establish a beachhead for a whole new wave of small trucks, of various cost and capability. And if that happens, perhaps smaller, hybridized pickups will start doing some of the work of under-utilized full-size pickups. Thus, the small truck could green the national fleet.

Future prognostications aside, small trucks are here if you want them. Moms and dads rejoice: if you’ve been dreaming of dump runs and DIY, the Santa Cruz and Maverick are probably just the start.