Back in the day it was realised that pick-up trucks could be bought by a company without attracting VAT (and other taxes?) and then double as a company car - as long as they had a carrying capacity of at least 1,000kg.
Cue the luxury crew cab models we see today with names like Animal.
All good stuff, but I'm casting my eye over them at the moment and the UK ones all seem to have engines of 2.5 litres or less. I also remember this from when I was last looking around 2000/20001.
Non-UK versions by the same manufacturers seem to have at least 3.0 litre engines.
Does anyone know why? Funny tax rules perhaps? Initial Google searches get loads of adverts but not much information otherwise.
Probably because they're basically a US vehicle which generally have larger engines. Cheaper fuel and longer distances. Same as with their home grown cars.
Most of the UK ones are turbo diesel. People don't want the
10-14mpg of the 3L+ petrol units. The long wheelbase crew cab plays havoc with the turning circle. Hence the popularity of the short wheelbase versions. The truck bed is too short on many to easily carry
8 x 4 sheets. IME the ride is always crap. I suspect a Transit is a better proposition.
It now seems almost impossible to buy a larger capacity cheap and cheerful petrol engined new car. The Mazda 5 in the US is 2.4L petrol, here it is 2L diesel.
Yebbut: the marketing department have done an outstanding job on making it (and its new stablemates) look "cool" and "must-have", so they'll sell enough. How much does does this selling a new Mustang in the UK have to do with the fleetingly transitory low fuel price? I think the car industry -- more than anyone else -- know the value of the adage of there being one born every minute. In fact imho they completely depend on it.
A long time ago US manufacturers realised that a big engine doesn't actually cost much more than a small one. OK there is more metal in a big engine/car/gearbox/transmission but the amount of work is highly similar.
Which is why dirt cheap V8 trucks used to be everywhere.
Firstly I am looking at Japanese cars imported into NZ - in fact the majority of vehicles in NZ now seem to be Japanese because they are RHD and not valued highly in Japan. Enormous trade in shipping used cars from Japan to NZ.
Secondly the new Japanese cars for sale in NZ have the larger engines.
Thirdly they are also all turbo diesels (apart from the Dodge RAM which is not AFAIK Japanese in manufacture). Hmmm...could be some Holdens as well with big petrol V8s but I am possibly the wrong demographic....
Always possible that the Nissan, Toyota etc. are RHD versions of ones manufactured for the US market - haven't looked at the USA yet.
I just have an abiding memory that all the UK pickup trucks were specified with a 2.5 litre engines when elsewhere in the world you could get the equivalent vehicle with a larger engine. I just can't remeber if it was legislation or "enlightened" marketing.
With reference to the Transit van - one part of the plan is to launch and recover a boat on a trailer from a sandy beach so high ground clearance and 4WD are on the list. I know this doesn't sit with most of the use in the UK where there is a big market for mock off-roaders. Acknowledged that for comfort, economy, load carrying and general on-road manners the Transit is a much better option. However if I am lucky I may get to ford streams on unmade tracks in the middle of nowhere so again high ground clearance and 4WD look a sensible option.
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