Charting the Evolution of the Modern Pickup Truck

You can't travel anywhere nowadays with seeing dozens and dozens of pickup trucks on the road. After all, light duty, full-size pickup trucks consistently rank among the top selling vehicles in the United States year after year. Their sheer size also makes them hard to miss, with front ends that tower over the rooflines of typical sedans and lengths that can barely fit into parking spaces. Trucks have always been dependable tools for businesses and tradespeople, but the trucks of today serve other purposes, too. You're now just as likely to see Mom dropping kids off at school in a Ford F-150 as you are to see one carrying a foreman to a construction site. In the past 30 years, trucks have gone through the most dramatic change of any segment in the automotive industry. Today, I'm going to look at how we got here and point out significant milestones in the pickup truck's evolution from simple utility tool to luxury-grade family cruiser.

For most of the twentieth century, one-ton, full-size pickup trucks adhered to a relatively standard formula: single cab, two-door body and a large bed. Extended cabs first appeared in the 1970s and allowed a second row of seats of be installed behind the driver and front passenger, but front seat occupants had to exit first before rear seat riders could leave the vehicle. The reverse was true for getting back in. But starting in the late 1990s, something changed. Dodge was the first to offer four doors on a one-ton pickup in 1998. These doors were smaller than the front doors and rear hinged, and made it possible for rear passengers to enter and exit independently of front passengers. Ford and General Motors adopted similar door layouts with their trucks in 1999 and 2000 respectively. Then in 2001, Ford pioneered the use of four, full-size, forward hinged doors on its F-150. It took General Motors until 2004 to add a true crew cab configuration to its Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 lineups, and Dodge performed its own unique take on the concept with the Ram Mega Cab variant for 2006. The addition of four doors on pickup trucks meant that riders in both rows had the same levels of comfort that previously could only be enjoyed through buying a full-size SUV like a Chevrolet Tahoe or a Ford Expedition which shared platforms with their brand's respective trucks.

This magazine advertisement from 2002 shows the Ford F-150 in then-revolutionary crew cab configuration.

This commonality is important when we look at the next stage in pickup truck evolution, that being the 2002 Lincoln Blackwood. The first ever luxury pickup, the Blackwood was based on a Ford F-150 with styling shared with the Lincoln Navigator. Chief among the Blackwood's unique features was a fully carpeted bed with steel lining the side and an electronically operated cover. The interior also had only four seats, with the two rear occupants being treated to leather captain's chairs and a large center console between them. Unfortunately, the Blackwood was a commercial failure, only selling 3,383 units in a single model year. The bed, while luxurious, had a low payload capacity and was difficult to clean if filled with dirty items. The cover also restricted the size of what could be put in, something open-bed pickup trucks don't have to worry about. Despite being based on vehicles capable of being fitted with four-wheel drive, all Blackwoods were only offered in rear-wheel drive configuration. Finally, prospective customers balked at the asking price of $52,500 when a contemporary Navigator cost $44,000 and a crew cab F-150 topped out around $35,000.

The 2002 Lincoln Blackwood answered a luxury pickup truck question no one was asking (yet).

Even though the Blackwood experiment ended in failure, people demonstrated that they were willing to buy more expensive trucks if the capability and the luxury quotient were commensurate with the price. The same year the Blackwood was released, General Motors produced the Cadillac Escalade EXT. Along with the related Chevrolet Avalanche, the Escalade EXT featured four doors, seating for five, four-wheel drive, and a flexible bed for different cargo carrying needs. Meanwhile GMC launched the first Sierra Denali model as a more luxurious version of the Chevrolet Silverado. The Escalade EXT lasted two generations from 2002 to 2013 and sold over 70,000 units, while the Sierra Denali is still in production today.

This changing of consumer preferences began being reflected as each truck from each brand was redesigned for a new generation. Nowhere is that more evident than at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show with the unveilings of the fourth generation Dodge Ram and the twelfth generation Ford F-150. Both models featured new designs less workman like than their predecessors and meant to fit more seamlessly in urban environments. Among the Ford's upgrades were integrated side and tailgate steps to ease access to the bed, Sync hands-free interface, and a top-of-the-line Platinum trim level that featured an exclusive satin-chrome grille, 10-way powered captain's chairs, wood and aluminum interior trim, and 20-inch polished aluminum wheels. The Ram had some nifty features of its own including bed fender storage boxes and a class-first multi-link coil-spring rear suspension for a smoother ride. This generation Ram also ditched the Mega Cab in favor of a conventional crew cab configuration.

The 2009 F-150 and Ram 1500 truly marked the turning point for pickup trucks from work to lifestyle vehicles. General Motors would follow suit when the Silverado and Sierra received their next redesign in 2014. Even heavy duty trucks from each manufacturer started becoming more family friendly around this time. Crew cab body styles now dominate the market with two-door models either being eliminated entirely or restricted to bare bones base trim levels. Technology and feature content in trucks is equal to what is being offered in SUVs. Meanwhile transaction prices have soared with top spec trucks nudging $100,000.

The 2010 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor gave truck buyers serious off-road upgrades straight from the factory.

Choosing between an SUV and a truck now comes down to whether you need a vehicle to tow and haul stuff. Trucks have always been used to haul toys, but what if trucks became toys themselves? That is what happened in 2010 when Ford unleashed the SVT Raptor on the world. A seven inch wider body to accommodate 35-inch-tall desert tires and extra wheel travel are among the most obvious changes from the normal F-150. The added height also makes it easier to see the new angled skid plate and triple-bypass Fox Racing shocks that keep the truck balanced on road and jumping over sand dunes. While the first Raptors were powered by a 5.4L V8 making 310 horsepower, later trucks got a 6.2L engine with 411 horsepower. The Raptor proved so popular, that a second generation was given the green light when the F-150 was next redesigned in 2015. Raptor fans were irritated by the switch from V8 power to a 3.5L twin-turbocharged V6, even though horsepower increased to 450. Ram Trucks, now separate from Dodge, joined the off road party in 2020 with the release of the TRX. Unlike the second-gen Raptor, the TRX has a V8 engine. But this one was supercharged to produce an astounding 702 horsepower.  

With over 700 horsepower, the Ram TRX is one of the most extreme trucks ever built.

And I haven't even mentioned electric trucks yet. The heavy nature of batteries make them well suited for application in truck bodies. And while electrification does add hundreds of pounds to a truck's weight, it also adds the horsepower to compensate. Quad motor versions of the Rivian R1T produce over 1000 horsepower and accelerate from 0-60 mph in 3.0 seconds. Electric trucks serve as true do-it-all vehicles, effortlessly combining the straight line performance of exotic supercars with the functionality of their gas-powered counterparts. 

In response to ballooning prices, sizes, and weights of modern trucks, a new breed of smaller trucks have entered the market for buyers who yearn for these vehicles to return to their roots. Leading this revolution is the Ford Maverick, with an overall length up to 50 inches shorter than a F-150, 8-11 inches narrower, and 6-9 inches lower. It can be purchased for less than $30,000 and can be equipped with a hybrid powertrain that achieves up to 42 miles per gallon. Tidy dimensions and low operating costs have made the Maverick a success for Ford with over 155,000 units sold each of the last two years. Later in 2026, start-up brand Slate will sell its own two-door, two seat electric truck. The Slate will be offered without niceties such as power windows and an audio system, both of which and more can be optionally added back in. A bare bones Slate will retail for $24,950. Whether consumers will accept the sacrifices that come with that price and can live with its estimated 200 miles of range remain to be seen. 

Charting the evolution of pickup trucks is a fascinating look into changing consumer tastes over the years. In some ways, what's happened with trucks is a case of going forwards by going backwards. Many of the first SUVs evolved from trucks mainly by tossing a bench seat in the bed and extending the roof to cover it. Now, modern trucks are essentially SUVs with an open bed instead of a trunk. With trucks joining other vehicle segments making the transition to electric propulsion, there's no reason to suspect they will disappear anytime soon. 

End of the Line for the Nissan GT-R

 

Fifteen years is an incredibly long time in the car world. For mainstream cars, where consumer tastes and technologies change at breakneck pace, keeping the same car on sale without major updates for that long would be suicide. Supercars operate on a slightly different timetable. Models from Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Aston Martin are sold in small numbers, so redesigns on a regular basis can be costly to implement. The Nissan GT-R may come from a mainstream brand, but its performance figures put it squarely against competitors from boutique manufacturers. On sale in the United States since the 2009 model year, 2024 will be the last chance for Americans to buy a GT-R before it is finally retired.

To understand the car that enthusiasts refer to as Godzilla, you first must turn your mind back to the year 2007. The R35 Nissan GT-R entered the automotive world at the Tokyo Motor Show that year with an asteroid-sized impact and sent shockwaves through the automotive landscape. 

Styling-wise, there was and still is nothing else like it. Four round taillights harken back to previous Skyline GT-Rs. But a gaping grille, swept back headlights, bulging wheel arches, and angular body lines made the GT-R look more like a jet fighter than a car. Inside the car, the driver and passengers could keep track of various metrics such as coolant and oil temperatures, g-forces, boost pressure and other engine parameters through a central touchscreen with graphics made by the same company behind the Gran Turismo video games. 

But the real meat of the GT-R story lies in its numbers. Courtesy of a twin turbocharged 473 horsepower V6, a sophisticated all-wheel drive system, and a six-speed dual-clutch transmission, 0-60 miles per hour arrived in 3.3 seconds and a quarter mile took only 11.5 seconds to cover at 124 mph. A stock GT-R ran around the famous Nürburgring racecourse in seven minutes and 29 seconds. Notably, all of these stats bested those of the Porsche 911 Turbo with an MSRP nearly double the GT-R’s $70,475 price tag. Few if any other cars before the GT-R made going so fast so easy for so little money.

Rolling updates kept the GT-R competitive with its contemporaries over the years. Power and torque increased gradually to its current state of 565 horsepower and 467 pound-feet. 0-60 dropped to 2.9 seconds. A hardcore NISMO model arrived in 2015 with more than 600 horsepower. Chassis and suspension refinements addressed concerns of the car not being involving enough to drive.

Unfortunately for Nissan, while its engineers were improving the GT-R, the engineers at other carmakers were busy working on their own sports cars. In the fifteen years the GT-R has been on sale in its current iteration, Chevrolet has developed two generations of Corvettes cumulating with the current mid-engine C8. Porsche has likewise gone through two generations of 911s. The current 911 Turbo S offers near-Bugatti level performance (0-60 in 2.1 seconds) for a relative fraction of the price.

Speaking of price, MSRP for 2024 GT-Rs have risen consistently over the years to just under $123,000. That’s a heavy sum for a car that on the outside hasn’t changed much in fifteen years. It also hasn’t changed much on the inside either. The GT-R still makes due with an 8-inch touchscreen in a world where 10 inches or more is the norm in everything from compact sedans on up. And those Gran Turismo mimicking performance readouts that captivated car geeks remain carbon stamped in the PlayStation 3 era. Interior materials on early cars probably would be best described as adequate for a car costing a little less than $100,000. While quality has gone up somewhat as the GT-R solidly breached the six figure threshold, you can still find richer materials in Audi, Porsche and Mercedes sports cars costing similar amounts of money.

Then there’s the way the GT-R drives. It still does a fantastic job of making a novice driver feel like a racing champion, but the march of powertrain technology has ironed out a lot of the kinks that are still experienced when driving a GT-R. Back in 2008, there weren’t many other turbocharged V6 all-wheel drive supercars. Nowadays, forced induction is nearly ubiquitous, engines are downsizing, and many supercars also have electric components to smooth out and increase power delivery. Nissan rewrote the performance rulebook with the GT-R all those years ago, but everyone from Porsche, to Chevrolet, to McLaren, to Ferrari have been making amendments ever since. Driving a GT-R today means putting up with turbo whooshes and transmission clunks that have mostly been bred out of fast cars.

It's unclear what the future holds for the next generation GT-R, if there even is one at all. No doubt electric power will play a factor. A recent concept car called Hyper Force may offer a clue as to what a new GT-R could look like. In addition to active aero elements, the Hyper Force has a full electric drivetrain with dual motors and a sold state battery pushing out more than 1,000 horsepower.

While we wait for whatever comes next, we will continue to celebrate all that the R35 GT-R accomplished over its lifetime. It pioneered or was one of the early adopters of go-fast technology that is taken for granted in most modern supercars. It’s been immortalized in popular culture both in its home market of Japan and abroad. It is unquestionably the vehicular Godzilla.

Stylish and Tech-Savvy 2025 Kia K4 Debuts

Kia unveiled its replacement for the Forte compact sedan at the 2024 New York Auto Show today. Now christened K4, the new name brings Kia's smallest model's nomenclature in line with the midsize K5 sedan. Armed with an expressive new design and a plethora of standard and available features, the K4 reaffirms Kia's commitment to the compact sedan market as more automakers turn their focus to SUVs and electric vehicles.

"2023 was the biggest year yet for Kia with growth across our entire lineup," said Eric Watson, Vice President of Sales Operations for Kia America. "Simply put, customers are truly excited about our products, and we're ready to give them more of everything they love about Kia. While others continue to retreat from the ICE compact sedan segment, our entry was Kia's second best selling model last year, and its market share has more than doubled since 2018."

Kia's tiger nose grille now plays with the company's latest design language called "Opposites United," which Head of Kia Design, Karim Habib, claims gives the K4 a confident and technical impression. The K4 sports a radically sculpted body incorporating a steeply raked roofline and rear door handles integrated into the C-pillar. T-shaped headlights give the K4 familial resemblance to other recently redesigned Kia models such as the K5, Sorento, and Carnival.

Inside, the K4 dashboard has been upgraded to a full digital display. Two 12.3 inch screens handle gauge cluster and central infotainment functions. A small 5 inch screen between them operates the climate controls. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are now standard after requiring wired connection on some Forte models. Other available features usually seen on more expensive cars but rare to find in mainstream compact sedans include a panoramic sunroof, an available 360-degree surround view monitor and an available blind-spot view monitor that displays a live video feed of left and right blind spots in the gauge cluster. Kia also touts the availability of a voice assistant on higher trim levels to help the driver adjust climate controls and audio settings. Furthermore, certain models will be able to receive over the air updates, allowing owners to download available digital features and services.

Powertrains remain unchanged from the Forte with a 147-hp 2.0-liter inline-four powering lower trim levels. The top trim Forte GT has been replaced with the K4 GT-Line Turbo. Although it uses the same 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-four, horsepower drops from 201 to 190. This may be due to a switch to a conventional torque-converter eight-speed automatic transmission in place of the Forte GT's six-speed manual and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. No fuel economy figures have been unveiled yet.

The 2025 K4 also marks the return of a 5-door hatchback after the Forte became sedan only in 2019. By offering two body styles, Kia will be able to better compete with compact cars such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and Mazda 3. More details about the hatchback will be available at a later date.

The Kia Forte is one of the most affordable new car models left on sale with base prices starting around $21,145 and fully loaded versions topping out at less than $28,000. Forte owners have come to appreciate their cars' affordability, sharp styling, roomy interior, and plentiful standard and optional features. No doubt, they should expect more of the same with the new K4. 2025 K4s are expected to arrive in dealerships in the fourth quarter of this year.