Used Small Truck Thread (Tacoma, Canyon, Colorado)

I have owned pretty much all kinds of cars except a mini van and a truck. I always wanted to own a pick up truck. Just for utility and carrying my friends/family members. I am aware of the gas and I can live with that. I need to experience owning and using a truck.

Anyway, I started my research.

I would love a Tacoma but damn they are pricey and are not really comfortable. I have sat in first gen (2007-2012) GMC Canyon and Chevy Colorado and felt very comfortable. Yes, they are gutless compared to F150 but for my needs they are just perfect. They have vortec 2.9L 4 cylinder or 3.5L inline 5. Don't know much about their reliability but I see huge aftermarket support. I need 4 doors to carry my people. Only problem with 4 door canyon/colorado is a short box of 5'. So a bed extender is a must for hauling my motorcycle.

I looked into first gen rangers and mazda b series but damn even I don't fit in the back seat. And I am a small skinny guy. What were they thinking?!

Let me know your thoughts.

Suzuki made a pick up for one year or so.
I think it was a Nissan Frontier. I like that one.
I like the Chevy for what it is.
I would get the bigger engine, but I have no idea about reliability.
If you want room in the back though, you need a full size.



Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

No one makes a small truck anymore. Go back 25 years ago and the Ford Ranger and Mazda B series were everywhere. Had a Mazda B 2600.

Would you consider a Honda Ridgeline?

I owned a 2012 and it was comfortable with lots of room inside for people and storage, and the trunk is great for groceries or anything else you don't want to throw in the cab or bed. I once put a skid of brick in the back, so I'm sure it will carry a motorcycle no problem.

Negatives I found were not great fuel economy, somewhat underpowered, archaic interior features and only a 5 ft bed. But overall a solid reliable "truck".

New generation models address all those issues except the box size, so if you are willing to spend more that would be the one to get.

black_CG2 said:

I have owned pretty much all kinds of cars except a mini van and a truck. I always wanted to own a pick up truck. Just for utility and carrying my friends/family members. I am aware of the gas and I can live with that. I need to experience owning and using a truck.

Anyway, I started my research.

I would love a Tacoma but damn they are pricey and are not really comfortable. I have sat in first gen (2007-2012) GMC Canyon and Chevy Colorado and felt very comfortable. Yes, they are gutless compared to F150 but for my needs they are just perfect. They have vortec 2.9L 4 cylinder or 3.5L inline 5. Don't know much about their reliability but I see huge aftermarket support. I need 4 doors to carry my people. Only problem with 4 door canyon/colorado is a short box of 5'. So a bed extender is a must for hauling my motorcycle.

I looked into first gen rangers and mazda b series but damn even I don't fit in the back seat. And I am a small skinny guy. What were they thinking?!

Let me know your thoughts.

Click to expand...

Have had a couple of the prev gen canyon one was a 2006 3.5 has around 280000 k on it now no issues at all yet. Also had a 2010 with the 5.3 V8 ( yes it was an option not many around )was very peppy and fun no issues either.

Sent from my info@fourlegsorwings.com using Tapatalk

black_CG2 said:

I have owned pretty much all kinds of cars except a mini van and a truck. I always wanted to own a pick up truck. Just for utility and carrying my friends/family members. I am aware of the gas and I can live with that. I need to experience owning and using a truck.

Anyway, I started my research.

I would love a Tacoma but damn they are pricey and are not really comfortable. I have sat in first gen (2007-2012) GMC Canyon and Chevy Colorado and felt very comfortable. Yes, they are gutless compared to F150 but for my needs they are just perfect. They have vortec 2.9L 4 cylinder or 3.5L inline 5. Don't know much about their reliability but I see huge aftermarket support. I need 4 doors to carry my people. Only problem with 4 door canyon/colorado is a short box of 5'. So a bed extender is a must for hauling my motorcycle.

I looked into first gen rangers and mazda b series but damn even I don't fit in the back seat. And I am a small skinny guy. What were they thinking?!

Let me know your thoughts.

Click to expand...

There's all sorts of configurations out there, you can get a large 8' bed, but no back seats, you can get a 6.5' bed and back seats but 2 doors(this is what I have, an average sized person can fit in the back, but it wont be luxurious)
you can even get back seats and 4 doors and a 6.5' bed

Do your research before you buy, I was thinking of going ford but they seem to have a lot of problems, some years the spark plugs fly off, sometimes they're so tight they break, sometimes they have some other problems, I ended up getting a silverado

Toyota's are more expensive on the used market because... toyota(dat japanese reliability)

I def love the trucks now,coming from a camry, my 6'2 250 lb frame likes it even more, so comfy, lots of room, the visibility is much better, after a long days work, I can get in an out without being in pain(not an issue for white collar desk jobs), I can haul all sorts of stuff in it, it came with a hitch, so if its a large bike, I can put it on the bed or on a trailer

The only thing I dont like is the suspension is pretty bouncy but that comes with the territory

for research you can also use carcomplaints

If it has 4 doors it's not a pickup it's a crew cab. The back seat in a pickup truck is for yer dawg!

Just over 2 yrs on my 18 ridgeline. My 1st experience with a non full size pickup. Had the f150's. Had the gmc's, had chevy's.
If I needed a truck for work, or daily towing, or if I still hauled a boat, the ridgeline ain't it. But, for everything else, it's the best all around vehicle I've owned in 50yrs. Comfy. 22-25mpg. More than enough gizmos. Adequate power from the detuned 3.5L V6. (runs on 87....same engine in an rdx I had used 91, and was noticeably more awake).

Whatever truck you get, make sure you get a 6'+ bed.

So many times I've loaded stuff in the back and said to myself, "Glad I didn't get a 5' bed!"

Being able to close the tailgate or not have stuff hanging way out an open tailgate is awesome.

A friend had a canyon after a string of 1500's. After one canyon, he went back to 1500's. With the Canyon the cost and fuel mileage was very close to the 1500 but the utility was substantially less. He was disappointed. He wanted to like it but he just couldn't.

what lightcycle said
Having a larger bed and a truck also gives you great leverage over family members as they all of a sudden need your help for stuff.

GreyGhost said:

A friend had a canyon after a string of 1500's. After one canyon, he went back to 1500's. With the Canyon the cost and fuel mileage was very close to the 1500 but the utility was substantially less. He was disappointed. He wanted to like it but he just couldn't.

Click to expand...

Smaller size parking etc. is the only advantage of the small trucks. Fuel economy and everything else is the same.

Sent from my moto g(8) plus using Tapatalk

Questions for ya.

Are you carrying people, or are you carrying stuff? If you are carrying people (sounds like it), you want a 4 full door crew cab style - not an extended cab. Rules out the old Ranger (and Mazda copy). ALL of the crew-cab-style non-heavy-duty pickups have really short beds and will need a bed-extender to get a motorcycle into the back of them. Every single one. Some smaller motorcycles might fit diagonally in the box but don't count on it.

With that said ... You CAN carry a motorcycle in the back of a Ridgeline ... that's what a bed-extender is for. It can be done.

If you are buying used, Tacoma has/had major frame rust issues. To be honest, I'm not sure if they have really fixed that to this day. I agree that they are overpriced.

Nissan Frontier is outdated and has a reputation for being thirsty.

Canyon/Colorado has had two generations. The first one (squared-off corners) had the old 2.8 litre 4 cyl and 3.5 litre 5 cyl gas engines. The current one (more rounded-off styling, and bigger) mostly has what we call in the industry the 3.6 "high feature" V6. I think there is a 2.5 litre 4 cylinder available, but you don't want that, and I doubt if it's available with the crew cab anyhow.

The new (current) Ranger seems to be pretty good ... but they ain't cheap. Only powertrain choice is 2.3 4-cyl Ecoboost with 10 speed automatic. Take note that this current generation has about a year left to run before it gets replaced with a new generation.

Now ... How much "stuff" are you going to be carrying? How much towing?

If you are not planning to be doing heavy towing, and if you can deal with having to use a bed-extender to carry a motorcycle (which you are going to have to, with ANY of these), the Ridgeline is the nicest of the bunch to drive. It has what amounts to a bed-liner built in. It has a "trunk" in the floor of the bed. It's the quietest and has the best ride and handling. BUT ... Towing and cargo capacity have their limits. For 95+% of people buying a pickup truck ... a Ridgeline is all they actually need.

The problem with any of the other compact trucks is that their respective manufacturers have put more engineering into their full-size trucks, and it's to the extent that unless you really need the few inches narrower of the mid-size trucks in order to get in and out of wherever you have to park (and I recognize that this can be a significant factor!), the full-size trucks are usually a better deal AND you will end up with a better vehicle, and the mid-size doesn't actually save any fuel - provided that you pick the powertrain of the full-size carefully.

If you don't have huge towing demands ...

Investigation point 1: The new Chevrolet Silverado with the turbo 4 cylinder:
Investigation point 2: Ford F150 with 2.7 Ecoboost and 10 speed automatic.

Investigation point 3: Ram 1500 with the base 3.6 V6. Still has ~ 300 horsepower ...

Every week I think about buying a first generation Ridgeline, I just can’t get over the looks. It’s the perfect vehicle for me. Most mid sized trucks have brutal gas economy, and the big trucks are just too big for what I need.

Friend has (just bought, recently) a current-generation Ridgeline. The proportions still look a bit off compared to everything else on the market but it's a lot better looking than the original one. It's practical, and it drives like a car.

It's an interesting situation that the full-size trucks have had more development put into them, to the extent that the better ones (not Toyota and Nissan!) use less fuel than the mid-size trucks. And fuel economy isn't really a reason to pick a Ridgeline, either.

I'm not really a fan of the GM T1XX trucks in general, but that 2.7 litre 4 cylinder turbo engine was specifically developed as a truck engine, and it seems to do really well in real world usage, even though the EPA numbers aren't anything special. And the 5.3 V8 isn't a gas hog.

I know a couple of people who have a Ford F150 with the 2.7 ecoboost and 10 speed automatic combination, and I hear mixed things about them. Some report 10-and-change litres per 100 km with no trailer in a F150, and yet, another friend of mine just lease-returned his Explorer with the 3.5 V6 ecoboost because it was brutally thirsty, never better than 14 L/100 km even when empty, and anything connected to the trailer hitch made it use 20 plus L/100 km. (The 2.7 is supposed to be better, and the Explorer - transverse-engine - used an older transmission design.) There's very little wrong with the 5.0 V8 in these, either, if you want to avoid the ecoboost uncertainty.

My van has the Chrysler Pentastar V6, and I'm happy with it. If you are trying to haul a 7000 lb trailer up the side of a mountain, you might not be so happy ... the Pentastar makes power with revs (no turbo) so you'll be hearing it, all the way up, and all the way down. If you are not doing that ... It will move the truck around just fine. For the non-mountainous terrain that we have, you can tow a trailer with it - just not an enormous house trailer, you won't be happy.

black_CG2 said:

I have owned pretty much all kinds of cars except a mini van and a truck. I always wanted to own a pick up truck. Just for utility and carrying my friends/family members. I am aware of the gas and I can live with that. I need to experience owning and using a truck.

Anyway, I started my research.

I would love a Tacoma but damn they are pricey and are not really comfortable. I have sat in first gen (2007-2012) GMC Canyon and Chevy Colorado and felt very comfortable. Yes, they are gutless compared to F150 but for my needs they are just perfect. They have vortec 2.9L 4 cylinder or 3.5L inline 5. Don't know much about their reliability but I see huge aftermarket support. I need 4 doors to carry my people. Only problem with 4 door canyon/colorado is a short box of 5'. So a bed extender is a must for hauling my motorcycle.

I looked into first gen rangers and mazda b series but damn even I don't fit in the back seat. And I am a small skinny guy. What were they thinking?!

Let me know your thoughts.

Click to expand...

I have an 06 toyota 4 runner and its been great. It tows what i need. But i saw a GMC Canyon the other day and it had a diesel in it. Guy said its a small Duramax they developed for it. He said he fills it once a month and it can pull like 7000 lbs. I think if i was going to get a small pick up this would be it.

some good and accurate comments in this thread. Just get the Ridgeline It's the most sensible choice of the mid sizers and all 95% of "truck" owners really need for day to day use.

Unfortunately, most ppl base their final judgments on seeing one on the street. Visit a dealer and drive one. You will be amazed al its clever and thoughtful design touches, its overall practicality, excellent and car-like driving experience, and decent powertrain.

Are you a Honda salesman @SunnY S ? Cause you sure sound like one. Hell I want a Ridgeline now.

Out of the list I'd buy a Tacoma or new ranger, but the ranger is pretty fresh so few used or even demos around. I drove one a couple yeras ago, befoire it was avialable here. I really like it.
The Toyota is pretty well made and its the choice of many adventure trip drivers.

They are all as thirsty as a full size and the fixing and such costs the same. Full size trucks are a PITA to park anywhere, they just dont make spot big enough. My 5.5 box is about 6" short of what i really need.

GreyGhost said:

A friend had a canyon after a string of 1500's. After one canyon, he went back to 1500's. With the Canyon the cost and fuel mileage was very close to the 1500 but the utility was substantially less. He was disappointed. He wanted to like it but he just couldn't.

Click to expand...

Way back I had a Blazer with the 2.8 four cyl
Used way more gas than my buddy with the 6 cyl
I shoulda got a 6

Depending on how he's gonna use the truck, that is a very good point.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk