mmarshall

There are several reasons for the demise of the front-drive pickup. First, the lightweight aluminum transmissions in many front-drive platforms can't handle heavy payloads or towing...their internal parts just aren't strong enough. Second, ditto for unibodies like the Subaru, VW, and Dodge you mentioned....unibodies don't have the ruggedness or towing capacity of body-on-frame vehicles. Third, when you put a load in the back, especially towing a trailer, it tends to raise the truck's front end and take weight off of the front wheels slightly, lessening their traction and steering response, so if the truck is front-drive, you could end up spinning your wheels on a wet or slick surface and going nowhere. Fourth, pickups usually offer a part-time 4WD option, or in some newer cases, full-time 4WD, and the sideways-mounted in-line engines in the Dodge Rampage and VW pickups make 4WD more difficult to add on.