Originally Posted by Aron9000

Driving my 2004 Tacoma tonight, I kind of realized that it is an extinct breed, at least here in United States. The truck was $12,000 brand new(dad bought it for that price in 2004, not sure of the actual MSRP). Its 2wd, reg cab, short box, 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual, no options. Standard equipment included a/c, power steering, power brakes, carpet with floor mats, cloth 1 piece bench seat that does not recline, and the Toyota reputation that it is dirt cheap to service and doesn't break.

The only work this truck has required are the normal brakes(1 set of rotors, 4 sets of pads, 1 set of rear shoes), spark plugs, tires engine oil/coolant/transmission oil/rear diff oil changes. Knock on wood, nothing unexpected has ever broke, other than the battery committing suicide the other week, it has never left us stranded. Its 14 years old now with 172k miles on it, I would feel 100% confident driving it to Alaska and back.

Anyways, it kind of makes me mad that we can no longer buy this type of truck here in the United States. Personally I love this little truck because it gets great gas mileage, it doesn't break down, its comfortable by cheap truck standards(go drive a base 80's/90's/00's S10 or F150 work truck for comparison), and the big thing is you can reach over into the bed. Newer/taller trucks drive me nuts with that, you have to climb up into the bed to get the cargo out.

Granted I do like the new Tacoma, its a great truck provided you get the V6(4 cylinders are a dog considering how big/heavy this truck is), but man its huge, you can't reach into the bed, and with the V6 its $30,000. My 2004 Tacoma, at $12000, adjusted for inflation is $15,000 in 2016.

I just don't get it, we can have stripper Kia Rio sedans for $15,000, but why can't we have a small, workhorse truck for the same price???? I mean my 2004 Tacoma is so bare bones I think Toyota still made a decent profit on it, even with the $12,000 sale price.

Originally Posted by SW15LS

It should have read "Gauges" lol

Originally Posted by mmarshall

Yes, that's basically what I meant. Geko29 was correct when he described the market of a couple of decades ago....but the pricing structure of smaller trucks changed since then, and because of that, those small and medium sized trucks lost much of their attractiveness. Today, only the Tacoma, Colorado/Canyon, and Frontier survive in the American market, though there is talk of the Ranger maybe coming back.

Originally Posted by dseag2

I'm just not sure the market is there these days. At various times when I was younger I drove a Mazda B2000 and a Chevy S10 Extended cab. They were crap inside, both with manual transmissions, but they were what I could afford and they were still fun. I think today's young people either really don't care about driving (they wait much longer to get their drivers licenses) or expect to drive something with all the bells and whistle from the get-go.

Originally Posted by bitkahuna

who wants an iphone 4 now?

Originally Posted by mmarshall

I still have an I-4.........and, for my needs, it works just fine.

Originally Posted by mmarshall

I still have an I-4.........and, for my needs, it works just fine.

Originally Posted by -J-P-L-

Unless you were to try out a 6S+. Then It wouldn't be fine. It would be like saying a 1996 Tacoma is good enough after owning a 2016.

Originally Posted by geko29

See my later post. Shortly before it was dropped from the US market, the Ranger still started in the $15k range, while the F150 started in the $21k range, 40% more. The base price of a 1996 F150 was $15,150, 43% more than the Ranger at $10,575. Prices of both increased at roughly the same rate.

Originally Posted by My0gr81

Wasn't the Ranger just a rebadged Mazda B series truck? a bare bones one if you could find them outside of fleet sales would go for 15k but most were in the 18k range, with the same options as that entry level F150 @ 21k. Most would go for the F150 and rightly so.

Originally Posted by SW15LS

Other way around. The B Series was a rebadged Ford Ranger.

Originally Posted by My0gr81

yeah, that was true for NA, but not for international markets. my dad had Mazda's in the Congo and from what I remembered, there were a lot of similarities between them even if they were distinct in their own markets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Ranger

there is a link to a related article on the Ranger T6 that also talks about the "chicken tax", that explains why there is no incentive to import a small truck with low margin to the US. no wonder the Tacoma is so pricey for what you get.

Originally Posted by SW15LS

Different trucks though. The US Ranger is not a rebadged Mazda B Series, nor was the US Mazda B Series the same truck as the Mazda B series sold in other markets.