In the 1980s into the 1990s, there were numerous small pickup options. Today, there are none – seriously. Even the “small” pickups today are at least mid-size and based on things like the Ford Explorer platform. These are not the small pickups commonly available from Toyota, Nissan, the Ford Ranger of yesteryear.
What happened?
The EPA regulations on mileage are based on the physical dimensions of the truck – basically length x width.
A small truck of the 1980s, like the Toyota pickup I once owned, would need to get 45-50 mpg today – a requirement that cannot be met or at least not met at a profitable price point.
But full-size pickups need only achieve upper 20s mpg. Consequently, auto makers have chosen to build not just large pickups but often to make them even larger than they were before – here’s the explanation, in detail:
In a way, the EPA regulations backfired – sure, we now have slightly more fuel-efficient full-sized pickups – but at the expensive of no longer having economical and much better fuel efficiency compact pickups.
Here’s a magazine story about how this happened: Why are cars in the US so big? The policies that ruined American cars, explained. – Vox
