bstewert
TreeHouser
This is just a rant. There's nothing I can do about it. If you're under 30, don't bother reading.
This week I decided to go look for a new work truck to replace my 38-yr-old Chevy C-10 that I've had for 21 years. It has a regular cab that seats 2-3 people in front, and an 8' bed with a camper shell. All sorts of thing can be put in there: a 4x8 sheet of plywood, a 4x8 piece of drywall to keep out of the rain, a stack of 2x4s, my 8' step ladder, or a crapload of tools. I can park at Home Depot or a restaurant and be reasonably comfortable that the stuff will be there when I come back. It will fit in my garage.
Since 1987 I've wanted a Toyota (my best friend at the time had just purchased a new SR5), so I had that pre-decided. My Chevy is a stinky-gashog piece of junk, and I vowed never again to own a Chevy. So off to the Toyota dealer I go, and they had a line of new trucks as far as your eye could see.
Unfortunately for me, they were all those SuperJumboExtendedMegaCrew Cab pickups with a short bed. Now, I'm not trying to piss off anybody here that owns one, but when I first saw one of those in 1999 (my neighbor bought one) I quietly said to myself: "That is the stupidest truck I've ever seen!" I suppose if you want to take the family/kids to the beach and throw a cooler in the back, it would be fine.
But I wanted a work truck. When I asked the salesman (I think he was under 30) if he had a regular cab with an 8' bed, he said "No, we don't have anything like that." I said, "You know what I'm talking about, right?" He said, "I think I saw one once." "Well, let's get on the computer and see if another dealer has one, so I can sit in one before I buy it."
Turns out there is NOT ONE sitting on any lot at any dealer in the state of Washington or Oregon!
After two days of disbelief, I resigned myself to the fact that I'd just have to order one, and not be able to sit in it first. So I go to Toyota's site and see that you can "build" one. Great! I can study and pick out all the options I want without some salesperson breathing down my neck.
Nope, you can't do that either. The way it works is, you "build" your dream car on paper, and then they go try to find one like that already "built" in your region. With all the choices/options available, that's nearly impossible. To me, it's just a computerized way of doing what we used to do on a napkin, and a misleading marketing ploy by Toyota.
I just can't get over that I'm the only one who wants a regular cab truck with an 8' bed. Well actually, I did find one other person:
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curb...lassics-what-happened-to-regular-cab-pickups/
This week I decided to go look for a new work truck to replace my 38-yr-old Chevy C-10 that I've had for 21 years. It has a regular cab that seats 2-3 people in front, and an 8' bed with a camper shell. All sorts of thing can be put in there: a 4x8 sheet of plywood, a 4x8 piece of drywall to keep out of the rain, a stack of 2x4s, my 8' step ladder, or a crapload of tools. I can park at Home Depot or a restaurant and be reasonably comfortable that the stuff will be there when I come back. It will fit in my garage.
Since 1987 I've wanted a Toyota (my best friend at the time had just purchased a new SR5), so I had that pre-decided. My Chevy is a stinky-gashog piece of junk, and I vowed never again to own a Chevy. So off to the Toyota dealer I go, and they had a line of new trucks as far as your eye could see.
Unfortunately for me, they were all those SuperJumboExtendedMegaCrew Cab pickups with a short bed. Now, I'm not trying to piss off anybody here that owns one, but when I first saw one of those in 1999 (my neighbor bought one) I quietly said to myself: "That is the stupidest truck I've ever seen!" I suppose if you want to take the family/kids to the beach and throw a cooler in the back, it would be fine.
But I wanted a work truck. When I asked the salesman (I think he was under 30) if he had a regular cab with an 8' bed, he said "No, we don't have anything like that." I said, "You know what I'm talking about, right?" He said, "I think I saw one once." "Well, let's get on the computer and see if another dealer has one, so I can sit in one before I buy it."
Turns out there is NOT ONE sitting on any lot at any dealer in the state of Washington or Oregon!
After two days of disbelief, I resigned myself to the fact that I'd just have to order one, and not be able to sit in it first. So I go to Toyota's site and see that you can "build" one. Great! I can study and pick out all the options I want without some salesperson breathing down my neck.
Nope, you can't do that either. The way it works is, you "build" your dream car on paper, and then they go try to find one like that already "built" in your region. With all the choices/options available, that's nearly impossible. To me, it's just a computerized way of doing what we used to do on a napkin, and a misleading marketing ploy by Toyota.
I just can't get over that I'm the only one who wants a regular cab truck with an 8' bed. Well actually, I did find one other person:
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curb...lassics-what-happened-to-regular-cab-pickups/