Pool professionals rejoice: The midsize truck is back.
After neglecting the category of compact pickup, automakers are introducing new models and reintroducing old favorites.
Earlier this year, Ford announced plans to resurrect the Ranger, long a favorite among the brush-and-net set. Its expected return in 2019 follows an eight-year absence from the domestic market. The Ranger will join a growing segment of similar trucks jockeying for market share. GMC recently revitalized its midsized models, the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, after a three-year hiatus. Toyota revamped its Tacoma. Honda reinvented its Ridgeline to rave reviews. And Mercedes plans to join the party with a model of its own.
Pool pros who depend on smaller, more fuel-efficient trucks, welcome the trend. Options have decreased over the past decade as the auto industry all but stopped making light-duty pickups in favor of larger, more profitable vehicles. As a result, service technicians gravitated toward cargo vans and utility trailers.
Now automakers are changing tack.
“The rising cost of full-sizers has finally left a hole big enough to make producing the compact trucks profitable again — which they weren’t when they were pulled a few years ago,” said Aaron Cole, a managing editor for Internet Brands Auto.
The dearth of sensible route runners has long frustrated Peter Haverlation, who’s been diligently maintaining his 2001 F-150 in the absence of anything comparable. Like many pros, he prefers low-profile single cabs to navigate narrow neighborhood streets. Plus it’s easier to retrieve chemicals and equipment off the back of a small-body pickup.
“I haven’t looked at a new truck in 10 years because the size doesn’t accommodate what we do,” said Haverlation, a director of the Western Pool and Spa Show in Long Beach, Calif.
The annual event is renowned for its truck giveaways. But finding a suitable, service-oriented truck to raffle has been a challenge ever since automakers put the kibosh on small pickups. Haverlation acknowledges this year’s giveaway prize, a 2017 Dodge Ram 1500, isn’t exactly ideal for pool-cleaning purposes — not that anyone would turn their nose up at it.
“We look at it this way: They’re winning a truck,” Haverlation said.
Some of the new options available could offer the maneuverability and practicality pool pros are seeking.
Notes Cole: “All in all, for fleet buyers and small-business owners, it’s encouraging that automakers are now offering alternatives that don’t drive like city buses, and can help cut operating costs for those businesses.”
