Ep. 297: These Are The Coolest Trucks We CAN'T Have!

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In case you and I were on the online configurator, configuring some trucks

and there's a catch. These are the coolest pickup trucks that we can't have. Yeah, and the other

cool thing is that this is something we get to do at work. Go on your computer and configure

trucks as you can't order here in the States. We do. Thank you for reminding me that our jobs are

actually like something that I do at home. Yeah, for fun. It's really fun. It's really

amazing and thanks to you guys. So you support us on patreon.com slash tfl car,

which is our only patreon page. You also listen to this podcast. You also watch our videos

and that allows us to be grown men that are playing with trucks. It helps fuel our addiction.

And through that, we've been able to put together a little list of, like you said,

some trucks, particularly from other markets that we don't get here in the States,

but that would be really cool trucks to have. Incredible vehicles. So I want to start

with this one because when we were discussing this, preparing for this episode, this truck popped

into my mind. And this is the Land Cruiser 70 series from Australia. And if you know anything

about Land Cruiser 70 series usually means several decades ago, right? Yeah. Yeah, it goes back

what to I think the 80s. Yeah, but this is a vehicle that's currently produced and built and

sold in markets like Australia. So if you're watching us on TFL talk channel, you can actually

see some of the images and some of the videos that we're showing. But just imagine a very squared

off, retro looking, retro styled, brand new pickup truck that's meant only for utility. Yeah,

I think most people that are listening this broadcast probably know what a 70 series looks

like. But this truck version that we have pulled up, it's got a tray bed, which I also love a lot

of the trucks, but about half of them that we're talking about today, have tray beds and they're

Australian because Australia gets some some some the coolest vehicle. I will say it's not on this

list. But one thing that I also wish that we had youths youths. Yes, I'm youths.

Is that for the youths? No, no. No, you like you know, I know, or maybe we could pull pull a youth

up. Yeah, we can talk about some youth. How about a hold on youth? Not maybe the traditional

truck in the way that we would use it for for towing and I talk about I talk about this,

like basically kind of a car platform with a pickup truck bed. Exactly. Yeah. Australia got that

right. Yeah. Well, unfortunately, some of these holdings, I mean, there are no more. Yeah, it's

true. But still, I mean, this is something we could explore and maybe, maybe some people,

you know, some manufacturers might bring it back. It's pretty cool. But what we're

primarily talking about today are more traditional body and drive body on frame

trucks. Absolutely. So we got to talk about some specs because we're talking about something called

the 70 series GX, which has nothing to do with the common with Alexis. It's about as far from Alexis

as any Toyota products can get because it's got an exposed frame and suspension underneath the

tray bed. It's not very refined. The interior is very, very simple. But these are really cool

trucks. You can get them as gas, or as they might say in Australia, petrol, petrol, and you can also

get them diesel versions. They've got snorkels, four wheel drive, really, really cool trucks.

Yeah. And I think, like, for example, here on the table in the studio, we have a model of RC

UAZ van, my Russian four by four van, which kind of combines that retro style. And like,

I'm working to a less swap it. So this is up my alley. And I didn't, if you buy a 70 series GX

truck in Australia, you don't have to do anything. You just go to the dealership and you buy it.

It's retro cool. I get what you mean. It's kind of a factory retro vehicle because its roots

do go back a really long way. Look at it. Look at it in red color. Yeah, it's still got those

looks. I like the body color match tray bed. It's also really nice look to it. So these

are super cool trucks. Crew cab is pretty cool, but the single cab with a longer bed.

Yeah, because it's ultimate like utility, right? Efficient utility. Because you have,

you know, two or three people could sit in it. I mean, two people comfortably, maybe not three,

unless you're putting somebody on the console in the middle. But look at the interior. What

else do you need? Just a few vents. You operate manually, a steering wheel.

Wait a minute. Is that an automatic? That one looks like an automatic in this photo,

but I believe you can get a manual transmission on these. Is this also a solid front axle?

Yes. Yeah, so yeah, that's also really hardcore. Yeah, that's awesome stuff. That's something I

wish that we had here. So why can't we get it here? Will it sell? That's a good question.

So Toyota has the Tacoma here, which is the best seller midsize. They have the Tundra,

which is very, very refined. But would this sell here? I don't know if it would be a mass

market seller, because as much as enthusiasts love this kind of thing, I think the average person

going shopping for a pickup truck wouldn't really understand it. It's, it is, it's very

old school. Yes. It's not going to be as refined as something with independent front

suspension. It's going to be a little utilitarian. We've got to talk about price,

because if you're watching this, and we click on the configurator right now, and it says,

starts at $92,000. Yeah. We've got to explain this. That's, that's kind of a shocking number to

look at. You got to keep in mind that these are Australian dollars. Yes. Yeah. And the conversion,

like $100,000 US would be like $70,000 Australian. So when you see 90 or $100,000 on some of

these trucks in Australia that we're looking at, they're still pretty pricey, but that's more

like $60,000, $70,000. Yeah. So we're just comparable to like a Tacoma Tier D Pro. I mean,

that's $65,000. Yeah. So we're looking, but you're looking at the vehicle with a lot of payload

and a lot of just utility built into it. It's cool. But that truck imported here into the

States with the chicken tax would be very expensive for the features that you get. Oh, yes. Yes.

And I think that would put people off. It definitely puts people off with the

Ineos Grenadier quartermaster. Exactly. Because that truck is... Which actually looks similar to this.

Yeah. In some ways, it's a little more boxy. The Grenadier doesn't have a tray bed like this.

Yeah. Unless you go to Jake Houch and get a dirtbox bed. Our buddy makes a little bit more

of a rugged bed for it. But that puts people off the quartermaster because it's pricey for

what you get on the inside. So I think it would maybe be the same case for this. There

would be some enthusiasts that would go for it. But I don't think it would be a mass market seller.

But I would like it. Yeah. So we need to figure out how to build it in the US or North America

in order for it to make sense. For sure. Which would be difficult. Well, let's look at something

else. Should we stay with Toyota for a little second? Yes. Because this is one that Roman

specifically requested that we mentioned. Yes. So Roman is not in the studio with us

because he's actually on an event working. But everybody always brings up where is the

Hilux. Yeah. Right. Whenever you talk about Tacoma or pickup trucks or mid-sizers,

everybody always says Hilux, Hilux, Hilux. Yeah. It's possibly the most legendary name

in truck durability. And I think it comes with years ago, Top Gear did a story about

trying to destroy a Hilux, you know, an older version of it. They couldn't do it. Yeah.

Other people like Whistling Diesel tried to destroy one. They also had trouble destroying it.

Yeah. And even before then, I mean, those couple instances, popular instances of people showing

how durable these trucks are were spurred on by the fact that it already had a reputation

for being very durable. These are also very cool trucks. You can also get it with a diesel,

which is cool. There's a lot of diesels that we don't get here and would be nice. Yeah.

There's kind of a version to diesel in small vehicles in the United States. Yeah. Of course,

we still have and love heavy duty diesel pickup trucks. There's a few different versions of this

Hilux. They've got a work might. Work might. Work might. You have a pretty good Australian

accent. Not really. The tray bed is interesting on this Hilux because there's a big gap

between the frame. Yeah. What can you put in there? I mean, you could put like a spare tire.

Yeah. Maybe you could make a little cubby. Cubby. Maybe a slide out drawer.

Interesting. But they also have like SR, SR5s, a version called the Rogue Hilux,

Hilux Rogue, and also GR Sport, which is their kind of more sporty versions.

Oh, Sport Bar on the SR5. Oh, yes. Different Sport Bar on the Rogue. What about the GR?

No Sport Bar on the GR Sport, I feel. What? And they also have like aftermarket

companies like ARB, which is very, very popular. But 80 for this seemingly top model Hilux in

Australian dollars. So what is that called? Can you convert 81,000 to 50-ish? That's like high 50

or mid 50? 54,000. Okay. So, you know, that would be a pretty good price if it was here.

Yeah. That would be competitive with like a Ranger Raptor. Yeah. And I think people would.

But here's the thing. And Roman actually was in, you know, in the Hilux, you know,

international version of one. Yep. I actually have never driven on. I don't know if you have.

Well, wait, you drove a Hilux Surf recently, which is an SUV. Yeah, I did. But 30 years old.

But yeah. So the thing about the Hilux and also a lot of other international midsize trucks,

they're actually smaller than our midsize trucks. Because their wheel bases are a little bit

shorter. They just have a little bit more compact interiors. So it's not really American-sized, I

would say. Yes. It's a little hard to tell from the photos. But this is probably a little bit

smaller than you might expect. There's another Hilux though. And this caught my eye recently.

And Cole, our producer, we were just looking at some Hilux champs. What do you think about

this champ? Yeah. So this is interesting. Is this also called the IMV0? Yes. Yeah. So this is a really

affordable little Toyota truck. It's almost like a K vehicle, like a K pickup from Japan.

It's very compact, very boxy. It almost has some of that 70 series styling a little bit. It's

got a tray bed. Cole, do we have any other images of this or is this the only? Because

it looks kind of ugly in this picture. It's got a little 2.4 liter diesel. Whoa. It's even

uglier now. Oh, that looks much better without a bed. Exact same angle, same color, just no bed.

But look at the, how simple the interior. It's a manual transmission. And it's basically

available in like regions like Thailand. Yeah. It's got a manual transmission and a diesel.

Look at that. It's got a little red trim around the interior. What do you think Cole? Is that

red or orange? Oh boy. This, this sparks a lot of debates. That's orange. Orange. Yeah. I'm gonna

say. I may need to check my eyes at the doctor. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, for a color. Look, the tray bed

is flipped down. Yeah. Yeah, they got the bed size folded down. That's pretty sweet. So

this is cool. People say it's around $10,000. Like they were showing there is a diesel option

for it, manual transmission. That's all really cool. Yeah. But this little champ, I love the name,

by the way. Yeah, Hilux Champ. Hilux Champ. I don't think it will ever be sold in the US because,

you know, the safety regulations, even, I mean, we're not even talking about the missions and,

you know, making the engines comply with certain regulations, but talking about safety on

American highways and interstates. Yeah. I think some of these vehicles like this little

champ probably won't be able to pass a lot of the safety test. It will be a challenge to get it set up

to sell here in the States. And like we said, if you wanted it to still be affordable and

manufacturing would have to be here as well. So yeah. So let's, should we switch manufacturers?

Yes. Let's talk forward a little bit. That's quite a few Toyotas that we like.

But the next truck is a truck that we've talked about a bit in the past because

this is how could we not? This is genuinely anywhere in the world.

One of the coolest, if you ask me, one of the coolest trucks on sale period.

This is the super duty version of the Ranger once again in Australia.

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We need to go down there. Some of these trucks have tray beds as well,

which I appreciate. You can get it at single cab, extended cab, crew cab,

I guess in Fordsby, super cab, but yeah, you could get single cab, extended cab, super cab,

yeah, all that stuff. Yeah. And they've got a decent amount of underbody protection. You can

spec some cool options like rock sliders, dual batteries, front and rear locking diffs, front

and rear lockers. It's also an eight lug hub. Yes, really cool. And it's got a little

three liter V6 diesel, also really cool snorkel. I like that. The really impressive thing though

is the towing and the payload. Yeah. So Cole, if you scroll down on this website, we're looking

at Australian website for Ford. So 4,500 kilograms of towing, that's almost 10,000 pounds,

approximately 10,000 pounds of towing. This is like F 150 capability. Yeah. And it's that

smaller vehicle right around 2,000 kilograms of payload, which is which even if it was just

2,000 pounds of payload, that would be pretty impressive. But that's more like 4,000 pounds

of payload or just over 4,000 pounds of this is like this is like duly super duty territory.

I mean, this is really mind boggling and it's got a what 34 roundabout gallon tank when we

did the conversion. Yes. So pretty massive fuel tank too, especially for diesel, the range

this truck would have be fantastic. But it's if you look at it, so if you look at some other

pictures, it basically looks like a Ranger we get here, you know, the hood, the fenders, the doors,

the cabin, the the headlamps, a lot of the components. So like if we were to ask for it,

you know, just bring it here, a lot of the components already there theoretically,

but unfortunately, and we don't have a statement from Ford on this, but

it might cannibalize some other sales, right? Because they do have F 250, F 350 trucks that are

more expensive, potentially in this. Oh, we looked at some pricing on this, right? Yeah. And it is

not cheap. No, this one was starting around 100,000 Australian. Yes. So that's starting around 60,

70,000 US dollars. Can you click on the middle one? Yeah. So let's pretend we're in Sydney.

Yeah. So we'll 2026. Okay, 202. There it is. So 101,000 Australian dollars translates to what 70

right about $70,000 US. Yeah. So once again, and then do have some options, full time four wheel drive

to. Yeah, I mean, this is, this is pretty crazy. Yeah. That's a really cool truck.

I'm going to go ahead and say it that of everything we're talking about on the list,

this is the one that I like the most. So I might agree with you, except the next truck,

just wait until but but just one more second on this one. The reason why I think it's a really

amazing, you can park it in most garages, right? Because it's narrower footprint is still not

not massive. Yeah, the footprint, it's not super tall, like it's basically on 33s, right? So

it's not super, super tall. It's not lifted. It does have, of course, a snorkel. It seems

everything in Australia must have a snorkel. Yeah, we've seen a lot of trucks a day with snorkels.

So, so it's compact. It has insane capability. It's very expensive. But I think you get a lot

of value out of that money, right? Yeah, as far as it being rugged, this is definitely a truck

that you could take into some very unforgiving conditions. Yeah. And it's also a truck that's

got a lot of utility, a lot of capability, a decent size bed, a lot of towing, a lot of payload,

like we said, so it checks all the boxes. You'd be amazing to take it for a drive.

So maybe I should call forward. We might have to go to Australia. I've been saying this.

Yeah, I'm with you. Let's go to Australia. Yeah, make a trip. All right, speaking of

other countries, wait until you see this pickup. Yeah, I'm, I'm interested. So you have written down

here Chevy Montana, right? It's a very American sounding truck, right? Chevy. Cold thought so too.

Montana. But look at this, bam, WEMO. Yeah, which is interesting. So this is kind of a Ford

Maverick competitor. Yes. But Andre, I do believe this is powered by a three cylinder.

Well, that's the best power because it's compact. It's very efficient. Okay, so I like, I like

motorcycles with three cylinders. I don't know if I, but, but, but listen to this. Okay, your

fiancee, yes, drives a vehicle, which is a Broncosport, which is also available sometimes

with a three cylinder engine, right? I'm not saying anything bad about her. She's got the big

motor. She's got the big two liter. She stepped it up, right? Massive. But, but if you are a little

bit more conscious of fuel efficiency and just let's just pretend that I am. Okay, pretend that you

are right. So those engines exist Chevrolet also has some three liter, I'm sorry, three cylinder

engines, especially like the trailblazer, the little, you know, the little crossovers,

the tracks, right? The tracks. I think that also has one. You know, so that's a proven technology.

It's been a while since we've been in a tracks. I know you and I went out to, we went to the

launch event in the tracks. I don't remember anything about it. It was cheap. I do remember

that. You know, I remember one thing, starting under 20k. Used to. I don't think it does

anymore. It's a little bit more. That was actually a pretty decent car for the money.

Yes, but imagine if you take the tracks and you know, cut off the rear section,

make it a bed and now we have a Maverick competitor. You know what? Framing it that way,

I do appreciate it a bit more. If this truck started here in the States, if it was offered

here and it started under $20,000, then I would be happy about it. I think this is a

Brazil, Brazilian market. Yeah, one of them, one of the markets is in Brazil for this.

I don't know, Cole, can you maybe find the configurator for like a 2025 Chevy Montana?

Should be easy. It should be very easy to do. Just have to speak Portuguese.

Yeah, you speak Portuguese, don't you? Cole? No. Yeah, Cole's got a lot. Well, it's not Spanish.

Cole's got a lot of hidden talents. So I think he can navigate.

We can navigate some Chevrolet. Brazilian. Oh, let's see. There you go. It is.

Inglis? Oh, we're not going to try it in Portuguese.

All right. So is there one? Look at all these interesting things. Look at this.

It only starts at $141,000. Brazilian dollars.

Yeah, that doesn't make it look very cheap. Okay. And it also looks kind of sleek and not

very trucky. I give you that, but I'm just thinking about something, you know,

Maverick Ford is kind of controlling the US compact segment, right? With the Maverick.

Yeah. Somebody has to come in and somebody has to.

We're going to convert the money. It looks like it starts at about $26,000 when you do the conversion.

That's kind of more money than I wanted to be with a three cylinder. Yes.

So it starts at $26,000. But you know, the Maverick currently starts at $28,500.

So if this was built in North America, I don't think I like this more than the Maverick.

You don't? No, I think I like the Maverick more. I kind of agree because the styling on this one

is a little bit more car like. This particular angle that we're looking at it from is not the

most flattering. It looks a little, a little dumpy, to be honest. If you're listening, go,

if you Google a Chevy Montana, you can find some dumpy looking angles of them. It

shouldn't be too hard. Well, why are you so mean to little Chevy?

Because the next truck we're going to talk about similar kind of thing, but objectively better

looking, the Ram Dakota that was revealed recently for Brazil, right? Yes. And this

has underpinnings that are from a Chinese manufactured truck. So we're not going to

see this Dakota here in the States. Ram has confirmed that they are going to be working

on a midsize truck for 2027. Exactly. And we will build, be built in Illinois. Yeah,

so it's not this, this is not the truck that's coming here to the States. But if the truck that's

coming here to the States looks vaguely like this Dakota nightfall concept. Oh my gosh.

Then I would be over the moon because that, that I think is cooler than the Maverick.

And you know what this Ram Dakota truck, so we're looking at the concept. It will be

production for Brazil. This is really like a Toyota Hilux competitor, right? Sure.

It should be almost identical in size. It's a little, it has a little smaller wheelbase

than the like American midsize trucks like the Chevy Colorado and Toyota Tacoma.

So this is a direct competitor in Brazil to the Hilux. Yeah. But I think it looks better.

Yeah. And if you're listening, the way that this concept looks, this is not,

the concept's not kind of a bog standard base model. It's an off-road version and it looks like

a downsized TRX. It's got a sport bar in the back with lights on top of it. It's got the very

TRX style hood vent with three amber lights going through it, rock sliders. It's pretty tall,

stands to it, off-road wheels with maybe a beadlock capable look to them. You know,

it's obviously it's just an image, but looks really sharp. It's super cool. I think we

have a couple more images if you could cycle through and we're desperately in need of a smaller

pickup from Stellantis, right? Yeah. I mean, we've all, you know, loved the older Dakotas,

right? Several iterations and generations of it. And I think, you know, we want most

all manufacturers to be successful. At least I do. Sure. And I think midsize truck like this

in the U.S., if it was done for the U.S., I mean, it's not going to be exactly this, right?

But if it was done for the U.S., they really, and not in 2027, like they said, they need it now.

Like it needs to be available right now. And it's certainly from statements from Ram,

it seems like they are pushing pretty hard to try and get a midsize truck out sooner

rather than later because they need it to your point. If it looks anything like this

Dakota Nightfall concept, I'll be pretty happy. Yeah. Now, how about some of the

other vehicles we don't get? We don't get anything from China. Yeah, that's true. So, yeah. And you've

actually driven a really interesting truck that comes from the Chinese market. This is a BYD

Shark. BYD Shark. Yeah, Tommy and I actually went to El Paso, Texas, because the BYD

Shark is actually sold in Mexico, right? So actually, the Mexican market also gets

quite a few vehicles, quite a few pickup trucks that we don't get. Yeah. And they're so close.

Yeah, exactly. So sometimes they make their way here into the States and you'll see them driving

around. Yeah. And everybody, we get sometimes emails from you guys, oh, I just saw a Ram 1200

or Ram 1000. We're like, does it have Mexican license plates? Yes, it does. So a lot of vehicles

from Mexico are actually driving around. And this is the case here. It's a plug-in kind of range

extended hybrid. So most of the power comes from electricity, but it does have a small generator

on board to create some electricity. But look at the interior. It's really well made. My only,

I guess, complaint about it. It doesn't have to do with size. It's actually pretty good size.

It's got a rotating tablet screen inside. It's pretty quick actually. We tested it. But

like some of the refinement and the suspension wasn't quite there. Yeah, it sounded like some of

the some of the software, some of the menus and names for the different drive modes were

not really Americanized. Yeah, bad translations or things like that. But overall, it was a really

cool vehicle. Yeah, I would say it's like 95% there. If they spent a little bit more time on

suspension tuning and just the way it rides. So it's not too harsh over certain terrain and

pavement. And if they fine tune some of the interfaces, I think this could be a very interesting

vehicle. And it's not super expensive either. I mean, relative to some of the other pickup

trucks that we have. Yeah, so but of course, right now, there's a lot of just kind of government

pressure against allowing Chinese vehicles to come in. Yeah, but they're out there. You

can't ignore them. Yeah, there's there's some interesting products out there for sure.

And I don't have a lot of other experience like we never went to China. So like we never

drove, I haven't driven a lot of other vehicles like some of them like you're saying can float.

Yeah, the I think it's the Yang Wang you ate. Yes. There's a video of one of those driving around in

some deep water. Some of their electric cars can jump. Yeah, I think it's the U nine. Also,

another Yang Wang, they're they're innovating a lot. Yang Wang is yeah, I think the Yang

Wang U nine can jump over like bumps. Yeah, or like or potholes, spike strips if you're a crime

enthusiast. Wow, we do not condone. We don't by the way, jumping over spikes. No, but they

see over a pothole. Yeah, it jumps over pothole. But if you wait a couple of seconds in this

video, they also jump over spikes. So I'm not saying that they're crime enthusiasts.

But but they're suggesting it. Well, maybe I don't want to go that far. Wait, wait, wait,

it's driving itself. Did you see there's nobody behind? I don't think this is a real video. Okay,

but they're they're doing an animated demonstration. If you're listening, it's basically it's a very

angular supercar that has the ability to shove the wheels down and jump the car over a small

obstacle. They've been showing it jumping over a pothole. But here you go, here's some spikes

in the road. Oh, I see. And it jumps over the spikes too. I think you would have to have really good

timing, though. Yeah, perfect. Unless unless the car sees the obstacle and times it for you. So

so this this type of active suspension, by the way, is not totally out of the world for us,

right? Because, for example, like we we've worked with liquid spring suspensions on big

four trucks before. And those are hydraulic spring shocks, basically cylinders that are linked

together with hydraulics. And they don't just absorb the terrain, they can actually extend down,

right? So yeah, and they use it for load leveling, you know, they use it for corner

leveling. And then there's the GLS 600 that hops that bounces. Yeah, which is pretty cool

Mercedes. So yeah, I would also be on board with more vehicles that can bounce and jump and such.

And, you know, jumping might be an extreme, like show off feature. But they could also be useful,

like, you know, like we said, load leveling, making sure the ride is actually really plush,

but also be off road capable, right? Yeah, you can combine those things.

Yeah, for sure. I think jumping cars is super fun.

Yeah, we love jumping Raptors and TRXs. And you and I jumped four runners?

Yeah, that's right. The TRD Pro four runner, we were in the air. Yeah, in the air. Yeah,

it was awesome. So I want to make a small transition here. So we talked about small

trucks that are heavy duty. And we also talked about trucks that we wish would come back like

the Dakota. And I recently, well, do you want to talk about this and where this story came from?

Yeah, there's an interesting truck that has been much forgotten about. Yes. And Andre actually

saw one on the road recently, which is cool. Three days ago, I saw it at a local Costco.

And I was beside myself. They're kind of few and far between. But I was talking to a buddy

of mine named Grant, who does a lot of Colorado off road recovery. He's a big Ford fan. He's

had several Ford trucks. And one of the four trucks that he had at one point was an F 250

light duty. And this, this is an interesting chapter in Ford's truck history. It's one that I

think a lot of people don't know about. Believe it was from 1997 to 1999, they had this F 250

light duty. It's got the body of an F 150, but it's got a beefed up frame, rear axle,

suspension. And instead of a six lug or instead of an eight lug, it's a seven lug wheel and hub.

So there's a website talking about this in detail. There's Ford trucks dot com.

So you can actually see it right here. So there's an image of a seven lug wheel,

which initially looks normal, but then you start counting. Yeah, you start counting one,

two, three, four, and it's not six and it's not eight. So these wheels might be worth their weight

in gold. Yeah, I'm not sure what they'd go for, but it's strange. It would be difficult to find a

set of aftermarket wheels for one of these trucks. If that's something that matters to you. But after

the F 250 light duty, it turned into the F 150 7,700. Yeah. And 7,700 series package really

refers to the gross vehicle weight rating. So basically 7,700 pounds. Here's another picture.

So it was in the era of F series where the F 150 was really kind of bubbly and jelly bean the

jelly bean generation. So late nineties. And look at these. They look kind of beefy. I mean,

this is a little bit of a modded image. It's pretty cool. So if you're driving around and

you see a jelly bean F 150 body with an F 250 badge, you know, yeah, that might not be somebody

just putting an F 250 badge on an F 150. It's very likely an F 250 light duty a pretty unique truck.

So this concept was also we can talk about what GM did here as well. But this concept is kind

of like the Ranger Super Duty, right? We have a smaller vehicle that's not very huge,

but you're giving it upgraded suspension, you know, hubs, wheels, you're giving it more

payload capability. So it's the same concept that was done what almost 30 years ago. Yeah,

and it kind of bridges the gap between an F 150 and an F 250, a smaller truck and a larger.

But now the question would come up, why don't you buy a real F 250 then?

You could also do that. How about an OBS truck with a big old power stroke?

Yeah. That sounds good to me, too. That's a good question. But this is definitely an

interesting little bit of truck history. Yeah. And actually, when you first mentioned it to me,

I completely forgot about it. But then, and of course, as luck would have it, you know,

it rolled into Costco. Yeah, one in person. It didn't go inside the store. It was just

rolling right next to it. But they didn't drive through. But when I saw it, I was like,

I totally like flashback. I was like, Oh, yeah, I remember, because I was in college in this era.

Yeah. And I remember, I remember these F 250s rolling around. So it just kind of came back to me.

But Chevy did something similar GM did something similar. There is coal. Can you look up Silverado

1500 HD? Now this is a truck. Is this is this what you want? So you have to be careful. Yeah.

So sometimes it came a little bit later. So it was basically this generation kind of angular

headlamps. Yeah, cat eye. Yeah. Wouldn't that be cat eye? I guess it is a cat eye. But then,

but then it had heavy duty, I believe it was eight lug hubs. So it really looked like a

heavy duty truck, except when you walk next to it, it says 1500 on the side.

Yeah. So they're they're pretty interesting vehicles. I think these are some things

that we forget about a lot of times because they weren't huge sellers, any of these.

Now, we also talked about Dakota. Roman and I were driving, we were doing a Ford Expedition

Iconlet. You weren't you weren't around. I think you were at the out of town Harley Davidson. Yeah.

Yeah, I was riding Harleys. So we were missing you on the highway riding Harleys for work.

I wasn't for work. I wasn't just out and about. That's work.

But look at what I saw. So I'm sorry if you're listening to us, but but you could also watch it.

It's a crew cab Dodge Ram Dakota. So an older generation. Yeah, second generation Dakota with

a fifth wheel, a little fifth wheel single axle camper, which is pretty cool. It's look at

that. This whole setup that these these gentlemen have going is pretty rad. And look at the quality

of the Dakota. The wheels have no blemishes. It's got paint on it. That's how you know,

it's a nice Dakota. It has absolutely paint on it. And the paint is shiny. Look at this.

Yeah, you could see all the reflections in this paint. So so it's a very impressive little

vehicle and it has no badging on the side. So I wasn't sure if it was a V six or a V eight

version, right? If the tone in the mountains, I would hope it's a VA. Yes, because they had several

engines available in these Dakotas. But I thought it was just the bees knees. I like that. That's

a good combo. Just the cats, pajamas. Yeah. Now you've also got some ideas for truck names.

Yeah, you and I were doing a different video and I was wondering like, Oh, you know what's

spread this on? We were talking about the judge, right? Well, also, we saw a police Tahoe. So Cole,

I don't know if you could look up an old generation of a Chevy Tahoe police pursuit. But this Tahoe was

a police Tahoe lifted with steel bumpers. Oh, yeah. So it would have to be a little bit older.

It had a bad pair of bumpers. It had a really dumpy looking metal bumpers.

So slightly older. Like a GMT 800. Yeah.

Yeah. Police. It was yeah, it was it was a bad looking set of bumpers that were on

this particular police Tahoe. Anyways, so I don't think they bought it for style.

But on the side of it said sheriff. And then I came to thinking, why aren't there more

really, really amazing? Like they have the trail boss, right? Yeah, Chevy trail boss. But

Sierra has 84, which is kind of an alphanumeric character, right? Why don't they have other

cool names like the sheriff, like the sheriff? Yes, or the other one that you have, I like

the outlaw, the outlaw. So how about this? I think we need some help from our listeners

and viewers to because I mean, a lot of names already taken, right? Like, for example,

aftermarket companies like, like Hennessey, you know, they have like the mammoth packages or they

have like Velociraptor packages, you know, they have a lot of different cool names.

We need more cool names. Yeah, I feel like we used to be a lot better at naming things.

We talked about this on the car ish podcast at one point, but there used to be engines like

the rocket 88, the blue flame, high fire transmissions, like hydromatic and strato flight

and all these cool names. Yes. What happened? I don't know what happened. Now we have alphanumeric.

Now it's just 10 L, 10 L 80, 10 L 100. And just and they also what bothers me is like,

so Ford is pretty good at this. But other manufacturers could learn a little bit more

like like Ram is good because they have the Hemi badge on the engine. It may not mean the same

what it meant, you know, 50 or 60 years ago with really hemispherical combustion chambers.

Yeah, but even back then, too, they had the 446 pack. I know they brought the six pack thing

back. So Stalantis actually has some good names that they're, you know,

sure kind of bringing back their recycling stuff. They're recycling some really good brands

and names. Ford is also pretty good at this. Like they have the Predator engine and the good Zilla

engine voodoo voodoo engines. That's true. Ford still has some good names for but for some things.

Where's GM? So they have the Duramax, which is a very strong name, right for their diesel engines.

But there's gas V8 engines. I mean, there are less engines, but they don't have really cool names.

It's also it's very difficult to keep track of all of the iterations.

All of the different GM, GMT 400, GMT 800, GMT 900, and then engines 98, LT 4, LT 1, LT 5, LS 1,

LS 3, LS 6, LS 2, LS X. Yeah. There's a lot of things, 06, Z71. There's a lot there that's

pretty hard to keep track of. I wish they would just give them names like what you were

saying Ford did. That's pretty cool voodoo. That's awesome. I can remember that. Yeah. And when you

say like the Predator or Carnivore engine, you kind of know it's a supercharged V8 that goes into

trucks, right? So you have association. My Raptor is powered by this amazing Predator engine.

I mean, that's freaking cool. Like when you're talking to your neighbor and they're like,

oh, I have a... Although I mentioned at one point the Predator engine around

Mary and she didn't think Predator was a cool name, which I can kind of understand. Well,

it's not for everybody, but I think about the... But voodoo is cool.

I think about the alien Predator, the V Predator, yes. So which is pretty tough.

So you mentioned Judge. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that was a name from the past.

Yeah. Yeah, the Judge is cool. So maybe we could get better at naming some stuff.

But what is cooler? And I had this conversation with Roman as well. What is better? Is it really kind

of... Do you want to be on the side of the law with the sheriff? Or do you want to be the outlaw

and kind of the bad guy? What's... Because like Hellcat sounds like a kind of a bad bad guy.

The jailbreak. The jailbreak is kind of a bad guy. Right.

So Roman's point was you have to be like on the side, you know, just questioning authority.

And that's kind of where you want to be. But I think both work. Because the Judge would also...

That would be more on the side of the law. You decide what to do. You are the decider.

If you're thinking that kind of Judge, I don't know if you could make a car called the bailiff.

Might not work as well. But... How about the juror? The juror. Yeah, also not as cool. But...

But it is kind of interesting though. Like we were just talking about Harley-Davidson.

And Harley-Davidson has this interesting history of being both the establishment

because police motorcycles. Historically a lot of Harley-Davidson's police motorcycles.

But also anti-establishment. Making noise. Yeah. Hell's Angels and motorcycle groups.

Yeah. So Harley-Davidson has kind of done both. And has historically done both successfully.

Maybe not as much recently. I think it's possible to do either or both.

You just kind of pick a cool name. I just realized something. You cannot do Sheriff.

Because if you put a big badge on your truck... Oh, if you put Sheriff on the side of your

truck. Yeah, they would think you're from the police. You're impersonating an officer.

That's a good point. You probably shouldn't... Can we strike that? Can we edit that out?

Strike that line of reason. So you do not impersonate members of law enforcement?

Yes. Okay, that's a good lesson. That's our TFL truck tip of the day.

But outlaw? I could see a badge on the side of the truck that says outlaw.

Kind of surprised it hasn't been done already that I know of so.

Cole, can you look up? Is there... I think there may have been like an aftermarket truck

called the outlaw. Yeah. What's the GM... Oh, the GM aftermarket truck I'm thinking of is the...

Oh, there's a monster truck called the outlaw. Oh. Nice. So absolutely.

So why not have a production vehicle named that? You know, maybe in general we should

start modeling production trucks after monster trucks. Yeah. Like the Gravedigger.

Sure. Right? Yeah. Maximum destruction. Cole, would you buy a Gravedigger pickup?

Cole's on board. Cole said yes. See? Nice. But I don't know if Mary would go for that.

She might not. Like for a Gravedigger. So it depends on the audience, right? But I think it's

still cool. Yeah. Like a Raptor truck is cool. ZR2, I always had an issue with that name.

Yeah. Because I understand where it comes from. It's a code, right? It's basically

kind of a purchase order code. Yeah. RPO code. RPO code from the General Motors days,

like ZL1 and as you know, and many others. But it's a ZR2 truck, which is their most capable

off-roader, but it has the number two in it, which is two-wheel drive. Yeah. It doesn't...

Which makes no sense. It doesn't have quite as much personality as some of the other names.

It also has no X in it. Oh, and you gotta have an X. Yeah. Whenever you put an X into a name,

then it becomes way cooler. Like the Outlaw X. Perfect. You know what I'm saying? I think we

could do without the X's, actually. So, yeah. And also, if you want to, so we have a truck

alias, email askatfftruck.com. So, if you do have some interesting images, like a Dodge Dakota

towing a fifth wheel, send it to us. Yeah. Absolutely. And especially, too, if you're a

member on Patreon, you can send us some questions, some comments. Exactly. And we can talk about them

here in the podcast. Yeah. And then, yeah, we can answer some questions from previous weeks.

Yeah. We're also going to be regularly recording this podcast live on Patreon,

where we'll be able to interact with people. And there's one more... Yes, we are. And there's one

more thing. Last week, Roman was here. Yeah. You're not. And Roman posed a question to our

audience. He asked, and Cole remembers this, too. He asked, two vehicles in the history...

They're not necessarily trucks, by the way. So, his question came kind of

tangentially perpendicular to what our discussion was. Right. But there's two

vehicles that are humongously popular in the current day that were designed by

Skunkworks Group of Engineers inside the company that were not sanctioned by the company they were

working for. But once the company found out what they were working on, then they became insanely

popular and they built them. So, there's two vehicles and they're not necessarily pickup

trucks. In fact, they're not pickup trucks, for the most part. So, I don't know if there's

any comments. Cole is looking through comments on our previous episode of people actually kind of

guessing and answering some of this. So, do you know those two vehicles? Well, somebody in one

of the comments said transam. I'm not sure if that's what they were talking about. I do know that

the Lamborghini Miura was initially a vehicle that I don't think Frucio Lamborghini was interested

in making. But some of the people working with him, like what, Bertone? I don't know.

I'm not humongous. You know, I just watched the movie Lamborghini. Yeah. I enjoyed it because

I wanted to learn, you know, there was a movie about the Ferrari, right, Mr. Enzo. But

I enjoyed learning more about Lamborghini. And what I saw in the movie is that he drew

what he wanted the Miura to be on the napkin. But I don't know if it was called the Miura

at the time he drew it. But Roman wasn't thinking about. So, there's some answers

like Mercedes 300 SL, Pontiac GTO. So, Roman was not thinking about any of those.

So, the first one relates to truck. It's the Rubicon Jeep. So, the Jeep Rubicon, we actually

interviewed some of the engineers were in this tight little team. They had the Wrangler,

basically when the Wrangler was named, you know, after CJ7, right? The Wrangler name was coming

out and the Wrangler was the thing. They wanted it to be more capable. So, they went away

and they designed something and somebody said, you know, we should call it the Rubicon

and really do the Rubicon trail. And Jeep liked it after that. And now it's super popular. So,

Rubicon was one. And the other one I wasn't so sure about, but Zach and Roman reminded me

that the GTI VW, the Rabbit GTI was actually built or I mean designed, but there's another

little group of engineers. Interesting. And then became a thing. Yeah. Well, the more you know.

So, that was very educational. I can't get away from trivia on these podcasts, Cole.

Every podcast I do is going to have some kind of trivia. Well, it's not my fault. Yeah,

that's fair. That's fair. It was Roman's fault. But I don't know. So, Cole, I promise,

I'm going to go through all the comments on the previous episode and whoever, if somebody gets,

it's not there. So, because Roman promised a coin or a sticker, like as a prize. Yeah, so

since nobody guessed it, I guess nobody gets anything. Yeah, it seems like he was looking

for a very specific answer. But we did a video about, sorry. I'm just throwing my pen at you.

We did a video interviewing the Rubicon engineers. Yeah. So, that story is real. It's out there.

We didn't do an interview with the GTI engineers. So, I don't know. So, I think it was like a TFL,

TFL now. Was Roman saying those are the only two? He made it sound like those are the most prominent

ones. Could be. I have to believe there's probably more. But the point we're trying to make,

I'm not a historian. So, the point we're trying to make last episode, sorry, let's go longer now.

The point we're trying to make, it's that manufacturers currently kind of took the

eye off the ball. You know, there's not a lot of innovation recently in the pickup truck market

as shown by this. You know, we're not getting some of the coolest stuff that other markets are getting,

right? Yeah, but the things we're asking for in some of these trucks that we lost after our solid

axles, diesels, manual transmissions, and tray beds, which that's not innovative. Probably

doesn't qualify as innovation. But it's bold. It's basically offering something that's really,

really rugged and interesting. Yeah, I don't know if what we're looking for is necessarily

innovation. I think you could argue that there has been innovation in trucks on board power.

That's cool. More driver assistance features hybrid. Yeah, there's a lot of that stuff that

I believe qualifies as innovation. It just might not be innovation that

as many enthusiasts are interested in. Exactly. But what point the Roman was trying to make is that

sometimes, even though the establishment may be a little stale at times, there's still small

groups of people who love, you know, you know, creating something interesting, like the Rubicon

was really interesting. Yeah. The GTI was also very interesting. So that was the point that

Roman was trying to make. And it's always a great thing when the team that's responsible for

developing and bringing to market a vehicle is a team of enthusiasts, and that can materialize in

trims like the Rubicon or GTI. Yeah, because they actually have passion for what they're

doing, right? And they're infusing that passion through it. And we like to see that.

Yeah. So there you have it. That's that's it. Yeah, pretty cool stuff. So just remember outlaw.

Yeah, outlaw. Maybe that'll be an upcoming truck. But yeah, lots of trucks and other markets that we

like, that we aren't able to get our hands on unless we go to Australia, which I'm not against.

Or Brazil, or Brazil. I kind of want to go to Australia because they've got a lot of

cool diesels. Yeah, also a little champ. I want to drive a little champ. Yeah, exactly. So who

knows? Maybe someday it will be possible. Alrighty. Well, thanks for joining us. We'll see you next time.

And we will have more news. For example, next week is State Fair of Texas.

May not have humongous news, but still nonetheless, some truffles. Are you going?

Not this year? No, I wish I was going. I really love deep fried snicker bars.

That doesn't sound bad. I've never tried that. I got hooked last year.

It's an acquired taste. I like deep fried Oreo, but I would try a deep fried snicker.

It's an acquired taste. It's my arm. But I really love being in that area in Dallas

and really being in that area. But I don't know if there's enough news for us to go.

But nonetheless, there's still more shows coming. SEMA is coming. And you and I are going to

SEMA. Yeah, we are. So got that to look forward to. All right. Thanks a lot, guys.

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Ep. 297: These Are The Coolest Trucks We CAN'T Have!

About this episode

Toyota Land Cruiser

Toyota Tundra

Toyota Tacoma

Toyota Hilux

Hyundai Accent

Ford Ranger

F-150 Raptor

Ford F150

Ford F350

Ford Maverick

Dodge Dakota

Dodge Ram

Byd Shark 6

Chevrolet Silverado

Ford Expedition

Chevrolet Tahoe

88 Rocket 88

Challenger Hellcat

Lamborghini Miura

Pontiac Gto

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes 300

Wrangler Rubicon

Jeep Wrangler

Jeep Cj7

Volkswagen Gti Vw

Volkswagen Rabbit

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