The huge growth in pickup-truck sales in this decade has been fueled largely by the automakers’ ability to make these vehicles more like cars. As these beasts of burden acquired more of the auto’s ride comfort, ease of operation and optional equipment, they acquired more of its buyers.
The extended cab is one of the cleverest and most successful of those efforts to make the pickup more car-like and has become the hottest model out there. Its popularity has been enhanced by the latest serving of car-like comfort and convenience: the back door.
The extended-cab pickup is fashioned by stretching a regular cab and compensating with a longer wheelbase and a shorter cargo bed. The net result of this exercise is to add $2,000 and $4,000 to the cost of compact and full-size pickups and greatly increase their utility.
Automakers didn’t anticipate the popularity of extended-cab models in the ’90s. Kurt Ritter, brand manager for Chevrolet’s full-size pickup, remembers that when the big truck was redesigned 10 years ago, “the initial forecast for extended-cab models was 5 percent of production.”
Today, two-thirds of the full-size pickups sold in this country have extended cabs. Chevy’s extended-cab percentage is an industry-leading 70 percent.
In compact pickups, whose buyers tend to be younger and less affluent, the more expensive extended-cab models account for about 50 percent of sales.
Chevy’s corrected its estimates for extended-cab demand in 1995 by using Texas as a bellwether.
“In 1992, we did a study that showed that Texas was three years in front of the nation in terms of extended-cab demand,” Ritter recalls. “On the basis of that, we began to produce extended cabs at the 70 percent rate for the 1995 model year.”
“Texas is to pickups what Hollywood is to the movie industry.”
Compact and full-size extended-cab pickups afford a substantial amount of space behind the front seats for dry, secure cargo storage. Both also have folding back seats to carry extra passengers.
Because of their differences in size, however, their use for cargo and passenger transportation differs dramatically.
Since the full-size pickup has a lot more room in back, it can be fitted with a bench seat that folds down from the rear of the cab and provides decent legroom for two people.
The more limited backseat space in the compact requires the use of jump seats that fold out of the sides of the cab. These seats are cramped and uncomfortable and are suited for use in a pinch.
Because of these differences, the back seat of a full-size extended cab tends to be used for carrying people, while the compact’s is employed largely to haul stuff. This explains the different rear-door placement of extended cab models with single back doors.
Since the compact extended-cab models are used largely for cargo, the back door is on the driver’s side for convenience. (The back door in a compact eliminates one of the jump seats.)
Because full-size trucks are more apt to haul people, the door is on the curb side to increase the safety of children.
Door placement will become increasingly moot, however. All three domestic automakers will soon have two back doors on their full-size models. Ford also will have them on its compact. These extra doors will mark another step in the campaign to make pickups more car-like.
Dodge has a full-size extended-cab pickup with a two-rear-door option and may have a similar option on its smaller truck in a year or so. Chevy is expected to field a four-door version of its redesigned full-size pickup next year, and probably will build a four-door compact later.
But Ford has a four-door Ranger compact in the dealerships. “Then in the fall, the (full-size) F-150 will be available with four doors,” said Ford sales analyst George Pipas.
Pipas says the two back doors will be an option on the Ranger and standard on the F-150. (The two back doors are an $800 option on the full-size Dodge Ram.)
Cupholders and storage compartments also are popping up in those back seats, which are getting more comfortable.
“The 1999 full-size Chevy will have an extra four inches in rear-seat legroom and an angled back rest to make that seat even more comfortable,” says brand manager Ritter.
The extended-cab model epitomizes the automakers’ efforts to make the pickup more and desirable. As Dodge Truck spokesman Mike Rosenau puts it: “If you give them leather, a nice stereo, a back seat and back doors in addition to the ability to pull their boat, you’ve made this vehicle a lot more appealing.”
Comfort and utility don’t fully explain why the pickup has kept on truckin’ through the ’90s in such grand style.
“The pickup also gives customers a sense of security and safety,” says Dora Nowicki, assistant brand manager for Chevy’s compact S-10 pickup. “And it fits in with lifestyles that include outdoor living and do-it-yourself. More and more people are choosing to do things around their homes, and the pickup helps them do that.”
“Another issue is that trucks have become socially acceptable,” adds Ritter. “They’ve become cool. They are like country music and jeans. Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have found those things at the country club, and now you do.”
