2015 GMC Canyon

LOL, great post.

I assume GM put a new grill on a Tacoma and called it a new truck? Looks like a clone both inside and out!



Not that its such a bad thing- the Tacoma is a great truck. I have 2 buddies that own them, and they strike a nice balance in size for tighter communities (both live/lived just outside some big cities) and capabilities. And dead nuts reliabile to boot. Not sure the GM offerings will match them in that last regard though. Joe had a good take on the American small/midsize trucks recently:

JoeinNY wrote: The fall of the small truck was caused ultimately by the lack of increasing fuel efficiency standards.   Or alternately their prominence in the mid seventies through early nineties was the result of said regulations, combined with the second tier product management and marketing.   The full size trucks are always going to have the advantage of high volume in the US due to the commercial users. That volume allows them to tool up to the point that the extra 8-900 lbs of material in the full size truck doesn’t make it cost any more to design and build per piece than the small truck. Absent the need to sell the smaller platforms to average out the number of larger trucks they were selling the auto companies would much rather sell you a larger truck with the higher profit margin. The larger trucks therefore get all the design effort.. the little truck platforms that were actually pretty nice in the mid eighties got nothing more exciting than new body panels or required safety/emissions updates.   The big trucks got better and pretty soon you got just as good mileage with the big truck as the little truck, the prices were pretty close, parts for the big ones are cheaper, resale for the big ones better…   The last Colorado is what happens when you take your B-team product development staff and tell them to produce a new platform quickly and cheaply. Reliability and efficiency take time and skill to produce and are hard to market, bigger and more horsepower are easier and quicker – Marketing groups think everyone is Tim the toolman Taylor.    Then when it doesn’t sell they learn the wrong lessons… oh no boss it’s not that we built a crappy truck it’s just that that segment of the market is dead, or the engineers made it cost too much- yeah that’s it.

It will be interesting to see if GM has learned their lesson and actually engineered some goodness into their new smaller pickups. Previous to his Tacoma, my buddy bought a '04 Ranger (new) and boy, that thing was a real peach.

I do have to thank you for making me look at the new F150 though, which debuted today. Extensive use of aluminum in the body for '15 that lowers weight by 700 lbs... increasing its towing and hauling capacities as well as increasing its fuel efficiency. Aluminum wont dent as easily and wont corrode (rust) like steel. Sounds like a win/win/win to me! I believe you are misusing the "high strung" terminology to describe their Ecoboost engine offerings. In a few more years we should have a pretty good idea how they hold up over time. I am more concerned with the increasing complexity of Ford's electrical systems and how many vehicle functions are built into the GUI at the dash. Great when it works and might be expensive to replace when it doesnt... but time will tell on that as well.

Oh Jesus, I didn't think Ford ever could have made the F150 uglier. Wait, they did. Interior looks like a nice step up from 14 though.

quinner wrote: Timmy, more kool aide, lol You have got to be kidding when you say GM is copying a jap pickupcar, your kool aide must be spiked cuz you are confused and you have that bacerds. Find it funny you regularly state GM SUV/Pickups have such poor reliability yet have never actually owned one, oh wait, it was one of your buds who drives a femmeyota that told you, LOL. Take off your skirt and buy that Ford or GM pickup already!!

LOL! Chris, I guess you could say that Toyotas are a metro truck.   

TRBenj wrote: Extensive use of aluminum in the body for '15 that lowers weight by 700 lbs... increasing its towing and hauling capacities as well as increasing its fuel efficiency. Aluminum wont dent as easily and wont corrode (rust) like steel. Sounds like a win/win/win to me! I believe you are misusing the "high strung" terminology to describe their Ecoboost engine offerings. In a few more years we should have a pretty good idea how they hold up over time. I am more concerned with the increasing complexity of Ford's electrical systems and how many vehicle functions are built into the GUI at the dash. Great when it works and might be expensive to replace when it doesnt... but time will tell on that as well.

Aluminum does corrode and does dent easy and is harder to repair once damaged,not everyone has the skills to repair it yet.I for one would not be anxious to do their R&D for them.English cars have been using it for decades,the most famous to us here is the AC Cobra, even my 59 MG has the doors,trunk and hood skinned in aluminum.
As to electrical systems you guy's know the trouble we had with the Lincoln that Ford could not repair,I cannot imagine what you would do if it affected the running of the vehicle.

Yes the high end body shops have the knowledge but you won't be seeing Allstate,Geico,State Farm etc sending Fords to them,they will go to the cheapest places like Sterling,Maico--
I personally think the way to go was the original Saturn method of body panels or the plastic composite panels that were used by Jeep,Ford and Volvo. I understand why they have to go to these extreem routes but I don't have to like it

Saturn always used plastic panels save the hood and trunk. My truck I believe has an aluminum hood. It's taken several rocks large enough to chip the paint pretty badly with no dents so far fingers crossed. So the aluminum may still corrode eventually but I bed it would probably double or triple the service life on non galvanized steel panels.
I mean look at the engine cradle in all of our boats. Thousands of hours in direct contact with water.

The only thing that worries me about aluminum and corrosion is that it seems to corrode more when the material is sealed and then breached by a chip (in the case of aluminum wheels that are clear coated). Maybe it was for cost reasons but most manufacturers have went by the way of plastic chrome wheels covers I would assume from the warranty issues found on coated aluminum rims. My roommates 12 Grand Cherokee has had one wheel replaced already and another on the way for that reason.