SUV vs Pick Up

**jut703** · July 27th, 2015 12:54 PM

Of course, no car can do everything. But why get a pickup? It's so disadvantaged compared to an SUV when it comes to versatility. It will never ride as well as a sedan or crossover.

Unless you'll use the bed, a pickup really isn't a great option IMO.

**12vdc** · July 27th, 2015 02:11 PM

Pickups are more versatile. Lets take a look on the history of pickup trucks.

During the Great Depression, money was very tight. Farmers could not afford both a car for their families and a truck for their farms. Banks would not lend money to farmers to buy a luxury like a car, but would lend money for a working vehicle like a truck. So a farmer (or his wife) wrote a letter to the managing director of Ford, saying, "Why don't you build people like me a vehicle in which I can take my family to church on Sunday, and my pigs to town on Monday?"

In response, Lewis Bandt, the body designer at Ford Australia, created the first ute. He married the front of the car with the back of a truck. It was called a coupe utility- coupe, because it was designed to carry two people, and utility because the farmer could use the back section to carry stock or other things. (In later years, the U.S.-market equivalent would be nicknamed a pickoupe.)

Now, are you a farmer? Yes, they have evolved to be a lifestyle truck which the main target is still for versatility.
If you are in the city driving a pickup without any use for the bed, then think again what is the bed for.

With the NP300 rear coils, its Nissan reaction to the confused buyers who use these trucks more on carrying people than loading chicken manure in the bed.. Its a shame that the local market offers only the coils when it is available on leaves elsewhere.

There's no way a coil sprung rear would carry much load without squatting except if Nissan did really think to add an adjustable airbag suspension. Also think about load distribution in the chassis - leaf sprung attached on 2 sides of the chassis VS single attachment for the coils, coils could break the chassis if loaded heavily.