The Evolution of Truck Size: A Discussion on Functionality and Image

As we continue to develop and innovate our vehicles, one aspect that often gets overlooked is the size of trucks. With advancements in technology and materials, manufacturers are able to create more efficient and capable vehicles, but this has also led to a trend of larger trucks being designed with bigger cabins and more advanced features. However, the question remains: how big do we need our trucks to be?

The issue of truck size is not just about functionality; it's also about image. Many people view larger trucks as essential for work or off-road activities, but in reality, they may not be necessary. A good example of this is my husband, who drives a Frontier truck and doesn't really need the full-size cab that comes with it. In fact, he often finds himself wishing he had something smaller to drive on a daily basis.

The debate over truck size is also closely tied to the trend of off-road looking trucks. Vehicles like the Wrangler have become incredibly popular, even among people who don't regularly engage in off-road activities. This has led manufacturers to create larger, more aggressive trucks that can appeal to this demographic. However, as we've discussed before, larger trucks are often heavier and less fuel-efficient than their smaller counterparts.

The challenge of creating a truck that is both functional and visually appealing is a complex one. Manufacturers must balance the need for advanced features and capabilities with the desire to create a vehicle that looks good on the road or off. One solution that has been proposed is the development of smaller trucks that still offer the same level of capability as their larger counterparts, but in a more compact package.

This idea has sparked debate among truck enthusiasts and owners. Some argue that smaller trucks would be too small to handle heavy loads or towing needs, while others believe that with advancements in materials and technology, it's possible to create a vehicle that is both functional and efficient. For example, the Colorado diesel was recently tested, and the results showed that it's capable of handling heavy loads without sacrificing fuel efficiency.

Ultimately, the decision on truck size comes down to personal preference and specific needs. While some people may prefer the look and feel of a larger truck, others may be perfectly happy with a smaller vehicle. The key is to weigh the pros and cons of each option and choose a truck that meets your unique requirements.

Used Sedans: A Comparison of Options

For those in the market for a used sedan under $10,500, there are several options to consider. Two popular models are the 2011 Toyota Camry and the 2010-2012 Ford Fusion. While both vehicles have their advantages, the question remains: which one is right for you?

One of the key factors to consider when choosing a used sedan is reliability. Both the Camry and Fusion have strong track records in this regard, but it's worth noting that newer vehicles tend to be less prone to age-related issues like worn-out tires and brakes. The Ford Fusion, in particular, has been praised for its more advanced safety features and crash test performance.

When it comes to aesthetics, both the Camry and Fusion are solid choices. However, some owners may prefer the look of one over the other. Ultimately, the decision comes down to personal taste. But for those who prioritize fun-to-drive characteristics, the Ford Fusion is often the clear winner.

The key to getting the best value from a used sedan is to consider both the current market and the vehicle's age. A 2011 Camry or 2010-2012 Fusion are great options if you want a more recent model without breaking the bank. Additionally, crash test ratings and advanced safety features should also be taken into account when making your decision.

The final verdict on which sedan to choose comes down to individual priorities. If reliability is your top concern, a Toyota Camry may be the way to go. But if you prioritize fun-to-drive characteristics and a more modern design, the Ford Fusion is definitely worth considering.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwe say goodbye to the Volkswagen Beetle again but we talk about Volkswagens investment in a whole new fleet of electric cars we also talked about the 2018 Hyundai Accent and take fewer questions next on talking car hi and welcome to talking cards I'm Jennifer Scott burger I'm writing to Lou Kowski and I'm Jake Fisher so we're gonna start today's episode with some news from Volkswagen so there's kind of two phases to the news one is that once again they are phasing out the beetle so of course that just draws up so much nostalgia when they say phasing out the beetle it seems like everybody has some association with the beetle it's like six degrees of seven Kevin Bacon six degrees of beetle so I know when I was a kid my dad had a red one and we would wait at the end of the driveway and he would let us drive it up the driveway it was so cool I know your family's got you know and Volkswagen history in general yeah definitely yeah we had the we the set right we had the the bug and the the van oh wow yeah actually we had two bands at one point the split windows from 1966 I remember you know painting them with rollers you know but but the bug my dad always drove beetles and you know I remember you know actually even working on them with them it was like every fall we put a new long block you know and the engine replaced the engine yeah and you know I think even when I was like five years old we were I was out there helping you know you can play it was like four bolts and you pull on the tail pipe so the thing comes out it's pretty much much that was more like working on a lawnmower than working on a car yeah but your friends happy yeah actually one of our our staff members Mike Jessica yes a Beatles I think under in a restoration mode but and his brother has a van and he had an old Karmann Ghia when we were in high school yeah and it's but I think what's funny about this though is they're phasing up the beat oh no one really cares about that no one cares yeah the New Beetle they phased out to be it all a long time yeah it just brings up all of our old members there were neat old cars you know there's something about that bag of bolts motor sound the sound yeah sure yeah do you think it's the simplicity that made it cool or just cool I think it was a simplicity yeah and it was that like back then it was a people's car kind of thing it was cheap and yeah my stepdaughter got one is she again younger than me but she got one for a wedding gift and it's kind of cool that was there taking off from their wedding car and in a beetle so that was kinda we had actually probably more the most fun times I've ever had at our track here was when we had some friends up from Jalopnik they came up and one broad is this bug slightly modified slightly we don't weed attract full snow yeah and a Baja Bug and that was absolutely a blast and there's nothing like it right I mean there's tons of new cars that we drive it has nothing like got in the open no heat and I think we had like gloves on you know and the new beetle never never took off had some reliability issues when it first came out there was some excitement about it but again it was kind of like you know a topper over a Volkswagen Golf you know it really wasn't in there was there was a reliability issues with it and yeah it wasn't as a distinctive it didn't have you know again rear engine and air-cooled I mean all those things I made the beetle special beetle didn't really exist in that and the second incarnations right the second generation was like didn't even exist kind of I mean yeah but I would any of these types of cars and they come back with a new generation of something it's never the same like the Challenger was such an awesome car out in the day they come out with again it nice car to drive but it's like it's not the same it's never the same way so it's like I don't know doesn't draw up all those memories you just have to let that go I guess I wear just buy an old one yeah right you could actually get beetles right now so I mean I think the values are gonna go up right I mean look at what happened to the Vans the looks like a colossal regions outrageous yeah six figure is easy yeah now yeah okay get a bug while you can okay got a beat while you can so I'm the other piece of that was that the eos is going which I kind of liked that car to but that's going with it so ii III agree you like that car and the second part of the story it ties in a little bit in that BW is gonna have this new wine or platform if you we'll called the ID electric cars yes and they've just made a huge investment twenty five billion dollars in battery whose resources to feed that line the ID sub brand very different so all electrics yeah well I mean it makes sense for Volkswagen I mean look at books wagon was very heavily invested in Diesel's and that didn't go so well let's let's say and you know I mean it was it was a technology that they invested in which was you know energy-efficient and whatnot and they are making a big pivot right now and it's it's in the investment and in battery technology and you look how much money twenty five billion dollars they just announced insane Wow I mean that's that's probably more than you know Tesla investment we did did look that it's more than so we're seeing this kind of new age of you know two hundred miles plus on electric cars Volkswagen obviously is on board yeah and one of the ones that they really talked about most was again going back to those buses that were driving the ID buzz which is like the yeah you know next generation of the Volkswagen micro bus right and they're able to get that style on it right it looks like micro bus was always like you know that that's short front end they could do that with the electric putting the batteries underneath yeah it's almost a perfect item right that point for that yeah but again platform well why not have old you know whole line so there's the idea cross coming out and there's other ones coming out based on that platform and and yeah it's gonna be a big shift I think it's exciting because it's Volkswagen is still I think the largest car manufacturer in the world pretty big but they're investing that much more than Tesla that's yeah you know they have they potentially more power to build these cars and you know I don't the Tesla still has some issues I think getting cars out you know because the battery yeah they might be actually fulfill the battery supply well and just in general I mean Volkswagen knows a little bit about mass production right so it's almost like the the traditional players are now waking up right they're looking at what Tesla is done and they're saying okay let's let's see what we could do and it'll be very interest to see what we see out of them and they're talking 2020 2022 for the ID i D yeah meat so in without with the old with the new so new from our track this week we're going to talk about the 2018 Hyundai Accent not a very fancy vehicle but redesigned for 18 a little more room little more fuel efficiency so initial thoughts it's um it's very simple and we like that it's simple to drive it's got a regular conventional automatic shifter it's got a manual climate it's a red little firm it's so it's an economy car kind of you know so it's not there's you can expect a lot out of it place it's fun to drive and yeah we haven't you know tested a fuel economy wise yes we don't know that it really is EPA says it's a little better 30 to 32 mpg so we'll have to see in our tests yes I I mean I enjoyed driving it just cuz it was simple yeah and again doing our homework the word that came out for people that have driven it is straightforward yep you seeing the word straightforward particularly in the controls Hyundai has done a really good job yeah of not overcomplicating even touch screens well and it's got plenty of features too right so I mean yes I mean ours you know you turn the keys all these things but I mean it's fine it works and it does give you all those features right you even have a touchscreen you could go and you know connect to your smartphone and your music library and all that stuff so it has the features but it's but but I again I think it is refreshing to drive it it is pretty fun you know it feels like you're driving the car not you know being in a car that's driving around and you're kind of like you know you can feel the room it's a little more engaging running a little bit small and nimble yeah one of the thoughts around it too was its new probably not a lot of discounts could you go like one step up to an Elantra oh and for the about this I think you could probably get a whole entre for less I'd be alright if you look around yeah the launch was nice too yeah it is and just a little bit more room the rear seat in the accent certainly when I drove it and I still have kids doing stuff but you have to cheat the front seats to get the rear seat or a little bit before anybody's comfortable huh so yeah 1718 thousand dollars will see how it tests out so wrapping up kind of news from the track or new with the track we're gonna launch into some viewer questions and we have a few today so first one when you calculate road test scores do you calculate them for example on SUV standards or sports car standards are there factors that contribute to the road test score that I don't know about yes now so so we do have different rating schemes for different car types we do recognize that perhaps what is important to you in an SUV is not the same things that might be important to a sports car driver or a luxury car driver so there's different different schemes I will say when you look at sedans you can pretty much compare them all but certainly when it comes to like sports cars yes we're not that concerned about rear seat room we are concerned about driving and handling and those things and when it comes to like SUVs and pickup trucks certainly your ability to tow and haul that's that's more important so that comes out just a little math the waiting's of each of those test changes right if I get to the overall score and that's like with other products too they aren't really comparable outside of there again with the exception of sedans perhaps but you can't really compare the overall score for parts car right which is somewhat different though if you look at the individual tests though and we are and that everyone realizes this but like when we assess handling we're assessing handling compared to all vehicles reliability compared to all vehicles and all those individual scores right so the individual scores are comparable but the waiting's to the overall score are not correct and that's like they think the question here second question what would you guys buy for your mother if you had a three to five thousand dollar range of range money-wise and she just drives to and from work a couple of errands a week and then watches her grandchild quite often so safe and reliable - could you please help so one of the things I was saying is is 3 to 5 put you in about that 2007-2008 era so that was the first thing I noted we talked about that price range a lot when we talk about cars for teens right and it's hard to get there's very few that where you get to the you know our big favor at the electronic stability control so it's hard to get there at that price range and get electronic stability control yeah I mean one car that comes to mind is the the Sonata the Hyundai Sonata yeah um about about 10 years 2007-2008 that is a car that had stability standard stability control early earlier and you can get them for less than $5,000 you're probably talking about a hundred twenty thousand miles but you know it's it's a decent modern car should be reliable with it having the stability is a big plus for my mom I see like something a little more utilitarian like a fib it's small but rice but Ruben put the seats down at roomy and it's uh hmm I don't know the stability control I don't think on that was that one who came later but yeah it wasn't available 209 right you're right you're not going to get it for that one play but certain functional yeah the great little I think the fit is deceptively roomy you look at it and you don't think it's gonna be as good as it is until you get in it yeah the other one I thought of too is the Corolla that me that just the venerable Corolla would come up and it would be a good car too but again wouldn't have this standard no stability control actually my dad does Drive a Honda Fit both stick shifts yeah both sporty to drive yep okay next one hey talking cars guys and gals maybe and yes what is the next big step in weight loss for pickup trucks we've got an all aluminum body but what would shave off a significant amount next a smaller truck well you're probably not off the mark yeah well yeah there's so there's a couple smaller truck coming out now um the new Ranger is coming that's exciting obviously the Tacoma is so like hotcakes no matter what on the Colorado has been pretty done pretty well in terms of lightening them up I mean we talked I think a week or two ago on the talking cars episode of the GMC in the carbon fiber bed yeah I whether that'll gain traction or not I don't know that sounds expensive to me I think the whole truck has to shrink yeah it's a truck so you need it to be big to do things so it's like you're kind of asking for but how big how big do you need it you know and III think that that's what's interesting is we do this light and weighting right we have see all these advanced materials and whatnot but every time they do put these materials in they also make the truck larger so there's somewhat offset a oh I mean how how big the top hat do you need in order to carry your stuff right I mean it's not just your carrying capacity it's also these enormous cabins which are just if you need a work truck not totally necessary I mean the rest of the world does get by with smaller trucks and it seems to work yeah I think I've shared my husband drives at frontier and he would love a full-size truck and we just he doesn't really need it right now it's not about yeah for sure well I mean the question is whether or not they could actually this is about once and and well let's let's be real a lot of it's about image you know if you could somehow get the image of those smaller trucks where they need to be I mean right now there's like this whole thing about these off-road looking trucks I mean you look at the Wrangler I mean not everyone is climbing the Rubicon but I mean that look that style is it's terrific so I mean if you could kind of have this like off-road smaller truck that looks great and gives you that image without having the the enormous cab what you don't may not need we do have country those big trucks as big grill and it's right it's not it's physics wind and be fuel-efficient and it's heavy because there's a lot more material there so yeah I don't know of any other magical metals that they could build these things out because the price is only gonna go up so we would say really think about what you need right I mean a fuel was is an issue and again feels inexpensive right now so people push the envelope you know and go bigger because it doesn't cost a lot but think about what you really need in terms of my truck yeah I mean we did tested the the Colorado diesel we got 24 miles you know it's it's it's capable vehicle right not not the biggest right right so last question we have I am considering a used sedan under ten thousand five hundred dollars and I'm deciding between an O it to 2011 Toyota Camry or a 2010 to 2012 Ford Fusion I like the Camry because it's a safe choice but I like the look of the fusion a little bit more and it's more fun to drive opinions please well he'd nailed it on the head the fusion is definitely more fun to drive mhm I think it's better-looking that's my personal pressure the Toyota the Toyota so it's reliable yeah I would get I would go to the fusion a little newer and it's fun to drive and I need I need to be engaged a little bit well I mean luck I mean reliability is really important and we stress the reliability ratings and all the the history that that we have but keep in mind there are age-related problems too right so sometimes if you're able to get a newer vehicle you know you may be better off even if it's not the most reliable vehicle you know it's not a you know the top of the list in terms of reliability but if it's newer that means you're not getting you know the worn-out tires the worn-out brakes there's a lot of things that are age-related as well so you might kind of be you know in the same same boat right is the newer and he hit right on it in his question and Oh a 200 11 or 2011 Camry or a 2002 2012 fusion right for the same money you can get into your point a much more current car with the fusion right right and the other thing and just to throw about currency it's not just about the stuff that was out but also about yeah think about when the car was designed what about the safety stuff and not just you know we talked about stability control and all the advanced safety things but also crash tests right so their time right exactly the newer they built that vehicle the newer crash test that vehicles designed for so so there is something beside for that yeah and even in a few years not many years but a lot can change in a few years yeah so it sounds like the fusion fusions devote so that's all we've got for this week thank you so much for your questions if you have questions we'd love to see your shining faces you can submit them by a video at consumerreports.org /a talking cars if you'd like more information on the cars we've talked about today see the show notes below as always thank you and see you next time youwe say goodbye to the Volkswagen Beetle again but we talk about Volkswagens investment in a whole new fleet of electric cars we also talked about the 2018 Hyundai Accent and take fewer questions next on talking car hi and welcome to talking cards I'm Jennifer Scott burger I'm writing to Lou Kowski and I'm Jake Fisher so we're gonna start today's episode with some news from Volkswagen so there's kind of two phases to the news one is that once again they are phasing out the beetle so of course that just draws up so much nostalgia when they say phasing out the beetle it seems like everybody has some association with the beetle it's like six degrees of seven Kevin Bacon six degrees of beetle so I know when I was a kid my dad had a red one and we would wait at the end of the driveway and he would let us drive it up the driveway it was so cool I know your family's got you know and Volkswagen history in general yeah definitely yeah we had the we the set right we had the the bug and the the van oh wow yeah actually we had two bands at one point the split windows from 1966 I remember you know painting them with rollers you know but but the bug my dad always drove beetles and you know I remember you know actually even working on them with them it was like every fall we put a new long block you know and the engine replaced the engine yeah and you know I think even when I was like five years old we were I was out there helping you know you can play it was like four bolts and you pull on the tail pipe so the thing comes out it's pretty much much that was more like working on a lawnmower than working on a car yeah but your friends happy yeah actually one of our our staff members Mike Jessica yes a Beatles I think under in a restoration mode but and his brother has a van and he had an old Karmann Ghia when we were in high school yeah and it's but I think what's funny about this though is they're phasing up the beat oh no one really cares about that no one cares yeah the New Beetle they phased out to be it all a long time yeah it just brings up all of our old members there were neat old cars you know there's something about that bag of bolts motor sound the sound yeah sure yeah do you think it's the simplicity that made it cool or just cool I think it was a simplicity yeah and it was that like back then it was a people's car kind of thing it was cheap and yeah my stepdaughter got one is she again younger than me but she got one for a wedding gift and it's kind of cool that was there taking off from their wedding car and in a beetle so that was kinda we had actually probably more the most fun times I've ever had at our track here was when we had some friends up from Jalopnik they came up and one broad is this bug slightly modified slightly we don't weed attract full snow yeah and a Baja Bug and that was absolutely a blast and there's nothing like it right I mean there's tons of new cars that we drive it has nothing like got in the open no heat and I think we had like gloves on you know and the new beetle never never took off had some reliability issues when it first came out there was some excitement about it but again it was kind of like you know a topper over a Volkswagen Golf you know it really wasn't in there was there was a reliability issues with it and yeah it wasn't as a distinctive it didn't have you know again rear engine and air-cooled I mean all those things I made the beetle special beetle didn't really exist in that and the second incarnations right the second generation was like didn't even exist kind of I mean yeah but I would any of these types of cars and they come back with a new generation of something it's never the same like the Challenger was such an awesome car out in the day they come out with again it nice car to drive but it's like it's not the same it's never the same way so it's like I don't know doesn't draw up all those memories you just have to let that go I guess I wear just buy an old one yeah right you could actually get beetles right now so I mean I think the values are gonna go up right I mean look at what happened to the Vans the looks like a colossal regions outrageous yeah six figure is easy yeah now yeah okay get a bug while you can okay got a beat while you can so I'm the other piece of that was that the eos is going which I kind of liked that car to but that's going with it so ii III agree you like that car and the second part of the story it ties in a little bit in that BW is gonna have this new wine or platform if you we'll called the ID electric cars yes and they've just made a huge investment twenty five billion dollars in battery whose resources to feed that line the ID sub brand very different so all electrics yeah well I mean it makes sense for Volkswagen I mean look at books wagon was very heavily invested in Diesel's and that didn't go so well let's let's say and you know I mean it was it was a technology that they invested in which was you know energy-efficient and whatnot and they are making a big pivot right now and it's it's in the investment and in battery technology and you look how much money twenty five billion dollars they just announced insane Wow I mean that's that's probably more than you know Tesla investment we did did look that it's more than so we're seeing this kind of new age of you know two hundred miles plus on electric cars Volkswagen obviously is on board yeah and one of the ones that they really talked about most was again going back to those buses that were driving the ID buzz which is like the yeah you know next generation of the Volkswagen micro bus right and they're able to get that style on it right it looks like micro bus was always like you know that that's short front end they could do that with the electric putting the batteries underneath yeah it's almost a perfect item right that point for that yeah but again platform well why not have old you know whole line so there's the idea cross coming out and there's other ones coming out based on that platform and and yeah it's gonna be a big shift I think it's exciting because it's Volkswagen is still I think the largest car manufacturer in the world pretty big but they're investing that much more than Tesla that's yeah you know they have they potentially more power to build these cars and you know I don't the Tesla still has some issues I think getting cars out you know because the battery yeah they might be actually fulfill the battery supply well and just in general I mean Volkswagen knows a little bit about mass production right so it's almost like the the traditional players are now waking up right they're looking at what Tesla is done and they're saying okay let's let's see what we could do and it'll be very interest to see what we see out of them and they're talking 2020 2022 for the ID i D yeah meat so in without with the old with the new so new from our track this week we're going to talk about the 2018 Hyundai Accent not a very fancy vehicle but redesigned for 18 a little more room little more fuel efficiency so initial thoughts it's um it's very simple and we like that it's simple to drive it's got a regular conventional automatic shifter it's got a manual climate it's a red little firm it's so it's an economy car kind of you know so it's not there's you can expect a lot out of it place it's fun to drive and yeah we haven't you know tested a fuel economy wise yes we don't know that it really is EPA says it's a little better 30 to 32 mpg so we'll have to see in our tests yes I I mean I enjoyed driving it just cuz it was simple yeah and again doing our homework the word that came out for people that have driven it is straightforward yep you seeing the word straightforward particularly in the controls Hyundai has done a really good job yeah of not overcomplicating even touch screens well and it's got plenty of features too right so I mean yes I mean ours you know you turn the keys all these things but I mean it's fine it works and it does give you all those features right you even have a touchscreen you could go and you know connect to your smartphone and your music library and all that stuff so it has the features but it's but but I again I think it is refreshing to drive it it is pretty fun you know it feels like you're driving the car not you know being in a car that's driving around and you're kind of like you know you can feel the room it's a little more engaging running a little bit small and nimble yeah one of the thoughts around it too was its new probably not a lot of discounts could you go like one step up to an Elantra oh and for the about this I think you could probably get a whole entre for less I'd be alright if you look around yeah the launch was nice too yeah it is and just a little bit more room the rear seat in the accent certainly when I drove it and I still have kids doing stuff but you have to cheat the front seats to get the rear seat or a little bit before anybody's comfortable huh so yeah 1718 thousand dollars will see how it tests out so wrapping up kind of news from the track or new with the track we're gonna launch into some viewer questions and we have a few today so first one when you calculate road test scores do you calculate them for example on SUV standards or sports car standards are there factors that contribute to the road test score that I don't know about yes now so so we do have different rating schemes for different car types we do recognize that perhaps what is important to you in an SUV is not the same things that might be important to a sports car driver or a luxury car driver so there's different different schemes I will say when you look at sedans you can pretty much compare them all but certainly when it comes to like sports cars yes we're not that concerned about rear seat room we are concerned about driving and handling and those things and when it comes to like SUVs and pickup trucks certainly your ability to tow and haul that's that's more important so that comes out just a little math the waiting's of each of those test changes right if I get to the overall score and that's like with other products too they aren't really comparable outside of there again with the exception of sedans perhaps but you can't really compare the overall score for parts car right which is somewhat different though if you look at the individual tests though and we are and that everyone realizes this but like when we assess handling we're assessing handling compared to all vehicles reliability compared to all vehicles and all those individual scores right so the individual scores are comparable but the waiting's to the overall score are not correct and that's like they think the question here second question what would you guys buy for your mother if you had a three to five thousand dollar range of range money-wise and she just drives to and from work a couple of errands a week and then watches her grandchild quite often so safe and reliable - could you please help so one of the things I was saying is is 3 to 5 put you in about that 2007-2008 era so that was the first thing I noted we talked about that price range a lot when we talk about cars for teens right and it's hard to get there's very few that where you get to the you know our big favor at the electronic stability control so it's hard to get there at that price range and get electronic stability control yeah I mean one car that comes to mind is the the Sonata the Hyundai Sonata yeah um about about 10 years 2007-2008 that is a car that had stability standard stability control early earlier and you can get them for less than $5,000 you're probably talking about a hundred twenty thousand miles but you know it's it's a decent modern car should be reliable with it having the stability is a big plus for my mom I see like something a little more utilitarian like a fib it's small but rice but Ruben put the seats down at roomy and it's uh hmm I don't know the stability control I don't think on that was that one who came later but yeah it wasn't available 209 right you're right you're not going to get it for that one play but certain functional yeah the great little I think the fit is deceptively roomy you look at it and you don't think it's gonna be as good as it is until you get in it yeah the other one I thought of too is the Corolla that me that just the venerable Corolla would come up and it would be a good car too but again wouldn't have this standard no stability control actually my dad does Drive a Honda Fit both stick shifts yeah both sporty to drive yep okay next one hey talking cars guys and gals maybe and yes what is the next big step in weight loss for pickup trucks we've got an all aluminum body but what would shave off a significant amount next a smaller truck well you're probably not off the mark yeah well yeah there's so there's a couple smaller truck coming out now um the new Ranger is coming that's exciting obviously the Tacoma is so like hotcakes no matter what on the Colorado has been pretty done pretty well in terms of lightening them up I mean we talked I think a week or two ago on the talking cars episode of the GMC in the carbon fiber bed yeah I whether that'll gain traction or not I don't know that sounds expensive to me I think the whole truck has to shrink yeah it's a truck so you need it to be big to do things so it's like you're kind of asking for but how big how big do you need it you know and III think that that's what's interesting is we do this light and weighting right we have see all these advanced materials and whatnot but every time they do put these materials in they also make the truck larger so there's somewhat offset a oh I mean how how big the top hat do you need in order to carry your stuff right I mean it's not just your carrying capacity it's also these enormous cabins which are just if you need a work truck not totally necessary I mean the rest of the world does get by with smaller trucks and it seems to work yeah I think I've shared my husband drives at frontier and he would love a full-size truck and we just he doesn't really need it right now it's not about yeah for sure well I mean the question is whether or not they could actually this is about once and and well let's let's be real a lot of it's about image you know if you could somehow get the image of those smaller trucks where they need to be I mean right now there's like this whole thing about these off-road looking trucks I mean you look at the Wrangler I mean not everyone is climbing the Rubicon but I mean that look that style is it's terrific so I mean if you could kind of have this like off-road smaller truck that looks great and gives you that image without having the the enormous cab what you don't may not need we do have country those big trucks as big grill and it's right it's not it's physics wind and be fuel-efficient and it's heavy because there's a lot more material there so yeah I don't know of any other magical metals that they could build these things out because the price is only gonna go up so we would say really think about what you need right I mean a fuel was is an issue and again feels inexpensive right now so people push the envelope you know and go bigger because it doesn't cost a lot but think about what you really need in terms of my truck yeah I mean we did tested the the Colorado diesel we got 24 miles you know it's it's it's capable vehicle right not not the biggest right right so last question we have I am considering a used sedan under ten thousand five hundred dollars and I'm deciding between an O it to 2011 Toyota Camry or a 2010 to 2012 Ford Fusion I like the Camry because it's a safe choice but I like the look of the fusion a little bit more and it's more fun to drive opinions please well he'd nailed it on the head the fusion is definitely more fun to drive mhm I think it's better-looking that's my personal pressure the Toyota the Toyota so it's reliable yeah I would get I would go to the fusion a little newer and it's fun to drive and I need I need to be engaged a little bit well I mean luck I mean reliability is really important and we stress the reliability ratings and all the the history that that we have but keep in mind there are age-related problems too right so sometimes if you're able to get a newer vehicle you know you may be better off even if it's not the most reliable vehicle you know it's not a you know the top of the list in terms of reliability but if it's newer that means you're not getting you know the worn-out tires the worn-out brakes there's a lot of things that are age-related as well so you might kind of be you know in the same same boat right is the newer and he hit right on it in his question and Oh a 200 11 or 2011 Camry or a 2002 2012 fusion right for the same money you can get into your point a much more current car with the fusion right right and the other thing and just to throw about currency it's not just about the stuff that was out but also about yeah think about when the car was designed what about the safety stuff and not just you know we talked about stability control and all the advanced safety things but also crash tests right so their time right exactly the newer they built that vehicle the newer crash test that vehicles designed for so so there is something beside for that yeah and even in a few years not many years but a lot can change in a few years yeah so it sounds like the fusion fusions devote so that's all we've got for this week thank you so much for your questions if you have questions we'd love to see your shining faces you can submit them by a video at consumerreports.org /a talking cars if you'd like more information on the cars we've talked about today see the show notes below as always thank you and see you next time you\n"