How about a brand new American-made truck for $21,500?

[sdkid]

Check this out-- they are saying their design will go 500,000 miles. 4 cylinder truck with 4,500 pound towing capacity. If it's half as good as they advertise-- I could maybe see buying one of these.



They just have to call one the "Speedwagon" don't they??

REO — Built Like It Used To Be

The Runabout. Gas, mechanical, body-on-frame — engineered for 500,000 miles. Starting at $21,500. Reserve yours for $25, fully refundable.

reotrucks.com

 

[sdkid]

OK-- their marketing is Perfect for this day and age where automakers are crazy with parts, repairs, and software you can't touch. Read this:



I think the problem is these things will be TINY and underpowered ... we'll see.

 

[Arjun]

Looks promising, but what about the price of materials? Prices are going up every month.
$21,500+ sounds too good to be true

 

[bp2008]

Yup, based on their timeline it is a long way from here to a finished product. Prices will go up. There will be delays. I hope you don't need a new truck for 5 years.

Admirable goals though. I hope they can pull it off.

 

[jrbeddow]

I think the problem is these things will be TINY and underpowered ... we'll see.

Sadly the American public has bought into the idea that pickup trucks need to "LOOK" big and burly/manly (MORE POWER, heh heh), but in reality the bed size is often ridiculously small and short. We used to get by just fine in the 80's and first part of the 90's with overall (physically) smaller trucks with more useful bed sizes, as does the rest of the world to this day. It's all about feeding an ego/status here nowadays.

 

[wrapter]

Sadly the American public has bought into the idea that pickup trucks need to "LOOK" big and burly/manly (MORE POWER, heh heh), but in reality the bed size is often ridiculously small and short. We used to get by just fine in the 80's and first part of the 90's with overall (physically) smaller trucks with more useful bed sizes, as does the rest of the world to this day. It's all about feeding an ego/status here nowadays.

That's because of CAFE norms, if trucks exceed a certian weight and size they can dodge the fuel efficiency standards. Because the engines made by US automakers are so poor in fuel efficiency. They found a loophole to increase the size.

Pickup trucks elsewhere in the world have perfectly good sized bed and are quite small.

Power to weight ratio matters.

Even in EV look at the Hummer EV vs say a Cybertruck. The Hummer has a battery that is twice the capacity, so its much heavier and bigger and has poor range. Where the cybertruck despite having a battery that is half the capacity, has more range and performance.

The Chinese EV and Hybrid trucks will eat everything else for power and efficiency and price.
Munro on youtube striped a BYD shark 6 pick up truck and their complaint, why is this suspension built like a tank? Why is there so many bolts and screws? The only thing American firms think of is cost cutting and make it harder to repair.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Looks promising, but what about the price of materials? Prices are going up every month.
$21,500+ sounds too good to be true

Besides that, I say "looks REFRESHING". Also looks too good to be true.

 

[jrbeddow]

The project does look promising, but is a long ways from actual deliveries, so it is a bit early to judge. Also, while many of the goals are noble, I suspect there is some wiggle room in the "American made" stance that they are projecting: American "designed and assembled" doesn't mean that all the parts aren't actually coming from China (or elsewhere), for final assembly here.

 

[sdkid]

That's because of CAFE norms, if trucks exceed a certian weight and size they can dodge the fuel efficiency standards. Because the engines made by US automakers are so poor in fuel efficiency. They found a loophole to increase the size.
...

The only thing American firms think of is cost cutting and make it harder to repair.

Exactly. I had a crack in my taillight that I didn't know was there (2019 F-150). It filled with water, flooded the blind-spot radar/sensor, and killed all kinds of systems in the truck-- AC, Control panels on dash, Blind spot detection, cross-traffic detection, Airbags???, Sync stereo quit. I took the sensor/radar unit out and opened it up to let it dry and crossed my fingers. As for the taillight--- a new one from Ford was over $1,200 for a piece of plastic with some LED's in it. For less than $600, I got a set of well-reviewed aftermarket taillights. The sensor survived and is working in the new taillight, or that would have been another $500 or so, PLUS having to pay the Ford Stealership to program it to my VIN-- another $300 to $500 for about 20 minutes of work. Bastards.

I hope this company is successful. The only thing I REALLY need my truck for is to pull my 32 foot camper-- and I may only keep that for another year or so. If I wanted-- I could get a smaller one within the tow-capacity of that REO and be perfectly happy. I wonder what they estimate the fuel mileage will be, considering they estimate a 600 mile range on a tank of gas.

I think there IS room in this market for a truck like this. Here in SD, a LOT of people get side-by-side ATV's and drive them all over town (street legal)-- and they spend up to $25k for them. This truck would appeal to that crowd.

 

[TonyR]

I wonder how the crash and side impact tests "will" come out.......

 

[sdkid]

I wonder how the crash and side impact tests "will" come out.......

IF it actually gets built.... we'll find out!