Trucks Aren’t Getting Cheaper: Why We Need the Ranger

Trucks keep getting more and more expensive! Trucks used to be a tool to tow a trailer or work on a construction site, but now often perform the role of the family car. Buyers demand creature comforts like satellite radio and leather seats. That’s one of many reasons for the price increase. But even base prices have soared.

Just look at the 2015 F-150. The $25,420 F-150 XL is as bare-bones as it comes. The base XL is a regular cab with a non-turbo 3.5L engine and 2WD. Sure, it’s made mostly out of aluminum, but that’s still a lot of money. If you are an option box checker like me, expect to pay almost $63,000!

Trucks make money for manufacturers. Ford pickups have been the number one selling vehicle, not just truck, in the United States since I was in diapers. They pack profit margin into their trucks because they make very little on the cars they sell.

If you decide you want one of those cheap ones, good luck finding one on a dealer lot. Unless you special order it, don’t expect seeing many dealerships carrying them. Dealers like selling cars with options.

Now look at Motor Trend‘s Truck of the Year. Surprisingly, it’s not the Ford F-150. Rather, it’s the Chevrolet Colorado. If you read their article on why they chose the truck, one thing keeps popping up. It’s the price.

The Crew Cab they tested stickers at $23,300. For over $3,000 less, you can get similar features, a more manageable size truck, rear seats, and an interior that doesn’t feel as cheap as it is. Before you flame me, put yourself in the position of a fleet buyer. Which would you get?

The death of the Ford Ranger made us all sad. The fact that you can’t get it in the United States, even though they still make it for the rest of the world, frustrates many. I think we have no one else to blame but ourselves.

When Ford axed the Ranger, they probably asked themselves if people would switch to a different brand, like Toyota or Nissan, for our truck needs. They then determined that we wouldn’t. We’d rather keep buying Fords and buy a truck that’s more than what we need than switch brands. I think the proof is in the sales; F-150s are still flying off of dealership lots.

I think Motor Trend‘s award is a referendum on expensive trucks. The new F-150 is plenty likable. That new 2.7L EcoBoost is a peach of an engine and the use of aluminum really is a forward-looking approach. But Chevrolet came along with a different offering; a back-to-basics truck with sensible options. Yes, you can still load a Colorado up with lots of goodies, but I don’t expect fully-loaded ones to be the primary sellers.

People will continue to demand luxury trucks with lots of features. The cabin of a 2015 F-150 is a nice place to be, especially in Platinum trim. It’ll practically drive itself while massaging your back the entire way. But the success of the Colorado means there is still interest in a smaller, more sensible truck. Ford is missing out by not offering consumers an option. Yes, you could say the Transit Connect is better for work because it has enclosed storage, but really they need to bring here what we all want; a new Ford Ranger.

And we want it now.

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The Ferrari FXX K is already sold out at $2.7MM a pop

Tongues wagged when Ferrari orchestrated the online debut of its latest performance laboratory, the 1021-hp FXX K, earlier this week, and not just because it has singlehandedly brought Cadillac-style tailfins back in vogue.

Everyone knew it would be limited, but just how limited and how expensive was a mystery. Well, not any more. The car has since made its Abu Dhabi debut in the metal, where it was revealed that it would be limited to 32 examples, each costing $2.7 million.

If you're hoping a Powerball win this weekend gets you in the game: sorry. The FXX K is already sold out to Ferrari's most special, Mariana Trench-pocketed customers.

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The Aston Martin DB10 is Bond's ride in "SPECTRE"

Here's what we know about the Aston Martin DB10 that will debut in the new Bond film SPECTRE: not a lot. It was developed in conduction with the producers of the new film—EON Productions and director Sam Mendes, the duo that teamed up for the last film, Skyfall. And 10 of them will be built, but it's not clear as of yet whether anyone outside of the Bond set will be able to snag one.

Andy Palmer, recently of Nissan, is now Aston Martin's CEO, and clearly is proud of the marque's 50-year relationship with Bond (not counting the Brosnan-BMW years, of course). And the company dropped hints that the DB10 is a preview of where the company's design is headed. No surprises there.

Engine? Drivetrain configuration? Price? As mysterious as SPECTRE itself. Don't assume that the good folks at Gaydon (not to mention Q) would let 007 into the wild with anything less than a V12 underhood.

SPECTRE will be released on November 6, 2015. Here's the official announcement video:

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The mysterious Honda NSX is already sold out in the UK

How bad to buyers in the UK want the Honda NSX? Bad enough to completely buy out the first year’s supply without ever seeing the production car in person. Top Gear reports that more than 100 people have ponied up the coin necessary to place an order for the car, enough preorders to claim the entire UK production run.

Keep in mind, we know very little about the car itself. While Honda has made no secret of the fact that the NSX will be built in Ohio, other details are remarkably scarce. There’s word that the supercar will compete with the likes of the Ferrari 458 Italia, Corvette Z06, and similarly brawny metal, and that there will be “around” 500 horsepower on hand, and it'll likely have some sort of hybrid system in place (perhaps a version of the RLX's rather brilliant Sport Hybird SH-AWD system). But this is all educated conjecture. Honda is keeping this one close to the chest.

Likewise, there’s no official launch date. Rumor has it the NSX may bow sometime in early 2016. Despite the lack of concrete details, it seems UK buyers are willing to take Honda on faith.

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First Drives: 2015 Chevrolet Colorado

At some point, you come to grips with the fact that you need a truck. Driving your track rat six hours to VIR may have been okay when it was also your only mode of transportation. Perhaps as you've matured, however, you've come to appreciate finery like air conditioning, a radio, and maybe even a headliner. Modern full-size pickups like the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado, and the Ram 1500 can tow your entire house to Tibet and back, but God help you if you have to traverse a packed Whole Foods parking lot. The solution? A truck that fits the job.

The 2015 Chevrolet Colorado and the mechanically identical GMC Canyon represent the first real effort in the mid-size truck segment in some 20 years. With a maximum tow rating of 7000 pounds and all the refinement of the full-size pickups, the new GM trucks can merrily shuck you and a toy to the track and back without drawing lesser planetary bodies into their orbits.

We'd opt for the 3.6-liter V6 over the base 200-hp, 2.5-liter, direct-injected four-cylinder. This is the same quad-cam, direct-injected V6 that normally finds itself putting power to the front wheels of any number of General Motors sedans, but intake and exhaust tuning as well as a few calibration tweaks help it turn out 305 hp at 6800 rpm and 269 lb-ft of torque at 4000 rpm in this application.

Those numbers fall short of the engine's output in the other 3.6-liter, V6-powered, rear-drive Chevy, the Camaro, where it makes 323 hp and 278 lb-ft. The engine still likes to rev, but the torque peak in the Colorado arrives 800 rpm sooner and there's more low-end pull.

A six-speed automatic transmission and substantial aero work, including active grille shutters, help the four-wheel-drive, V6 Colorado return 20 mpg combined. That's 3 mpg better than an equivalent Nissan Frontier, but the number bests a V6, four-wheel-drive Silverado by only 1 mpg. If you're basing your decision on fuel-economy ratings alone, there's not much incentive to buy the Colorado. That said, the smaller truck doesn't give up much ground to its larger sibling in capability. The full-size V6 Silverado's tow rating is a paltry 400 pounds more than the V6 Colorado's.

Indeed, the Colorado is a real truck in rational proportions. There's room inside for four grown adults, and a maximum payload of 1590 pounds in four-wheel-drive guise means the smaller truck is more capable than most buyers will ever need.

It's been a while since Toyota and Nissan gave their mid-size trucks a polish, and the Colorado's interior shines a harsh light on that fact. Good materials, a massive touchscreen, and a quiet cabin all make the Colorado feel two decades younger than its rivals. A suite of electronic nannies, including lane-departure warning and forward collision alert, makes this a fully modern vehicle. For the first time, you can get a mid-size truck that's more than a decontented dinosaur.

All the cabin fanciness hasn't disguised the fact that this is still a truck. Live rear axle? Tall driving position? Big, squared-off nose? Yes, yes, and yes, and they all make the Colorado feel just like its big brother. This isn't a crossover, nor is it a pint-sized S-10—we yanked 4500 pounds worth of boat and trailer up and down the hills leading from the coast north of San Diego up to Rancho Santa Fe, and the truck never seemed taxed.

Pricing starts at $20,995, though a well-equipped Z71 with the V6, four-wheel drive, a crew cab, and a long bed costs about $35,000. Chevy expects the average transaction price to be between $5000 and $8000 less than the Silverado line—not a huge savings. If you were expecting a return to the era of the cheap pickup, sorry—that epoch is over in every way.

There's something to be said for the right tool for the job at hand, and if that job's a daily commute with the occasional towing stint, we'd have a hard time suggesting anything else.

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Together again: watch McLaren test new Honda-powered F1 car

Honda and McLaren were joined at the hip for the last great legendary era of F1: the Senna era. Now Honda is back, and we'll see if the pairing can breathe new life into the turbo V6 that powers the current F1 generation. McLaren produced this video of the MP4-29H/1x1 during testing at Abu Dhabi last week.

Watch and decide for yourself if the Honda sounds better than the other engines powering the rest of the field:

This is exciting. Many on the R&T team have a serious case of hero worship for anything involving McLaren-Honda. We even managed to convince Hexcel, the composites company from Utah that built the carbon fiber tub of the MP4/6, to loan us a dummy body identical to the one Senna used during the 1991 season. We displayed it proudly in the lobby, an awe-inspiring memento for an office full of racing geeks, and we loved to show it off to visitors. Giving it back was hard, as you can read about here.

By drawing the Senna connection, we don't mean to say that we have any notion that the MP4-29H will usher in some new era of dominance for McLaren and Honda. The car hasn't debuted, and we can't elevate it on nostalgia alone. It'll have to prove itself. But there's nothing wrong with two old friends hooking up for another dance. And a new power plant is always welcome in a sport that has beenutterly dominated this year by the Mercedes-AMG engine. This could be interesting.

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