Pickup truck has never excited me, as I had owned one 20-odd-years ago, and the experience had not been very good, except it became a utility vehicle for friends and relatives around to keep borrowing it for their bulky items move-about! Friends even treat it badly, and return with dents and nick on the truck bed and rear bumper. However, a pickup truck could be the cheapest rear wheel drive vehicle one can get in the market. Being marked as a different category, pickup truck enjoy a different tax bracket, thus, making their starting price from RM60k. Shop around for a China made, it could be even cheaper. In our market, all are power by Turbo Diesel engine, that usually has enormous amount of torque, though lesser horsepower.
For speed driver, a pickup truck is not for you! One need to know the behavior of a pickup truck to ensure the safe handling of the vehicle and to other drivers on the road. It is common to have a lighter rear than the front, as the bed of the truck is usually empty, thus spinning a pickup on high speed could be too common, and in the process, turning it turtle as well. Just because of the rear-end weight, a 4x2 pickup truck could easily be caught in lose sand surface or in the snow.
In our road, it could be funny to see pickup owner not using the truck's bed to carry their bulky item. But spending additional to purchase a nice bed liner, keeping it in tip-top condition, and adding a rack on top of the bed cover to carry their items. It is like buying a Ferrari, but drive at a snail pace of 30km/h, which does not make sense.
Design of pickup truck has change tremendously comparing to 20 years ago. Now, a pickup truck comes with automatic transmission, airbags, double-cab space to fit 5, nice audio system, dual zone aircon, auto headlight and wiper, traction control, and a host lots more of features, making ownership experience of a pickup as close to a normal car. Let's hope the government will not treat it as one and start imposing heavy taxes on it, just like what had be done to SUV. We used to have Isuzu Trooper at jaw dropping cheap price till people start buying it in huge quantities, and was slapped with normal car taxes thereafter!
So, can a pickup truck replaces your daily drive? It could be, Diesel is available in almost all petrol kiosk nowadays. A pickup truck interior now is as good looking and functional as a car, though the comfort could never be any near match. And you don't mind having friends and families borrowing it for their moving of bulky items, it could be a real deal. Lastly, please make sure you could handle a vehicle which is heavy in the front and light at the back, if not, do not put yourself and others at risk! A pickup truck is a different kind of beast, and deserve more understanding from the driver!
