A first for me. This is certainly the first pickup truck I have reviewed and quite possibly the first that I have driven. If I recall correctly all that I have driven in the truck / van category is moving vans and moving trucks.
With a long hood and being as tall as it is it very much interferes with visibility.
The headlights are rather occluded. This may or may not contribute to the poor headlight output. Fog lights helped a lot with output. Extra illumination at the ground level was good.
Brights did not do much, they had a bit more throw but resulted in less overall illumination.
In terms of body lines there are very flat lending to a large glass house. Ordinarily this would mean great visibility but the body being as large as it is gets in the way of that.
The top over the bed provides both weatherproofing for the bed and security making the tailgate lockable.
Ride is neither smooth nor overly bumpy but has a lot of oscillation and roll on bumps and turns, but it is a truck and therefore to be expected.
This particular example appears lifted. I am not certain if the lift was from factory or not, but this was much higher than what we are used to.
There was also quite a decent amount of body roll.
Getup is decent but it does not keep momentum up hills, loaded or unloaded. Keeps momentum downhills very very well. Uphill it has to downshift.
RPMs hang out around 1500-2000. This is in 4High. Not messing with it. Other options 2H, N, 4L.
The pickup did not fit into a normal size parking space. Way too long. Wide enough that it fits but you can only have space to open door on one side, or not quite enough space to not open either door.
Pickup bed was decent in space and was quite useful for us in terms of moving some furniture and other items.
Rear seat space is quite decent but very upright.
Front seats were comfortable enough. Between the two benches there are six seats total, three apiece.
Because of the size the sense of speed while driving was distorted. We very much found that we were traveling much faster than it appeared that we were traveling.
Space in the cab is big and the driver and passenger are quite far apart due to the third seat.
Sun visors slide which is a neat feature.
Overall the dash was relatively spartan and intuitive.
The included audio system was simple. AC controls were simple as well.
Both appeared to be setup in such a way so as to allow controls to be used with gloves.
Furthermore there are many power outlets.
There is also a drive selector including 4L, N, 2H, and 4H. I would probably drive around in 2H most of the time as it is likely to be most fuel efficient.
The steering wheel had a double set of buttons all to control cruise control.
All 90 degree turns, whether from a stop or from a low speed, requited 360 degrees of steering wheel input.
All in all the pickup did not take corners too badly but you definitely had to manage weight and how it loaded up the suspension in corners.
I really liked the instrument cluster both during the day and at night. The white background gauges are cool and the night time illumination looked good too.
Ignition key is weird to pull out. Fully turning back is actually locked so you need to be one click toward start.
Keep in mind this is a 2003 and not a particularly fancy one. One can option extremely nice leather interiors and such in pickups these days. The size though is a lot to deal with as is the mass. I could see having one if we really needed to tow something regularly but for day to day use I think it is way too big.
No comments:
Post a Comment