Here Are 5 Discontinued Pickup Trucks You Forgot About
Pickup trucks are America’s favorite vehicle. The trucks we know today have evolved from pickups of old, losing the “only for work” label and becoming luxury vehicles in their own right. Still, as of 2020, the top three best-selling vehicles in America were three different brands of pickup. It’s not a fad, but something that never goes away. Driving big, bulky, gas-guzzling, tow-capable trucks is part of American culture. With all the pickup trucks we see today, familiar and brand new, we might’ve forgotten some older ones along the way. Here’s 5 discontinued pickup trucks you forgot ever existed.
Discontinued pickup trucks – Ford Courier (1952-2013)
The Ford Courier was a pickup truck that went through many different phases. The Courier served as the model name for several different vehicles including its original sedan delivery. From there it developed into a compact pickup starting in 1972, then a compact panel van in 1991, and from 1998 to 2013 it was a coupe utility. New model names eventually replaced every version of the Courier in the Ford lineup. The Ford Ranger of today eventually took over for the compact pickup truck line of Ford Courier. The compact pickup truck that started production in 1972 took over for the Mazda B-Series. A big positive for the Courier at the time was the fuel economy. It was much better than other full-size pickups of the time. It came equipped with a 1.3-liter four-cylinder engine capable of producing up to 74 horsepower. Its hauling capacity maxed out at 1,400 pounds.
Mazda B-Series (1961-2006)
The vehicle that was simultaneously produced to be the Ford Courier and Ford Ranger, the Mazda B-Series ran for 45 years total. The truck had five different generations over the years, but it began its life as a commercial vehicle. The various models were named after their respective engine sizes. The B1500 came with a 1.5-liter engine and the B2600, a 2.6-liter engine. In 2006, the Mazda B-Series trucks were replaced by the Mazda BT-50 after a 45-year run. The original model was introduced in Japan and had a 1,484 cc OHV water-cooled engine with wet sleeve cylinders which produced 44 kW (59 horsepower).
Mitsubishi Raider (2006-2009)
The Mitsubishi Raider was short-lived, so even when it was available you may have forgotten about it. Mitsubishi’s pickup was in production from 2005 to 2009 and came in two and four-door versions. The two available engines were the 3.7-liter PowerTech V6 and the 4.7-liter PowerTech V8. The two engines produced 210 and 230 horsepower, respectively. By the 2008 model year, only the V8 engine was available in the Raider. The Mitsubishi Raider was a rebadged Dodge Dakota and used the same Chrysler ND platform.
Discontinued pickup trucks – Toyota T100 (1992-1998)
The T100 was a full-size pickup truck from Toyota throughout the majority of the ’90s. Toyota developed and marketed the T100 exclusively for the US and Canadian markets. The automaker relied on the 8-foot bed as a selling point. The T100 had several different engine options throughout its lifetime. The heftiest engine to come in the T100 is a 3.4-liter 5VZ-FE supercharged V6. No V8 engine availability and the truck being smaller than standard full-size pickups were both common complaints about the T100. It was the first vehicle to receive an “Initial Quality Survey Award” in its first year of production. In 1994 and 1995 it also received “Best Full-Size Pickup in Initial Quality” from J.D. Power and Associates. The Toyota Tundra succeeded it in Toyota’s lineup.
Chevrolet S-10 & GMC S-15/Sonoma (1981-2004, 1995-2012)
The compact pickup truck produced by Chevrolet had several names over its lifetime. GMC called the same truck the GMC S-15, and later changed it to Sonoma. There were also SUV versions of the S-10, called the Chevrolet S-10 Blazer/GMC S-15 Jimmy. The Syclone was the name of the high-performance version of the GMC Sonoma. Isuzu sold the same truck from 1996 to 2000, calling it the Hombre. That’s a lot of different variants for a single pickup truck. This truck went through multitudes of different engine builds, but it topped out as a 4.3-liter V6. Today, the successor to these many different rebadging variants of the same truck is the Chevrolet Colorado.
Over the years, many pickup trucks have come and gone. Pickup trucks from long ago served one purpose, to carry weight from one location to the next. Today, pickup trucks are for everything from work to daily drivers. They can be as luxurious as a limousine or as tough as a monster truck. With Ford bringing back names like the Ranger and Bronco recently, could other automakers bring back names like these soon? We hope to see something from this list come back in some form in the coming years. CarAndDriver made an even longer list a few years ago of forgotten discontinued pickup trucks, in case one you thought about is missing.