Posted on 05/31/2024 6:31:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Yes, we mean something other than the Tesla Cybertruck.
You can’t really go wrong with a pickup truck. They’re like the Swiss Army Knives of the automotive world. Wanna haul or pull some crap? There’s a bed and you can tow. Wanna carry people? There’s a number of cab configurations to suit your needs. Want one with luxury features that rival a BMW 7 Series or Genesis G90? You can drop six figures for a truck that’ll coddle you.
This isn’t to say that they’re all good. Take the Hyundai Santa Cruz, for example. It was first shown as a concept at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show, and it took nearly a decade before the Santa Cruz went into production. The original concept was a cool-looking, Millennial-targeted extended cab crossover truck with a 190-horsepower turbodiesel engine that could get 30 mpg. What we got was a Tucson with a bed.
Don’t get me wrong, the Santa Cruz is a great looking little pickup, it’s just that the execution isn’t good. The bed has less usable space than the aforementioned Tucson does with its rear seats up, and carrying a bike means either removing one of the tires of the bike or having it hang over the tailgate. Its fuel economy isn’t as great as it could be, either. With the base engine the Santa Cruz gets 21 mpg city, 27 mpg highway and 23 mpg combined; you lose one mpg in the city and combined when you spring for the 281-hp turbocharged engine and all-wheel drive.
The Santa Cruz is less a pickup and more of a lifestyle vehicle masquerading as a pickup. In my opinion, that sadly might make it the worst pickup truck on the market right now and possible one of the worst ever made.
Now we ask you, Jalopnik reader. Aside from the obvious choice of the Tesla Cybertruck, what do you think is the worst pickup ever made? If there’s slim pickings out of the current offerings, you can go for something that’s not on sale anymore. Whatever it is, let us know in the comments.
OK
You can think that if you want.
Or . . .
There are well over 100 different alloys of stainless steel, each falling into one of five main classes: austenitic, ferritic, martensitic, duplex, and precipitation hardening.
Austenitic Stainless Steels
The most common class is the austenitic stainless steels, defined by the 300 series alloys. These contain 16-26% chromium and 6-22% nickel, making them non-magnetic with excellent corrosion resistance and formability. Popular examples include:
304 (18% chromium, 8% nickel)
316 (16% chromium, 10% nickel, 2% molybdenum for improved corrosion resistance)
309, 310
Ferritic Stainless Steels
Ferritic stainless steels are defined by the 400 series alloys. They contain 12-30% chromium without nickel, making them magnetic with good corrosion resistance but less ductile than austenitic grades. Common ferritic alloys include:
430
446
405
Martensitic Stainless Steels
Martensitic stainless steels also belong to the 400 series. They contain 11-14% chromium with a higher carbon content around 1%, allowing them to be heat-treated and hardened but with reduced corrosion resistance compared to other classes. Popular martensitic alloys are 410, 420, and 431.
Other Classes
The duplex stainless steels are hybrid austenitic-ferritic alloys like 2205, while precipitation hardening alloys like 17-4 PH can be heat-treated to very high strengths. The 200 series contains chromium-manganese-nickel alloys maximizing manganese to reduce nickel content.
So in summary, while there are over 100 commercially available stainless steel alloys, they can be broadly categorized into five main families based on their metallurgy and properties.
As I recall the more rust resist the stainless steel the more brittle it is.
Stainless fish hooks will rust some, but if they were made of a more stainless alloy they would break too easy.
I remember seeing one of these in a photo from the Baltimore rat fishing tournament years ago. It was the rat fishing equivalent of a charter boat.
It looks like it was in a rollover accident...
Subaru put the seats in the bed to avoid a 25% tariff on light duty trucks
Had a ‘64 Ranchero. Great
little truck that had some
looks, got good gas milelage,
was easy to drive and
mauntain. It also was ok
for carrying small loads.
Not one complaint as to what
it was designed for.
Ranchero’s and El Camino’s
were never designed to
compete with full sized
pickups.
I would think any EV pickup
would be my choice for the
worst of the batch.
I had a diesel VW truck and I loved it! Stick shift, reliable, great gas mileage, it went just over 200,000 before we sold it and I STILL see it being driven around town!
Chevy LUV.
What in the trailer park hell is THAT? LOL!
I love my gladiator. Right size, and can haul decent amounts safely with decent milage. I would never tow a camper, but a trailer and a jeep/small car on it at around 5k being towed would be fine. Maybe I am biased because I drive and own many tow trucks, but the ride on mine is about as nice as my Grand Caravan.
No death wobble……
Trailered a wrangler yj back from Shasta city, CA to San Jose Ca a month ago. Some 300ish miles. Did fantastic and 15 mpg except when the wind was against it.
my first car was a 74 Camaro i bought in 79. 350 with 400 transmission. a great driving beast.
78 Brat was the best snow vehicle I’ve ever owned. It would push through snow over the hood.
Head gasket durability...not so much.
When I was selling it, a big guy came to test drive it...again, not so much.
Good memories.
My friends father bought a diesel rabbit truck.
He was an American Airlines Captain. He left Tulsa to go to JFK where he flew New York to Heathrow.
It was cold so he left the rabbit idling in the parking lot for 3 days while working.
When he got back to Tulsa, the rabbit was dead. Towed it to dealership. Motor shot. He thought you could leave it idling like the class 8 truck at truck stop.
I guess not.
“Honda Ridgeline.”
My Ridgeline has 160,000 miles on it and I have pulled out a dozen ‘real pickups’ that were stranded in snow.
I press a small button and lock the differential’s — it’s unstoppable in the snow.
It also gets more MPG than my previous 4 cylinder Honda.
It’s comfortable and reliable.
Pity Honda is stopping the manufacture of their lawn equipment in the US of A, I just purchased a new hydrostatic drive Honda mower to replace a similar 26 year old Honda mower — It still works well but will eventually die so I got a new one because this is the last chance to replace it.
Go Honda!
It’s just stain less. There are a million different alloys of stainless steel and some will never rust and some will. The trouble with stainless is that some alloys are prone to work hardening and will get brittle enough over time that it cracks, more so than mild steel.
Back in the day there was some company that built stainless Jeep bodies that looked great but soon you started seeing sunburst cracks around all of the body mounts. You could drill the end of the crack, assuming you could find a bit hard enough to go through it and weld it but it soon cracked again parallel to the weld.
400 series and above rust. Poor grade and low cost.
Your 300 grade stainless steel does not rust, but it is expensive.
Take a look at your kitchen knives. Notice how they rust?
400 grade stainless.
It’s garbage.
I had same experience yesterday. Yep, they're far uglier in person than they are in pictures. We have a joke around here that the top of the Cybertruck looks like the top of a recycling garbage can lid.
“You think you hate it now, wait until you drive it.”
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