Because the average commuter now demands an SUV, so SUVs stopped being tools and became mall crawlers. Half-ton pickups, which share the same chassis, similarly evolved. Thus if you want a real work truck now you need to buy at least a 3/4-ton or 1-ton that is an actual chassis-on-frame rather than unibody. Why huge, pudgy unibodies? Because such things score higher safety ratings, are lighter weight, and can hide creature comforts like infotainment clusters and large sway bars easily. The fact is old-fashioned pickup trucks rides like shit, in the same way modern big trucks also ride like shit. Back in the day A/C and radios were both optional equipment, and you had 1 tranny choice usually a 5-spd manual with a compound low for towing. Cabins were smaller, and tended to be loud. Modern consumers don't want that.
In a previous era, everyone who currently owns F-150s would instead own sedans or station wagons. We're already seeing this with the proliferation of CUVs and enlarged wagons, which have all the size of a quarter-ton pickup but without the shit ride.
>>15850477If it was just weight then every truck would bolt on bigger engines at lower compression ratios. You know that's not true.
