Liberal Talk Radio

Autopia opines about why Toyota’s had such a hard time developing a successful full-size truck:

Early Japanese and German pickup trucks were diminutive, high in utility, cheap to operate and remarkably practical. But they couldn’t haul 2,000 pounds of trailer and boat to the lake on the occasional weekend. Worse, they offended the very macho culture they hoped to seduce. Yet full-sized pickup trucks made no sense to Japanese designers and engineers. All that wasted steel, poor use of space and excessive torque and power are frivolous in daily use. They appealed to the American ego, not to practicality.

I think that’s mostly true. But unlike the American car makers, Toyota relentlessly optimizes. Years of dilligent study have made up for what they lacked in intuition about the American market. It’s also a stark reminder that, in spite of all its Priuses (or, rather, precisely because of them), Toyota is a market-driven company. If you want a “green” automaker, look at Honda.