Quote:
Originally Posted by notquitesane
I'm leaning towards a supercab, more practical... but I just love the look of a regular cab with the shorter box! Who needs to have room to haul your friends around!
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That "shorter" box is what the truck manufacturer's now call a "standard" box: the 6.5' length. The even-shorter 5.5' box is only used with the longest cab (the "SuperCrew") to keep the wheelbase and overall length down to the same as the SuperCab/6.5' combo.
When extended cabs became common with the 2-metre (6.5') box, my impression was that a pickup truck looked strange and made little sense with most of the length being cab. As it turns out, most people don't actually carry much in the box anyway, so it does make sense for many (such as those who are towing).
Long ago when we had our pickup, that 6-foot-or-so length was the "short box", so that regular cab with 6.5' box is about the same as we had. It was the "sporty truck" format of the time, but it is currently much more popular here to get a longer cab, 4WD, huge tires, and a lot of junk bolted on all over the place (racks, lights, chrome bits, etc).
Maybe the SuperCab has room for real friends when space is needed, but not so much room that it encourages unwanted passengers?
Here's a bit of trivia from this afternoon's playing with the F150 "build and price" page: in the base XL trim (which almost no one buys) the cost difference from regular cab to SuperCab is $12,500, or about 60% of the price of the whole regular cab truck! In an XLT, the very same cab change "only" adds $4380... Ford is essentially forcing buyers up a trim level. Similarly, 4WD adds $11,300... by the time you configure even a typical truck, less than 1/3 of the cost is for the truck, and the rest is for the options.