Guides

Complete answers, measured from the catalog — never a top-ten selection.

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  Manual

  The manual-transmission pickups we have tracked in the US

  From 44 stick-shift models in 1990 to one in the latest year — the story in this list.

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  Trucks

  The disappearance of the cheap pickup

  In this list: ten sub-$30k pickups in 2015, two in 2026, measured from launch stickers.

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  Engines

  Where the V8 peaks in our record

  V8 share of the US catalog by model year. The peak sits inside the EPA era, and what survives is mostly trucks and SUVs.

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  Trucks

  The diesel pickups we have tracked, and the hole in the record

  A year-by-year diesel pickup list, with an honest thin patch where more trucks were sold than these rows can show.

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  Price

  Horsepower has never been cheaper

  Median launch price per horsepower by model year. In real dollars the number falls, and the cheapest horsepower in this list is on sale now.

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  Wagons

  The station wagon died twice

  Wagon models by year: a 1980s peak, a 1990s collapse, a recovery nobody mentions, and a second fall still running.

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  Engines

  The year each brand gave up on breathing normally

  Forced induction by model year and by brand: an eighties spike, a nineties retreat, and the year each badge crossed over for good.

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  Engines

  The trade-off that stopped being one

  Median mpg for the same horsepower, then and now: every power band in this list drinks less than it used to.

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  Trucks

  The four-cylinder pickup came back bigger

  The four-cylinder pickup narrowed to Frontier and Tacoma, then returned in compact trucks and full-size half-tons.

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  Trucks

  The short pickup list shrank, then changed shape

  Pickups under 5,300 mm narrowed to Frontier in 2021. Maverick and Santa Cruz brought two new answers in 2022.

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  Trucks

  Two-wheel drive shrank. Most names stayed.

  The 2WD pickup share fell, but only two sustained withdrawals appear among fifteen reviewed families: Titan XD and Ridgeline.

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  Trucks

  The hybrid pickup had a first act

  Before the electric pickup rush, GM hybrids arrived, retreated and returned. The list separates mild hybrids, full hybrids and battery-electric trucks.

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  Trucks

  The fast pickup arrived before the powerful middle

  The first versions above 300, 400 and 500 hp are not the years the median pickup crossed those lines. The gap is the story.