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Article: Toyota hints at pint-sized pickup.(News)(design and construction of trucks by Toyota Motor Corp.)
- Article from:
- Automotive News
- Article date:
- January 14, 2008
- Author:
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2008 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Mark Rechtin
Toyota's vehicles tend to get bigger with each new product generation - especially the trucks. The current Tacoma "compact'' pickup is larger than the T100 "full-sized'' pickup that arrived in 1993.
So Toyota has come up with the A-BAT concept, driven by the notion that some younger buyers may want a smaller, less-expensive truck.
The A-BAT would be used to haul light loads and rarely taken off-road. So Toyota put the concept vehicle on a unibody platform rather than using body-on-frame construction.
That's what Honda did with its Ridgeline pickup, and the A-BAT is similar to the Ridgeline in appearance. But designer Matt Sperling of ...