zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Trucks
/
Best & Worst Truck Features From The 2014 Detroit Auto Show
Best & Worst Truck Features From The 2014 Detroit Auto Show-April 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:13:29

PR bots were spewing a lot about "revolutionary" truck features at the . Some were cool, others looked slapped together with parts from a $20 AutoZone trip. Now we wanna know what you think of these features and what you want on your next truck.

Workspace lighting in the bed is decidedly less dramatic than the blue neon from the Atlas concept. The two little LED banks look so simple I couldn't believe nobody had put them in a pickup before, yet I couldn't remember seeing them on anything else.

Ford, GM, Ram, and Toyota are all big on cargo management... they all have cargo securing points like what you see just to the left of the LED in the F-150's bed.

Good ol' fashioned folding-grates are still popular. In other cargo technology, GM is very proud of the multi-point movable strap shackles on the Canyon and Colorado. The Tacoma was the only pickup I saw with a 110v outlet in the bed.

GM, Ford, and Ram all have their own execution of bed-dividers, but the Ram's are far and away the most robust looking.

I was quite taken with the "Ram Boxes" on that truck: lockable waterproof storage bins about four feet long and eighteen inches deep. They'd be perfect for tools or camping gear.

Just about every truck and SUV at Detroit had USB ports and multiple 12v cig lighter-style charging points in the cab, even AC outlets are starting to show up in Toyota, Ram, Chevrolet, and Ford trucks.

The new F-150 has a pretty stylish rear window opening, but Toyota is the only automaker that has full roll-down rear windows. It's a feature they've had for a long time, and was being showcased on the 4Runner and Tundra.

The Ford Raptor and most Land Rovers have neat digital interfaces that can show off-road information like wheel position and lean angle, but only the FJ Cruiser is still rocking a fixed pitch-n-roll gauge front and center. Maybe it's a little goofy, but this is Truck Yeah!, and we like in-your-face off-roady shit no matter how cheesy it is. Well, for the most part.

Regardless, I'm sure this will die this year with the FJ Cruiser.

Ram and Ford have steps that are removed and retracted manually, Ford's are just behind the cab and Ram's is on the left of the tailgate. GM has integrated a step into the bumper of their new mid-sized trucks a la the Silverado and Sierra.

The F-150 has a large rear step that I found annoying to operate, though I'm sure it will help less limber people access the truck's bed.

Jeep's SRT launch button is ridiculous, but so is the truck.

A three-pedal transmission is the opposite of a "new" feature, but the Jeep Wrangler deserves to be celebrated for still having one. Even if it has goofy shift knobs that look like golf balls made of ice. This is a Jalopnik site, after all.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Trucks
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
Deer Flies Directly Into Pickup As Its Prospective Buyer Arrives
No square inch of the Northeast is safe from deer, as video out of New Jersey shows. A deer, tearing through the suburbs, managed to leap over a Pontiac Vibe and Honda CR-V before landing on the bedside of a 2007 Chevy Silverado — just as a prospective buyer arrived...
Apr 6, 2025
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
Ford Robbed Us Of The Old Four-Door Ranger To Give Us The Explorer Sport Trac
By definition, a big truck like a or struggles to be small. Even in its smallest, most trucky configuration — a two-door single cab — a full-size truck is relatively large and comes with a sizable bed for hauling cargo. But a small truck like the third-generation can do...
Apr 6, 2025
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
There Was Once A Glorious Compact Chevy ZR2 Truck
Those who saw the meteoric rise of through the 2010s and onward probably associate the badge with the . The was Chevy’s halo midsize truck when it was released in 2016, but the ZR2 badging goes all the way to the when Chevy made the S-10 ZR2. It’s gnarly....
Apr 6, 2025
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
Porsche Built A 911 With Portal Axles To Go Where Unimogs Can't Reach
No car has ever driven at higher altitude than this 992-generation Porsche 911 Carrera 4S with portal axles. On Saturday the Porsche crew, led by racing driver Romain Dumas, reached the highest peak of the west ridge of the Ojos del Salado volcano in Chile, . That’s the tallest...
Apr 6, 2025
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
The 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger Is The Hybrid Truck America Probably Needs
In addition to the all-electric , the truck brand announced this week that it will also release a engine gasoline-powered hybrid version of its electric pickup, called Ramcharger. The goal here is to use the V6 engine as a generator for the electric powertrain when the 92 kWh battery...
Apr 6, 2025
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
The Nissan Navara Was The Overdue Frontier We Deserved A Decade Ago
gets dunked on for letting models like the languish for years. But, the truck saw a model update well before the release of the , which is mechanically much like an with a design. Outside of the U.S., the successor to the second-generation Frontier came in 2014 with the...
Apr 6, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved