Autoblog

When Mike Levine at Pickuptrucks.com sets his mind to something, it gets done in a big way. Witness last year's 2007 Heavy-Duty Diesel Truck Shootout. This year he's back with a comparison test that bests his previous effort not only in size and scope, but also in relevance. For 2008 he has assembled every player in the half-ton truck segment, including brand new 2009 models of the Ford F-150, Dodge Ram, Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra, Nissan Titan and a 2008 Toyota Tundra. Despite the sagging economy, Americans still love us some trucks, and we've never encountered a more thorough comparison of their performance, towing abilities and fuel economy than what Mike has published at Pickuptrucks.com. Consider it the bible of half-ton pickup comparison shopping and have it pre-loaded on your iPhone when you start visiting dealerships.

We're not going to tell you which pickup won, but we will say that it was remarkable to learn how varied are the targets at which each of these trucks is aiming. Some were great for one task while failing miserably at another, and the winner was the one that performed well the most often. Click the source link below to check out the Pickuptrucks.com 2008 Half-Ton Shootout.

[Source: Pickuptrucks.com]

Click either image to view high-res gallery of the Ultimate Sh-Ute-Out

While the U.S. is about to get its first taste of two-door, rear-wheel-drive, car-based pickups in the form of the Pontiac G8 ST (official name still TBD), Australians have been enjoying these things, called utes, for decades. While Holden introduced a new version of its Commodore-based ute last year, Ford has just gotten around to meeting the challenge with its new Falcon-based ute. And you know what that means: Ford vs. GM cage match in Koala Bear country!

Pickuptrucks.com has pitted the Holden SS Ute and Ford XR8 Ute, both top-shelf sports models, against each other in this Ultimate Sh-Ute-Out for the ages. For as similar as these utes are in price and power, we were surprised to learn how different they actually are. The Ford ute, for instance, is considered more of a workhorse than the Holden and thus continues to use a leaf-sprung rear suspension instead of an IRS like the Holden. Apparently it's the more truckish of the two, as evident by its separated cab and bed compared to the clean one-piece design of the Holden. Both models tested use big V8 powerplants, but the XR8's Boss V8 was more high-tech compared to tried-and-true Gen IV pushrod.

Being that Pontiac is about to start selling the Holden Ute in the U.S. as the Pontiac G8 ST, this comparo is a good Beginner's Course in the wonderful world of Aussie utes. And who knows, if the Pontiac G8 and G8 ST sell well, that may just be the urging Ford needs to bring the Falcon stateside sooner than the next-generation model. Check out the gallery of insanely cool high-res shots from the comparo below, courtesy of Pickuptrucks.com, and hit the source to read the comparo from start to finish.


[Source: Pickuptrucks.com]

Pickuptruck.com, our favorite website about anything with a bed on four wheels that's been owned and operated by Mike Levine since 1995, was just bought out by automotive mega-site Cars.com in a move that we hope made our good friend a gajillion dollars. Levine now joins Autoblog alumnus Dave Thomas, who runs the Kicking Tires blog under the Cars.com umbrella of sites.

The first change that came down from Levine's new corporate overlords was to pluralize the name of his website to Pickuptrucks.com because, well, we don't know why really. We imagine Cars.com already owned the URL, but why it decided to rebrand its new property over one letter rather than just redirecting Pickuptrucks.com visitors to Pickuptruck.com is beyond our feeble minds. Those are corporate overloads for ya. Being owned by AOL, we know all about corporate overlords. Welcome to the club, Mike!

[Source: Pickuptrucks.com]