What’s The Worst Truck Trend of 2023?

Photo: Toyota

What do you think is the worst trend affecting modern full and midsize trucks?Is it something to do with the stalled fuel-efficiency of modern trucks in general, which drags down the average fuel economy of the U.S. fleet? Or is it the new model bloat that many new trucks suffer from?

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Maybe it’s something more innocuous, like the obsession that automakers suddenly have with sport bars — the metal ones, not sports bars, where you go watch the game with your crew. Is it just me or are sport bars everywhere, like for instance on the 2023 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, 2023 GMC Canyon AT4X and 2023 Nissan Frontier Pro-4X?

The 2024 Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter, which debuted this year, will come with a sport bar that has multiple attachment points designed to carry shovels, pick axes and dozens of e-tools for you and your passengers. Hey, if you and the crew are hitting the latrine while out in the sticks, then it’s best to leave no trace. Right?

To be fair, the new Tacoma looks awesome, overall — though we still don’t know exactly what the new truck’s fuel economy numbers will be. It’s 2023, and yet most new trucks are blithely chugging gasoline like it’s the new millennium.

Maybe you’re upset that trucks are, indeed, getting so big and tall that they are no longer nearly as good at being, well, trucks, as they used to be. What good is greater payload capacity when it’s a pain in the ass to load cargo into the bed?Trucks are now monstrous. Heavy duty models look like tractor trailers and have towing capacities that the majority of drivers will never need.

But what’s your take on new trucks, and what models do you find are specially guilty of the worst truck trends of 2023?