Despite Chevy's overt inquiry into the sexuality of any man step-using Ford driver, a tailgate step sounds like a great idea to our admittedly feminine minds. Hopping in and out of the increasingly lofty beds of trucks while carrying heavy loads can be a difficult and dangerous task.

The step goes a long way to removing risk, all while providing easier access for pets, kids and little people. Bringing Ford F-150-like practicality to a small, more practical, efficient vehicle just sounds like a win/win situation to us. More info in the press release below.

Press Release: Step Up To The Truck 'N Buddy Pickup Step/Seat

The Truck 'N Buddy is a tailgate step that doubles as a seat. This 16-pound aircraft aluminum unit stores by hooking on the tailgate. When unfolded, the Truck 'N Buddy is a bed step for aging pets — and aging truck owners as heavy as 300 pounds. It also functions as a seat for tailgating, sporting clay shooting, camping and even for changing golf cleats. The platform is supported by 1,700-pound test cables and has traction ridges for sure footing. A handy grab-rail promotes safe stepping. Made in the USA, the Truck 'N Buddy is finished in durable black powder-coat enamel. MSRP is $179.

[source: Great Day Inc.]

Thanks to the huge spike in the price at the pump in the first half of the year, SUV sales are down more than 40% in 2008 from 2007. In response, the not-so-Big Three have closed many plants dedicated to making SUVs, a product that has come to symbolize their perceived inability to produce the vehicles American consumers want to buy.

Writing on his New York Times "Freakonomics" blog, Steven D. Levitt asks the question:

“The apparent cause of death for SUV’s was high gas prices. Doesn’t that mean that with low gas prices SUV sales should come back to life?”

Levitt goes on to suggest the reason SUV sales haven’t recovered is both a fear gas prices will rebound as well as a belief: “When gas prices got high, it became uncool to own an SUV.”

The SUV may be dead, but the humble pickup truck doesn’t appear to be suffering the same fate — because, for many buyers, trucks aren’t a fad, they’re actually a useful vehicle.

Keep in mind that in the current market problem of a lack of credit is being seen across the board — sales are down for every single vehicle in the marketplace. So the way to determine sales strength at the moment is to peg one vehicle's sales drop to another. So, while sales of the historically top-selling Ford F-Series pickup are down 25.4% for the first 11 months of 2008 compared to the same time period in 2007, they’re only down 18.4% when comparing November, 2008 to November, 2007. That's a lower drop in sales than that seen by the Toyota Camry, down 5.3% over the first 11 months of the year, but down 28.7% during the this past month.

So what does that potentially tell us? It would seem possible that the recovery in sales can be pegged to gas prices; as the economy collapsed in October, gas prices fell and consequently, pickup truck sales began to increase, and the sales of mid-size econo-sedans dropped. But, what we're also seeing is while some SUVs have recovered sales, for the most part, they haven't quite followed that same number, and appear to be continuing their decline.

Indeed, that trend can be tracked across other popular pickups and cars. The Chevy Silverado was only down 22.5% November to November while the Honda Accord was down 38.1% and the fuel-efficient Toyota Prius fell a staggering 48.3%.

What does this all mean? It appears that while people do stop buying pickups when gas prices spike, they’re more resilient long term than SUVs because they’re more useful. When gas prices drop, it looks like Americans still want to buy bigger vehicles, but now, they demand actually utility from their trucks, either by necessity or fashion.

The larger picture? Throughout the whole Carpocalypse, American automakers have always been building the vehicles Americans wanted to buy, it’s just they weren’t building the vehicles Americans thought they could afford to own.

[via The New York Times, data: Automotive News]

Future Truck: 2010 Scion xP [PickupTruck.com]

Related:
Scion's Fuse Concept at the NY Auto Show; Report: Nissan to Launch Cube, Two More Subcompacts in the US [internal]

Upside-down on your Ford or GM truck loan? Toyota wants you in a new Tundra, and it's offering a very un-Toyotalike benefit: Money. The company's latest incentive deal adds a trade-in allowance of $1000 atop existing incentives totaling $2,000. The deals are causing widespread snickering to break out among US automakers, who couldn't be more relieved to see Toyota altering its business practices to fit in, rather than glibly logging another blowout product. Toyota's defense is that the bulk of the incentives are on the single cab-model, which it says comprises only 10 percent of sales, and no incentives are available on the CrewMax model. Yet. – Mike Spinelli

Toyota Deepens Discounts on Its New Pickup [New York Times (sub req.)]

Related:
San Antonio Stroll: Toyota Tundra Priced [internal]

Screw the recall. Ford should offer an afterburner kit on all its Super Duty pickups. What better way to tell GM and Toyota the blue oval is not to be trifled with than a column of flame shooting from its tailpipe. Extra special bonus for gunning it next to a saw mill or propane distribution center. [Thanks to William for the tip.] – Mike Spinelli

Related:
Buy A Ford Super Duty; If You're Lucky It May Fart Fire! [internal]

GMT-900 Interior spyshot discussion, And fullsized image [Cheers & Gears]

Related:
Spy Photos: 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew Cab [internal]

We're not exactly sold on the merits of ethanol, although it makes somewhat more sense in the Midwest than it does anywhere that isn't the Midwest. The problem is, as we've mentioned previously, that ethanol requires significantly more BTUs to produce than it gives back. Combine that with the fact that it can't be shipped via pipeline because it absorbs water, and E85 becomes pretty expensive out on the coasts which is one of the main reasons why E85 (85% ethanol/15% gasoline) isn't really sold out there. Still, the General is planning to build 400,000 trucks and SUVS capable of running E85 next year, allowing more Midwesterners to take advantage of the alternative fuel choice.

Ethanol-gas fuel boosts mileage of GM's trucks [Detroit Free Press]

Related:
Frankfurt Premiere: Saab 9-5 [Internal]

Hey Mitsubishi, I hear tell y'ain't doin' so well. Your old friend DCX is barely speakin' to ya. People are talking, Mitsu. They're talkin', and it ain't all good talk. But that Conor Twomey guy? He sure does like that truck ya done gone borrowed from the Dodge Boys. The Car Connection's Twomey prefers the Raider's styling to its mechanical twin, the Dodge Dakota; we actually prefer neither, feeling that both groups bungled the styling of what's by all accounts a very competent large midsizer in the pickup segment. Still, neither of the Dakaider brothers are as beastly as the Colorado/Canyon twins from GM. Plus, you can actually get a V8. You pays your money, you takes your choice.

2006 Mitsubishi Raider Previously seen, still worth watching [The Car Connection]

Related:
Spy Photos: 2006 Mitsubishi Raider [Internal]