These Are The Midsize Trucks You Probably Forgot

The Suzuki what? That was my reaction to the Equator I saw parked at a local H-E-B a few days ago. Not only is this midsize pickup truck from a carmaker that no longer operates in the U.S., but the Suzuki Equator is simply a rebadged Nissan Frontier — another underrated and often overlooked pickup truck.

Isuzu is just as dead in the U.S. as Suzuki, so you’d be forgiven if you don’t recall this rebadged Chevy S-10. Isuzu sold another small truck in the U.S. prior to the Hombre, known simply as the Pickup, which was one of those trucks that could easily be confused for any one of its rivals from other Japanese automakers. The Hombre was less forgettable than that, but not by much.

Even more forgettable than the Hombre is its successor, the Isuzu i-series. These midsizers, which were based on the Chevy Colorado, ranged from the i-280 to the i-350 at launch. The i-series had the bad luck of being made in the aughts, when the “i” prefix was popularized by Apple with the iPod, iPhone, iMac, etc. But the i-350 was powered by an inline-five engine, and that’s cool in its own right.

The Subaru Baja is not exactly a midsize or compact pickup truck; it’s a coupe-ute, meaning it’s a car and truck hybrid. That also means it combines the best parts of both, thus it has most of their strengths and few of their weaknesses. It’s comfy on the road and has open cargo space, albeit less of it than a truck.

The Nissan Hardbody is the predecessor of the Frontier. But, like Nissan’s best cars, such as the Fairlady Z, the Hardbody started out as a Datsun. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, the Nissan Hardbody was much like its Japanese compact truck rivals, but could be told apart by one distinctive design touch on the front end. Who could forget the Nissan Hardbody’s lovely hood slats? The Nissan Frontier dropped the three slats, unfortunately.

You may have noticed that the underlying theme here is rebadged trucks. And the Mitsubishi Raider is just a rebadged Dodge Dakota, which reverses the tradition of rebadged Mitsus sold as Dodge vehicles. A Dodge Raider was once available, but that was an SUV sold under the Dodge brand despite being a Mitsubishi Montero/Pajero. This Raider, on the other hand, was a Dakota, a midsize truck made in Michigan that wore a Mitsubishi diamond badge.

The Mitsubishi Mighty Max is just an L200 or Triton, which means it’s just an awesome truck. Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Japanese compacts were hard to tell apart, and the Mighty Max looked a lot like the contemporary Mazda B-Series. In fact, at one point the B-Series would be powered by a Mitsubishi inline-four engine, so the two truck models shared more than just looks.

Like the Subaru Baja, the SSR is not really a pickup. But it has a bed, so I’m going to count it as a truck we forgot about. In any case, it was inspired by Chevy’s old pickups, and the throwback design is obvious. It’s more of a performance truck than a work truck, so it was powered by a small block V8. And any small convertible truck with an LS engine is welcome here.

The Hummer H3T was ahead of its time — in good ways and bad. It anticipated the off-road craze to come but it also pushed the limits of the term midsize, as a pretty sizable pickup truck. Unlike the Hummer H2, the H3T had a reasonably sized bed. It was built on the same platform as the Chevy Colorado, just like the Isuzu i-Series.

The Chevy S-1o is hardly a forgettable truck — well at least, according to this small truck enthusiast. Even if it were, the S-10 is already well represented here by the Isuzu Hombre. Despite being basically the Chevy S-10's twin, the GMC S-15 is less well known. It would go on to be renamed the GMC Sonoma, and, later, spawned the rad GMC Syclone as the performance variant of the Sonoma.

Who could forget the Explorer Sport Trac? Everyone, apparently. This truck existed somewhere between the Ford Ranger and Ford Explorer, but it was not exactly either. It was basically a way for Ford to make a four-door Ranger and sell it in the U.S., maybe naming it after an SUV to avoid drawing attention away from its best-selling truck, the F-150 SuperCrew.

The Mazda B-Series is not a forgotten truck in the sense of some of these others. The earlier B-Series models were your standard Japanese fare, but these Mazda pickups were eventually sold as rebadged Rangers for a couple of generations, back when the Ford Ranger was more of a compact truck than a midsizer.

The earlier B-Series reportedly drove like a car and earned favorable reviews for its road manners. More importantly, it looked cool even as an extended cab, which is no easy feat. As readers noted, the extended cab Rangers and B-Series trucks were awesome, with jump seats that were both cute and practical.

Likewise, the Jeep Comanche is one of the most recognizable trucks on this list being built off the greatest Jeep Cherokee. Despite the ubiquitousness of the XJ, the Comanche is rarer, which is a shame. It’s one of the coolest American trucks ever made: a true compact pickup which looks great with a long bed, built on a stout off-roading platform.

The Dodge Dakota is the least forgettable truck here because it could be making a comeback. While it looks like Dodge indeed forgot about the smaller truck, now that midsizers are more popular then ever, Stellantis is bringing it back.

The Dodge Dakota died not long after Ram was spun off, which means there was also a Ram Dakota at one point, though in a later generation. The only thing left to be seen is if Stellantis will revive the badge or go with a different name altogether.