No Mavericks in Medellin, Colombia

[B. Maverick]

Homies:
I'm in Colombia while my siblings are driving my new XLT Hybrid.
The first time I saw a compact crewcab pickup was a Nissan Frontier owned by a friend from Mexico. He told me such pickups were popular in Latin America.
They sure are; I see lots of them as we walk around this city.
But I've also seen a couple that suprised me: a Chevy Montana and a VW Amarok. I'm pretty sure these are not available in the States, though I could be mistaken. The Chevy is a handsome little truck. GM could make it into a challenger for the Maverick with little effort.
But whatever. I like my Mav.

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[710-oil-614]

Wouldn't take it over my Maverick but simply mind boggling that Chevy hasn't brought that over here as-is when they saw the success of the Maverick. Could have easily siphoned off 30-40k orders just based on the demand alone.

 

[bbhaag]

Wouldn't take it over my Maverick but simply mind boggling that Chevy hasn't brought that over here as-is when they saw the success of the Maverick. Could have easily siphoned off 30-40k orders just based on the demand alone.

I think one of the reasons for Chevy not bringing the Montana to the US market was when it was in development for the SA market Chevy didn't realize how popular a compact pickup truck would be in the NA market.

Since they developed it for the SA market only it would have to be completely revamped due to the more stringent safety/emission standards required by the NA markets. Dodges Rampage is in a similar situation. Since the Rampage was developed with the SA market in mind it would also need to be revamped to meet the safety/emission regulations of the NA markets.

 

[710-oil-614]

I think one of the reasons for Chevy not bringing the Montana to the US market was when it was in development for the SA market Chevy didn't realize how popular a compact pickup truck would be in the NA market.

Since they developed it for the SA market only it would have to be completely revamped due to the more stringent safety/emission standards required by the NA markets. Dodges Rampage is in a similar situation. Since the Rampage was developed with the SA market in mind it would also need to be revamped to meet the safety/emission regulations of the NA markets.

Understood there would be some modifications necessary but it could easily be accomplished.

EDIT: Realizing I said "as-is" above. I guess I meant "as-is" with styling but definitely safety standard updates would have to occur.

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

That is an older VW Amarok, but the 2nd gen (2022+) are acutally built by Ford in South Africa on the global Ranger platform.

 

[Ozarkbeard]

If the wheelbase is the same or smaller than the Maverick, they would have to meet US CAFE standards. That is why the Maverick has a Hybrid model. They would probably need to have the same on theirs, too.

 

[B. Maverick]

Last night I had my wife talk to the Chevy representative about the Montana. I didn't get in it; it didn't seem fair to take his time to no purpose. But we learned that the model pictured above costs about $29K US. I have no way to know how it's appointed, but it' appears pretty simple in comparison to the Maverick. The guy told her that the Montanas are made in Brazil - shades of the Rampage.
That Montana was pretty plain: two-wheel drive (don't know if front or rear - didn't check) and a gas engine.
We then crossed the enormous street that risks your life so we could have dinner at the mall across the street (The food courts in Colombia have dazzling food.) As we were looking for a restaurant, another Montana rolled by. It was diesel and had four-wheel drive, It looked pretty robust.
I didn't have a tape measure, but the bed looked to be at least a 1/2 foot shorter than the Maverick's, and the cab was not as big. It looked a lot like a Santa Cruz that hadn't been spawned by an amphibian.

 

[B. Maverick]

Final note on pickups in Colombia.
There are a lot of Renault crewcabs in Medellin. They actually look pretty good. The Renault website says the pickup was unveiled here in Medellin.
But the most interesting vehicle I saw was in Bogota. It was a Fiat crewcab. Except the cab looked almost like an extended cab, and the bed was short, short, short. It looked like someone had taken a real pickup and put it in the drier. It shrank. That little thing was a taxi. Couldn't have fit many people in it. I checked the web for Fiat pickups and couldn't find anything that looked that bad.
And, the Toyota Hilux is alive and well in South America. Though it doesn't look anything lilke the Hilux I owned in the late 70s.
In the meantime, my brother has put as many miles on my Maverick as I have. He also took my wife's Frontier out for a spin. He said he liked it fine, but he would have liked it better if he hadn't been driving the Maverick.

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