If you’re looking for a rugged vehicle that offers you some legroom, you might be weighing the pros and cons of your options—and trying to make a key decision: pickup truck vs SUV? Which is better and why?
How you plan to use the vehicle can help you to make the right choice, and this post offers info to guide you, including pros and cons of each option.
Overview of Trucks
Whether you’d use a truck for work or to carry gear for hobbies, know what you need in space, towing capacity, weight capacity, and so forth to make sure you’re looking at the best models for your needs.
Pros of Trucks
If you need to tow oversized loads or ones that go beyond lightweight ones, pickup trucks usually make more sense. They’ve got more oomph and, when buying a new vehicle, you can often upgrade the engine for even more power (or you can buy a used car with the engine upgrades you want). Plus, you can tow mulch, dirt, stone, and so forth, no problem—and because it’s easier to make money with your truck, whether as a job or a side gig, this can go towards the payments.
The truck bed provides significant versatility. You can open the tailgate to haul longer items, such as lumber, and you don’t need to worry about bumping up against the roof of the vehicle with taller items.
In the past, truck interiors could be pretty bland. Not true today! From leather seats to electronic infotainment systems and more, trucks can be as plain or as decked out as you’d like. You can also modify them for personalized function and appearance, such as with oversized wheels and lift kits.
Cons of Trucks
If fuel economy matters to you and you want to haul cargo, you may pay more in gas than you’d like. Plus, if you’d like to transport a family, a regular cab pickup truck can only fit a couple of passengers and isn’t recommended for young children. Also, if you’re not used to maneuvering a truck, it can take some practice, especially in tight places.
Overview of SUVs
SUVs can be more family-friendly vehicles than pickup trucks while still giving you some transporting or towing abilities.
Pros of SUVs
If you’ve got a larger family or are sometimes the carpool mom or dad or sports coach, then you can consider compact SUVs with seating for five and full-sized ones seating seven, eight, or even more. You can add baby and toddler seats for safety and, when you’re going to fill up a vehicle, an SUV can offer more comfort.
Although SUV fuel economy isn’t as good as a typical passenger car, it’s often better than a truck’s—and, although a standard car is easier to maneuver than an SUV, an SUV is often smoother and easier to manage than a pickup truck.
Finally, if you’re confident that you won’t be transporting or towing anything, then you may not need the versatility provided by a pickup.
Cons of SUVs
SUVs can cost more than trucks although that’s not universally true. Insurance costs can be higher, as well. So, when you add the purchase price, the insurance premiums, and the fact that gas costs are higher than a car—and you can’t use an SUV as easily to haul cargo and possibly make some money from your vehicle—then you might decide that the SUV isn’t worth what you’d need to pay. Here’s one more reason: SUVs can be slightly more likely to flip over, especially if the model you buy doesn’t have features to help prevent that from happening.
Benefits of Truck Bed Liners
Here’s one more consideration. If you choose a pickup truck, then you can benefit from the protection of a bed liner, allowing you to transport with ease. A quality truck bed liner will help to prevent cargo movement within the bed, which protects the sides of your vehicle as well as the cargo itself. Truck bed liners also protect the actual bed from rain, sleet, snow and more.
DualLiner Bed Liner vs Spray in Bedliner
Once upon a time, the spray in bedliner was one of the best choices, but now DualLiner truck bed liners—with their interlocking five-piece design—offer all the benefits of the spray in bedliner . . . and much more. Their hard plastic is ideal for dent protection while the rubber mat is zero skid, all with a custom design for guaranteed fit. Easy to install, DualLiner will last as long as your truck and comes with a real lifetime bed liner warranty.
We invite you to check out DualLiner’s uniquely innovative solution to protect your truck bed and cargo: our custom fit truck bed liner.
I would like to talk to someone in the Indy area that has a dual liner to personally see how they like it after using it awhile.