Would You Drive This? Regular Cab, Short Bed full sized truck

2019-2021 Silverado Regular Cab, Short Bed body style (export markets only)

These have traditionally been very affordable, basic trucks that are not offered with a lot of high end features. They have fairly simple engines, offer slightly better fuel economy than their heavier/longer counterparts, and are pretty cheap (relatively speaking) if they come with 2 wheel drive. They are also much, much easier to park given their shorter length, and they can fit in a standard garage with plenty of room to spare.

Annoyingly, the regular cab short bed Chevy and GMC trucks have been in production continuously at Fort Wayne, Indiana for decades. But from 2019 – 2021, they were manufactured there for export markets only - particularly the middle east and Africa. They are offering them to the US market for 2022 again and are available for ordering now.

Ford has been offering the regular cab short bed F-150 – including for the US markets. But they have been very difficult to find, especially since the start of the pandemic - so much so that it's pretty difficult to find photos of them. FoMoCo has been hit particularly hard by the chip shortage, and they have been allocating any and all production capacity that they have to higher margin, more expensive trucks. But the regular cab/short beds are available to order.

Ram doesn’t have a regular cab short bed truck anymore. Neither does Jeep, Nissan, Honda, or Toyota. The below three trucks are your only options if you appreciate these configurations:

2022 Ford F-150 Regular Cab 6-1/2’ bed – starts at $30,000 and comes with a 3.3L engine with 290 horsepower and 265 lb ft of torque. You can upgrade to a 2.7L turbo engine with 320 horsepower and 425 lb ft of torque for a substantial premium. I think the 3.3L model is a very good value by modern standards. But you will not find any good deals on them, and there's a good chance that Ford won't actually make many of these 2022 model regular cab short beds for a few more months when their chip shortage issues are more resolved.



2022 Chevy Silverado Regular Cab 6-1/2’ bed – Starts at $34,000 and comes exclusively with a 2.7L turbocharged engine that produces 310 horsepower and an astounding 430 lb-ft of torque. That's VERY powerful for a standard engine on a truck this size. There are no smaller, less expensive engines for 2022 though, which might be a problem for some people. I don't love the front end on the cheaper versions of the Silverado, but it's straightforward enough and functional. It's clearly geared towards work trucks at this level anyways.



2022 GMC Sierra Regular Cab 6 ½’ bed – like the Chevy, but slightly more expensive. Starts at nearly $35,000 and comes with the same standard 2.7L turbo engine that produces more torque than the very popular 5.3L V8 engine that GM is clearly starting to phase out. You can't get the 5.3L V8, 6.2L V8 or the 3.0L diesel in the regular cab short bed Sierra even though they are available in other trim levels and configurations. I think this is the best looking of the three, but GMC should have kept the old 4.3L V6 around as a base, entry level to reduce the starting price - then allow people to option for the more powerful 2.7L turbo.