The reviews are in for Suzuki's new small truck offering, the Suzuki Equator.  For all intents and purposes the Equator is a carbon copy of the Frontier, with a few small offerings that make it a Suzuki.  Furthermore the Suzuki Equator holds it's own in terms of ruggedness and dependability with the Ford Ranger and Dodge Dakota, so why choose the Equator?

Options may be what sets the Equator apart from the rest of the small truck pack.  For example, most tests are performed on the top of the line Equator RMZ-4, which comes packing 261 horsepower paired with a 5 speed automatic.  Obviously this type of setup will over power the more common 4 cylinder Ranger or weak v6 Dakota.  Hell, this RMZ-4 option setup offers towing for up to 6,000 lbs.

Once you start removing all the bells and whistles and start looking at a more modestly equipped Equator then the playing field becomes more even.  Most industry experts like the Equator, but be careful with the options because the price tag can easily sore to over $30,000, which seems like a lot for this old soul for a small size pickup.

Suzuki Equator

A few weeks ago there was a picture found of the upcoming 2012 Ford Ranger.  Of course, with the camo it's hard to tell exactly what it is, but according to experts it's what will eventually be the production Ranger small size pickup truck.

Originally there was talk of Ford ending production of the Ranger in 2009, but has since been postponed till 2011.  Perhaps the production of the upcoming and radically redesigned 2012 Ranger will be produced somewhere other than the US.  At any rate, just glad to see car manufacturers planning this far ahead.