Port of Entry
All extended cabs are available with narrow, rear-hinged back doors. While these "half doors" may work fine in the showroom, they tend to be cumbersome in tight spaces because most only open about 90 degrees. In all extended cabs, the front doors have to be opened first, and then the rear doors. If you have a shopping cart and there's a vehicle parked next to you, opening the doors "boxes in" the entry to your truck's interior, with you and/or your cart on the outside of the "box." It brings to mind the old saying "You can't get there from here." Which is why crew cabs with four conventional doors came along, and are increasingly popular. However, the Dodge Dakota Club Cab (extended cab) offers rear-hinged rear doors that open wider, lying nearly flat against the sides of the bed. But even then, there might not be enough space between the door and an adjacent vehicle to roll a shopping cart.

Seating Surprise
Nearly all extended cabs offer seating for up to five people, but not all achieve that capacity the same way. Most do it with a three-passenger front bench seat and two rear "jump" seats, which each hold one person and fold out of the way for cargo. Since the center position on a front bench offers only enough room for a child--who should be riding in back--these realistically should be considered four-passenger trucks. Among compact extended cabs, only the Toyota Tacoma Access Cab offers a three-passenger rear seat, but those passengers should be small and very friendly.

Ditto for crew cabs that claim to hold six. One of those would have to sit front and center, and that's both uncomfortable and unsafe, so they should really be considered five-passenger vehicles. One more thing about seating: No compact extended cab offers enough rear leg room for adults, and none of their rear seats--whether jump or bench--are very comfortable, as padding is sparse and the backrest usually upright. In crew cabs, rear leg room is marginal at best, so these really aren't the vehicles for tall drivers who want to carry adults in back.

The Payback for Payload
Payload capacity--the maximum number of pounds of people and cargo the vehicle can safely carry--varies greatly among the trucks in this class. For some it's as little as 900 pounds, but most either are or can be optioned in the 1200- to 1700-lb range. Option packages that increase payload capacity include stiffer rear springs that can adversely affect ride and handling--particularly in bumpy corners--when the bed is empty. Think about how much weight you're likely to carry at any one time and buy accordingly.

Ride and handling can also suffer with optional off-road suspensions. Most include not only stiffer springs but also a taller ride height. The latter not only raises the center of gravity (making the vehicle more likely to tip over), but also makes it harder to get in and out, particularly for shorter folks.

Getting Traction
All compact pickups are offered with either rear- or four-wheel drive. Rear-drive versions are notoriously bad in slippery weather when their beds are empty because there's little weight over the drive wheels. Many offer an optional limited-slip rear axle that improves traction by sending power equally to both rear wheels. But that does nothing to overcome excess application of power, which will simply spin both tires rather than just one. Better is traction control, which will apply brakes or reduce engine power to keep the wheels from slipping. Traction control is available on the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, Isuzu i-290/i-370, and the Nissan Frontier.

Four-wheel drive offers even better traction, but some systems are more convenient than others. With most, 4WD should be switched off when running on dry pavement. This is because the system doesn't allow the wheels to spin at different speeds, as they need to when rounding a corner. Failing to switch the system off on dry pavement results in driveline binding and increased wear. Other systems can be left engaged on dry pavement, because they provide for different wheel speeds. This makes them more convenient when the road is slippery only in some areas. We refer to those systems here as "all-surface all-wheel drive."

For those who do severe off-roading, the Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma offer systems that prevent the truck from rolling backward on uphill runs, and regulate speed on downhill runs.

Safety
As with other types of vehicles, compact pickups are beginning to offer a full complement of safety features. These include 4-wheel antilock brakes (ABS) and antiskid systems; along with side airbags and curtain side airbags. Some even offer curtain airbags that deploy in rollovers. Consumer Guide considers all these to be worthwhile features, even if they cost extra. Note that the Dodge Dakota and Mitsubishi Raider come standard with ABS that works only on the rear wheels; a 4-wheel system--which is what's used on all other compact pickups--is optional.

Beds
Most regular- and extended-cab pickups offer a bed of about six feet; two exceptions are the Dodge Dakota Club Cab's 6.5-ft bed and the Ford Ranger regular cab's 7-ft bed. Most crew-cab compact pickups have a bed length of about five feet, but the Ford Explorer Sport Trac has a 4-ft bed, and the Nissan Frontier and Toyota Tacoma offer a 6-ft bed. A bed extender, which is a tubed "cage" that pivots to enclose the tailgate when it's down, is offered on many models.

Honda's Ridgeline, which comes only as a crew-cab, offers a covered well in the bottom of its bed, along with a tailgate that can either fold down or swing to the side. Ford's Explorer Sport Trac also offers under-floor storage bins.

Luxury Features
Some people might think the words "luxury" and "truck" to be mutually exclusive, but compact pickups offer some pretty ritzy features. A sunroof, heated front seats, leather upholstery, and hi-tech sound systems are common options these days. This makes it easy to turn a $20,000 compact pickup into a $30,000 one, so pick and choose carefully. Most trucks have a daunting number of options, and sometimes the few items you want are available separately rather than bundled into an expensive package that includes lots of stuff you don't.

When introduced for 2006, Honda's Ridgeline redefined what a crew-cab pickup could be. Rather than being built on a truck-type platform, it rode an SUV chassis that included independent rear suspension for a smoother ride. It also offered features never before seen on a compact pickup. Ford's redesigned Explorer Sport Trac, due to go on sale by fall 2006, is expected to offer similar features. Another vehicle worth considering is Subaru's Baja, which is based on the company's Outback all-wheel-drive four-door wagon. However, instead of an enclosed cargo area, Baja has an open 3.5-ft cargo bed that lengthens to about five feet with the tailgate and optional bed extender down, and there's a small pass-through from bed to interior when the rear seatback is folded.

Clones
Some trucks in this group are sold in similar form under more than one nameplate. Differences are mainly in appearance and feature availability. Chevrolet Colorado is the basis for the GMC Canyon and Isuzu i-290/i-370. Dodge Dakota spawned the Mitsubishi Raider. Ford Ranger is retrimmed as the Mazda B-Series.