Toyota Drops the Incredibly Unpopular Regular Cab Tundra for 2018

Now that pickup trucks have graduated from the role of farm and construction site conveyance to family hauler, space and seating have become as important as bed length and payload capacity. Not surprisingly, regular cab pickups and even extended-cab models have become a scarce sight on local roads.

Ram, Toyota and General Motors have since turned their extended cab full-sizers into front-hinged, almost-crew-cab four-doors, leaving Ford and Nissan with the only clamshell layouts in the business. As for regular cabs, who even thinks of those? Not many. So few, in fact, that Toyota beancounters decided to drop the axe.

Yup, there’ll be no regular cab Tundra when the refreshed 2018 models arrive in late summer. Are you sad?

Our guess is a resounding “no.”

Indeed, the Tundra regular cab proved so unpopular, its death means next to nothing for volume. It’s passing barely registers a mention. Toyota would much rather have brand loyalists know about its new TRD Sport trim, which will tempt buyers with an upgraded suspension and revamped looks.

“The heavy consumer demand for the Tundra CrewMax and Double Cab configurations … created low volume demand for the Regular Cab,” said Toyota spokesman Sam Butto, speaking to My San Antonio.

While domestic regular cab take rates, spurred by traditional fleet buyers, amount to the high single digits, Toyotas aren’t regularly seen parked in public works lots. Thus, the Tundra’s regular cab take rate was far, far less than that of Ford’s F-150, Chevrolet’s Silverado, or Ram’s 1500. Miniscule, in fact.

According to Ivan Drury, senior analyst for Edmunds, the Tundra’s take rate fell below the 1 percent mark. Actually, it’s less than halfway to the 1 percent mark. A Toyota source told PickupTrucks.com that over the first five months of 2017, just 0.4 percent of Tundras sold in the U.S. left the lot with two doors.

That means of 43,809 Tundras sold between New Year’s Day and May 31st, roughly 175 were regular cab models. While Nissan decided to build a “single cab” model of its redesigned Titan, it makes you wonder how long that variant will last. The same goes for models offered by the Detroit Three.