Would You Buy a Regular Cab Pickup—The 3% Truck Nobody Wants?

The regular cab pickup, a two-seat workhorse with a long bed and no frills, now accounts for just 3% of U.S. truck sales. That’s the brutal math behind Ram’s decision to make its high-performance 1500 Rumble Bee quad cab-only, a move CEO Tim Kuniskis defended as a response to market reality. “Keyboard warriors will bitch,” Kuniskis said bluntly last month, arguing that if buyers truly wanted single cab pickups, they’d already be buying them. The numbers back him up: only 3% of truck buyers opt for the stripped-down layout, which typically sticks to base trims and offers little in the way of creature comforts. Extended cabs, once a compromise for those needing a back seat, have also fallen out of favor, with most buyers preferring quad or crew cabs for daily use. The author recalls their first truck, an extended cab Chevrolet S-10, as a vehicle that could barely fit four adults without discomfort—unless the middle passenger was a “hot blonde,” a joke that underscores the impracticality of cramped cabins. While a regular cab makes little sense as a daily driver, it remains a viable option for tradespeople or enthusiasts building a dedicated tow rig or sport truck, where space and weight savings matter more than passenger comfort. The question lingers: in an era of ever-larger cabins and family-hauling priorities, is there still a place for the no-nonsense regular cab, or has its time passed?