re: Spin-off: return of the mid-sized truck

Is the Toyota Tacoma truly a "mid-sized" truck?

I get the visual appeal. It seems to me that they just appear bigger because of the wide fender molding and larger tires. The trucks are even jacked up higher to appear bigger so they have to add the mud flaps to close that gap between the ground and truck for the illusion that it's a bigger truck. Especially since it's marketed as such, with the "Prerunner" package to make a 2x4 truck look like a 4x4.

It's clearly obvious when I see a base model without all of the body side molding, large tires and mud flaps. Then compare that to the one that is commonly seen about. They're the same truck, it's just made to look bigger.

Base Tacoma:



Most commonly seen Prerunner 4x2 or 4x4 Tacoma:


O even compared the interior dimensions of the current Tacoma to a 2011 Ford Ranger. The Tacoma doesn't look to be that much larger than the retired compact truck on the inside.

Tacoma:
Head Room: 40.0"
Hip Room: 53.6"
Leg Room: 41.7"
Shoulder Room: 57.7"

Ranger:
Head Room: 39.2"
Hip Room: 52.7"
Leg Room: 42.4"
Shoulder Room: 54.5"

These dimensions are for a Tacoma Access Cab (extended cab) to a regular cab Ranger