It's usually Toyota compact pickups that first spring to mind when talking longevity or off-road ability, but Nissan's compact trucks have some credibility in those areas as well, as demonstrated by this 1988 Nissan Hardbody Desert Runner pickup. Up for offer right now on the auction site Cars & Bids, this Hardbody 4x4 also sports an extroverted red-and-blue graphics package that makes this Nissan pickup guaranteed to turn heads.

We will admit to having totally forgotten about this original Desert Runner — or, more accurately, having never been aware of it. (The nameplate was resurrected for and an off-road-themed 4x2 Frontier offered from 2002 to 2004 and again from 2013 to 2019.) This 1988 model reportedly was a one-year-only special edition that was built to commemorate Nissan's off-road racing effort, which included running in the Baja 1000, the Gold Coast 300, and the Mint 400. The standard Nissan 3.0-liter V6 is backed up by a five-speed manual gearbox and four-wheel drive with a two-speed transfer case. The package includes 31-inch tires on chunky triangle-styled wheels, a bed-mounted spare tire, a front push bar with driving lights, a front skid plate, tubular step bars, a roll bar with more driving lights, and a tailgate net. It's believed 1,000 were made.

As the rush to battery-powered pickups grabs more headlines, Nissan is said to be interested in getting its slow-selling Titan full-size pickup in on the action. According to a report by Bloomberg, the company is exploring a partnership with EV startup Hercules that would have the nascent Detroit-based electric-pickup manufacturer supply electric powertrains for Nissan. Nissan, in return would provide unnamed truck components for Hercules' own Alpha pickup.

It has previously been reported that Nissan would trim the Titan model range, dropping unpopular variants such as the single-cab version and the diesel, as part of a company-wide initiative to cut costs. But full-size pickups generally are huge profit centers for their makers, and Nissan surely wants to keep the Titan viable. An electric Titan would join the thundering herd of upcoming battery-powered pickups such as the Tesla Cybertruck, Ford's Electric F-150, GM's Hummer EV, the Rivian R1T, the Lordstown Endurance, and Bollinger B2 among others.

Toyota will start accepting pre-orders for the facelifted Hilux in the United Kingdom on September 1, prior to the opening of the order books two months later.

Mazda exited America's pickup segment when it deep-sixed the Ford Ranger-based B-Series after the 2009 model year, but it remains committed to the body style overseas. The third-generation BT-50 introduced online wears an unusually stylish design for a global truck, while its interior looks and feels more car-like than before.

The BT-50 is based on the Isuzu D-Max, but the familiar shield-shaped grille hides the common DNA well. Horizontal slats and a thick chrome frame create a visual link between the pickup and members of Mazda's line of sedans and crossovers, while stylists gave the rear end more utilitarian-looking lines characterized by vertical lights. The variant depicted in Mazda's images is an upmarket trim built for users who need a rugged daily driver, and more basic versions that feel at home on a construction site will ship will inevitably look a lot cheaper.

Nissan released a video today previewing and confirming the next-gen Z car. We got to see a shadowy silhouette of Nissan's upcoming sports car — find all the details on that here — but we also got a preview of many other future Nissan products. Most notable among the line of products rolling by us was the first look at Nissan's next-gen Frontier pickup.

We've heard scads of information about this truck coming our way, but this is the first time Nissan has shown what it's going to look like. The differences are clear as day. The front nose no longer slopes downward when viewed in profile, appearing like most upright truck faces do these days. Two proud twin strips of LED lighting bring it up to date with a signature look, and the hood features multiple muscular lines. Viewed from the side like this, we're getting Toyota Tacoma vibes from its blocky shape and brawny lines.

Suzuki showed off a Jimny pickup truck concept at the 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon, and it garnered more positive hype for the already beloved new-generation 4x4. But more than a year later, there are no signs that a production version is coming in the immediate future, if at all. So, members of the aftermarket are building their own. Shropshire Quads out of the United Kingdom takes regular Jimny SUVs and converts them into pickups by lifting the vehicle and adding a metal tub to the rear.

Shropshire Quads has been building Jimny pickups for years. The company started doing the conversions on used models but has since grown to add the new Jimny to the operation, as well. Here's how it all started: 

North American sales of small Japanese pickups got stronger with each passing year of the 1970s, helped along by ridiculous gasoline prices. The Toyota Hilux of that era (which became, simply, the Toyota Truck over here) gets most of the attention now, but the rugged Nissan 620 (known as the Datsun Pickup in North America) sold as well as or better than the Hilux for much of the decade. Here's a '76 Datsun Pickup, retired in Colorado after 44 years of hard work.