Okay, so maybe they weren’t real trucks, but they were really cute. Here we take a quick look back at the Dodge Rampage and Plymouth Scamp mini-pickups.

Throughout the 1980s, the Chrysler Corporation produced an impressive variety of light trucks and commercial vehicles, usually (but not always) marketed under the Dodge Ram brand.  For a too-brief time—1982 through 1984—there was even a dinky front wheel-drive pickup built on the company’s subcompact L-Body platform. The adorable little hauler was offered in two flavors: Dodge Rampage and Plymouth Scamp.

Unveiled in December of 1981 as a 1982 model, the Rampage pickup was a rather straightforward adaptation of the sporty Dodge Omni 024. The coupe’s front doghouse, unibody construction, and transverse fwd powertrain were retained, while a simple beam axle and parallel leaf springs held up the rear. A re-enginered floor pan with additional crossmembers and the wheelbase stretched from 97 to 104.2 inches stiffened the cargo box region and provided a 63-inch load floor.

One engine was available, Mopar’s trusty 2.2-liter overhead-cam four, and two transmissions, a four-speed manual and a three-speed automatic. (In 1983, an improved five-speed stick came along.) Load capacity was 1,145 lbs, which made the Rampage a true half-ton truck, on paper at least, and a full slate of passenger-car convenience and comfort options was offered, including air conditioning and premium audio systems.

Despite the Rampage’s apparent appeal, not to mention its undeniable cuteness, sales of the pocket-sized pickup never took off as hoped. The first-year 1982 figures were the most encouraging at 17,636 units, but then sales quickly tumbled to 8,033 in 1983 and 11,732 in 1984 as the market quickly became saturated. For 1983 only, a Plymouth version called the Scamp (above) was introduced but it fared no better. Only 2,184 base-model Scamps and 1,380 Scamp GTs were sold.

With the benefit of hindsight, the failure of the Rampage/Scamp in the marketplace is easy to diagnose. Even then, American consumers were already shifting from passenger cars to pickups and sport utility vehicles, and the pickup buyers increasingly desired for-real trucks, not car-based approximations. For the compact truck crowd, Chrysler also offered the popular Mitsubishi-built Dodge D50 and Plymouth Arrow, Japanese pickups that were much more in tune with the ’80s market.

Dodge did take one more swing at the Rampage theme, or the name at least, with a design concept that made its debut at the 2006 Chicago Auto Show (below). More truck-like in styling than the original 1982-84 version, this Rampage was front wheel-drive but sported a 5.7-liter Hemi V8 and Stow ‘n Go modular seating adapted from the Minivan platform. While it gathered some positive reviews on the show floor in Chicago, it hasn’t been seen since.