Look! Out on the road! It’s sedan! It’s a pickup! No! It’s a Dodge Dakota Club Cab!

Well, it finally happened — the shotgun marriage of the 4-wheel drive pickup and the family sedan. Only it’s consumers holding the shotgun, demanding that the best of both be joined in marriage.

With four front-hinged car-like doors and a cargo bed, the stylish Dodge Dakota Quad Cab is one of the first entries in a new pickup truck market driven by the consumer’s desire for an all-in-one vehicle — a truck for hauling, a sport utility vehicle (SUV) for off road or inclement weather and the good old four-door family sedan.

Entries into this suddenly booming truck market offer the interior room of an SUV, a pickup’s cargo bed and extended cabs that feature four front-opening doors with outside handles to accommodate rear passengers.

The first to recognize this trend was Nissan which capitalized on it with the attractive 2000 Frontier Crew Cab. Ford jumped in with both feet as well, offering a crew cab configuration of its enormously popular F-150 as well as the new Explorer Sport Trac. But Dodge seems to have gained the largest foothold in this new market.

Extended cab pickups with a rear seat are in great demand and far outsell standard cab models. “Crew cab” pickups have been sold for years, but seemed to only be good for hauling utility and construction crews, not civilian use. But the new Dodge strikes a good balance in size. It’s appreciably larger with significantly more back-seat area than the Nissan Crew Cab, but is sized perfectly between big pickups like the F-150 and compacts like the Frontier.

Dodge marketeers call the Quad Cab a compact, so they can advertise it as having the “best-in-class” interior volume, most-powerful engine, more front and rear room than any compact pickup, yada, yada, yada. Call it what you want — the largest compact pickup or the only midsize pickup. Either way, It is roughly the same overall size and length as the popular Dakota Club Cab. It’s that same 131-inch wheelbase that contributes to the Quad Cab’s impressive rear-seat area and noticeably more comfortable ride.

To build an extended cab pickup, something has to go, and that something is cargo bed length. While the Quad Cab has a shorter cargo bed than that offered with the standard cab Dakota, its 63.1-inch-long bed is larger than most car trunks or SUV cargo areas. Utilizing an optional extender, the bed can be lengthened to 69 inches with the tailgate down. Nissan offers a similar extender for the Frontier Crew Cab and look for Ford to jump on this little trick as well.

The Quad Cab’s standard 40/20/40 split front seat and rear 60/40 split-folding bench seat accommodate six. Unlike the rear seat in most pickups, the Quad Cab’s back seat is comfortable, except the center section — just like in most cars. No matter what they say on TV, the fact is, the Quad Cab really only offers comfortable room for four adults. So, unless you frequently carry extra passengers, I’d opt for the available front bucket seats, which I found much more comfortable than the bench.

The doors open nearly 90 degrees to allow easy exit and entry into a quiet, nicely designed, functional interior. The cockpit is layed out with controls at reasonable fingertip length and height. However, the climate controls struck me as somewhat cheap and the sound system controls a little too small for comfortably safe use at highway speeds.

On the road, the Quad Cab drives and handles much like a large, solid, comfortable sedan. The available front and rear stabilizer bars and larger tires help accomplish this. The Dakota’s new standard rack-and-pinion steering is very precise, and handling is quite good.

I drove Quad Cab from Tampa, Florida to Ft. Lauderdale and found its rather stiff suspension provided a pleasing ride, but experience tells me it could also get a little bouncy on bad roads or off road. Rear anti-lock brakes are standard, but a 4-wheel anti-lock system is a $495 option.

Typical of most trucks, there’s a wide variety of extras, including stand-alone options and option packages — including the first electrically heated rear window defroster on a Dodge truck.

Among popular “stand-alones” are a 4-speed automatic transmission, A/C, full-time 4-wheel drive and larger outside mirrors. The SLT Plus Decor Group, which has items including front and rear stabilizer bars, various power accessories and wider tires on aluminum wheels is an especially attractive package. But it strikes me as stupid to be forced to order the SLT Quick Order Package just to get a chrome grille and bumpers.

Standard power under the hood of the Quad Cab is a 3.9-liter 175-horsepower V6, while a modern 4.7-liter 235 horse, overhead-cam V8 and an old-style 5.9-liter 245-horsepower pushrod V8 (the old workhorse 318) are optional. The 5.9 is meant for serious towing and was under the hood of our test model.

On the highway I found its performance outstanding. On the ride across the Sunshine Skyway, down I-75 and across Alligator Alley into Ft Lauderdale, the Quad Cab never broke a sweat keeping up with the traffic which seemed to be cruising in excess of 80 most of the way. After the 300+ mile trip, I wasn’t stiff — or tired from the drive.

Whines: I’d like to see 4-wheel ABS brakes standard on all Dodge trucks. They make them measurably better vehicles. You don’t buy a 4X4 with gas mileage in mind, but fuel consumption seemed above average. At least the Quad Cab has a 24-gallon fuel tank to allow a fairly decent cruising range.

Kudos: Very stylish, extremely comfortable, quiet, roomy and value-priced.

Bottom Line: The Dodge Quad Cab has an awful lot going for it — virile styling, “right” size, a comfortable, spacious interior, decent sized cargo bed, and a car-like personality. What more could you want in a marriage made in Detroit?.