We Love Our Trucks

Pickup then...

In 1996 American Heritage magazine devoted its November issue to celebrating 100 years of the automobile. It was a dandy collectible with features stories about the longest race, the ten greatest technical breakthroughs in automobile history, the designer of the American Dream and other stories. One of these was William Jeanes's feature on pickup trucks titled "High, Wide and Handsome."

The piece begins by noting, "The best-selling American car isn't a car at all. It's a pickup truck." He then goes on to provide a brief history of how pickup trucks came to have such an appeal. In the piece Jeanes notes that pickup trucks may at one time have been all about utility, but over time design and style came to have more influence so that by the late nineties only 14% of all pickup-truck owners listed "use in line of business" as their main purpose in owning such a vehicle.

...and now.

Nearly two decades later and we still have a love affair with pickup trucks. Last week AOL Autos published an online slide show of the top fifteen selling cars in America and three were once again not cars. In fact, three of the top five were not cars. They were pickup trucks., number one being the Ford F-Series with sales of 68,109 in August.

Whether you're hauling hay, or towing a boat to the lake, pickups are practical. And in rural regions with deep snow, you'll get out of a drift more easily than with a low-slung sports car.

If you love your truck, make sure you take care of her. With AMSOIL.

Photo credits: (c) Can Stock Photo