QOTD: What Would You Give Up to Save Your Truck?

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Don’t you love it when an automaker comes out with a survey? Served up with a huge grain of salt, such surveys are only published when they reinforce a conclusion the OEM already wishes to make, and always in the service of marketing.

There’s a Ford F-150 coming on June 25th, and it seems the Blue Oval now wants to talk to you about sex and booze.

Right on, this writer says, as he’d much rather hear about vice than green-signalling virtue. Seems truck owners surveyed by the company’s hired polling firm would sooner hand over a lot of things than give up their ride.

Ford doesn’t say whether the 2,000 American truck owners surveyed online in March were allowed to keep or drive a non-truck vehicle in this exercise; instead, we’re just told what the average American truck driver would give up in exchange for keeping their truck. Alright.

Seems that 79 percent of those polled would sooner give up booze for a year than hand over the keys. If this truck was a person’s sole mode of personal transportation, and essential to their lifestyle and job, you’d think the figure would be higher. “Hand over the keys” can mean a number of things, Ford. God, this is dumb.

Moving down the list, 71 percent of respondents would sooner give up coffee for a year, 44 percent would give up meat, and 38 percent would give up sex (both inside Ford vehicles and elsewhere, one assumes). Clearly, Ford surveyed a fairly progressive, young, and urban crowd, and not, say, a collective of Southwestern ranchers approaching retirement age.

Having already given this survey more attention than it deserves, we’ll put the question to you, dear reader. With the caveat that “giving up your keys” only means swapping to another, non-truck vehicle for a year, what of those four vices would you give up to keep that big engine up front and a bed in the back?

[Image: © 2019 Matthew Guy/TTAC]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Jeff S Jeff S on Jun 23, 2020

    @Vulpine--I might actually give up my low mileage crew cab Isuzu for a real compact pickup. My nephew's wife wants it. My only concern is that all the new compact pickups such as the Hyundai Santa Cruz, Ford Maverick, and possible Ram based on the Fiat Strata are all going to be crew cabs but I might just get the Maverick especially since the Santa Cruz is going to start at around 30k and the Maverick at just below 20k. I would like a truck lower to the ground where I can reach in the side of the bed and craw in the back without a ladder. At the present time I could give up a truck even though I use the bed especially with the CRV.

    • Vulpine Vulpine on Jun 23, 2020

      @Jeff S: Apparently you've been getting some news I haven't heard or read yet. I thought the working name for Ford's "compact" truck in '23 was Courier. Oh, I like the Maverick name but it brings to mind the Falcon-sized coupe/sedan from the early '70s rather than a small pickup. Guess they intend to use a steer logo of some sort to identify it.

  • Don1967 Don1967 on Jun 23, 2020

    I would give up the rear seat and rear doors of my truck if it meant saving the rest of it. Like most urban cowboys with two vehicles I only "need" a truck on rare occasions, and when I do it's the space for stuff that counts more than the space for people.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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