Can a car, or a passenger vehicle, capture the very spirit of a country?
As a matter of fact, it can. The car has evolved differently depending on where in the world we go. Cars in India tend to be small because their cities are so crowded and the purchasing power is generally low. Japanese cars have historically been incredibly reliable, because people do not expect to have to buy that many of them throughout their lifetime.
Swedish cars—back when they built their own cars and not Chinese clones—were modest, safe, and ‘lagom’ (‘just right’)—three adjectives that define the Swedish national character.
But what about America? What vehicle captures the American spirit?
It would be easy to say that the car itself, the mode of transportation that it is, embodies America. But that would be unfair to the rest of the world: after all, the automobile was not even invented in America. The Germans beat us to it.
With that said, America has a very special love affair with the automobile. That love affair started when Henry Ford invented the mass production of the automobile. Thanks to his ingenuity, an assembly line in Dearborn, Michigan, could crank out Model T in unprecedented volumes, at unbeatable prices.
Back when Henry Ford put America on wheels, there were well over 2,000 car manufacturers in the country. The prosperous 1920s and the rapidly growing cities created an insatiable need for rapid, comfortable transportation. In the 1930s, when President Roosevelt spearheaded the creation of the nationwide U.S. Highway network, the automotive industry responded by building faster, safer, and more comfortable cars for interstate travel.
After World War II, when the auto industry had been devoted to military production for several years, there was a yearning across America for new cars. The old models from the 1930s were out of date and unsuitable for the sprawling post-war economy. A new era was born, one of automotive opulence, power, and luxury.
With the 1950s came President Eisenhower and his initiative to create the Interstate system. Modeled after Germany’s Autobahns, these divided, limited-access highways allowed for even faster cross-country travel than the U.S. Highways had allowed for.
About here, smack in the middle of the 20th century, is where most people of my generation would search for the most ‘American’ car of all times. Some point to the 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood or the 1973 Chrysler Imperial; to others, the 1965 Ford Mustang is the ultimate symbol of America on wheels.
These are all great cars (unless, of course, you try to park the Fleetwood or the Imperial at your local supermarket…) but they do not necessarily appeal to a younger generation. Their epitomic American vehicle might be a Tesla.
I beg to differ. In terms of capturing the enduring spirit of America, there is no better vehicle than “the truck.”
The Brits call it a “lorry” while the Swedes have borrowed the term “pick up” for it. We Americans simply refer to it as “the truck.” It is a vehicle that seats 2-6 passengers, has a cargo bed, a relatively strong engine, and often four-wheel-drive capability. It can tow big trailers, haul a lot of stuff, and get you almost anywhere you want to go. In fact, with some after-market modifications, practically any truck sold in America can take you out across the prairie in Oklahoma, up in the mountains of Alaska, or even venture into the alligator-infested Louisiana backwoods.
Americans buy trucks by the millions. We also buy a lot of SUVs, sport utility vehicles, which in reality are little more than trucks with passenger space and a station-wagon style cargo bay. Of the 16.4 million passenger vehicles sold in America in 2023, a whopping 12.8 million were “light trucks”, which includes both bona-fide trucks and SUVs. The best-selling vehicle, all categories, was the Ford F-series. It consists of a whole range of truck variants that sold more than 750,000 units last year. Not far behind are Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, and Ram 1500.
The truck is an incredibly versatile vehicle. Having owned two myself, I cannot say enough good about this automotive invention.
For starters, it is difficult to find a more comfortable type of vehicle; the only thing better than a full-size truck for highway comfort is an SUV. This makes sense since many full-size and even mid-size SUVs are truck derivatives. The ride in modern trucks is plush, they are quiet, and thanks to the elevated seating position you have a commanding view of traffic.
Just like we Americans like our lives to be. We like to have an overview of things, and we like to be comfortable.
And, not to forget: safe. Trucks are safe. Their heft and size alone vouch for your likely survival and minimal injuries in the event of a crash. Then there are all the modern safety features that trucks share with other vehicles: airbags, anti-lock brakes,, etc.
But just as we like to be comfortable, we are not afraid to put in the work when needed. Our trucks are the same way: they work hard when we need them to, and they are incredibly versatile vehicles. I used both my trucks as family haulers for long trips, and they moved family-member households across multiple states, loaded to the brim and towing heavy trailers with even more stuff in them.
No need to call the moving company!
A truck comes in handy when it is time to clean out the garage, the storage area, the attic, or the old cabin. It is unbeatable for a run to IKEA to pick up furniture for your kid’s first home. You can use your truck to haul home a couple of Christmas trees in the morning, pick up your mother-in-law at the airport at lunch time, and in the afternoon—with some accessories mounted—you can plow the snow off your grandfather’s driveway.
The versatility, or practicality, is one of the things that makes the truck so American. Ever since this country was founded, it has been defined by ‘what works.’ Unlike Europeans, whose centuries-long traditions offer them a certain leeway—dare I say patience—in solving problems, we Americans have no such long lines of history to draw on.
For us, ‘what works’ is what solves the problem.
This attitude is in turn founded in our pioneering and immigration traditions. When people moved west, they were the first to till the land, to raise cattle there, and to build, mine, and log whatever they needed in order to survive. This pioneering spirit defined the country for at least a century and a half, and it carried over into the industrial era.
As a country, we have gotten used to rejecting solutions that don’t work. (Clearly, that does not apply to our politics, but let’s leave that aside.) Our nation is also big enough that if someone offers non-working ‘solutions,’ there is always a competitor to turn to. Hence, our free market and our zest for ‘what works’ have driven our demand for automotive transportation.
The truck meets that demand. And when the capabilities of our trucks reached their practical limit, we invented the SUV. The best ones are still the big ones, built on the same platform as trucks. Jeep’s new Grand Wagoneer rides on the same platform as the Ram 1500, and the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban are both based on their Silverado truck sibling.
We can do a lot with our SUVs. Many of them have three rows, allowing the driver to bring along six, seven, even eight people in a regular passenger vehicle. If needed, you can convert the SUV into a respectable moving ‘van’; by combining the passenger-hauling abilities of a three-row SUV with the tow-and-haul capabilities that come with a truck frame and powertrain, the full-size SUV allows you to have the best of both worlds.
We Americans hate compromises. If we can’t get ‘both,’ we invent a new way to get it. Like the SUV.
For those who aren’t entirely happy with the size and bulk of a big SUV, we also invented another vehicle: the minivan. It is like a micro-house on wheels, with stowaway seats so you can use it to schlep eight kids to church on Sunday morning and eight sheets of plywood from Home Depot on Sunday afternoon. Of course, you can also buy a minivan as a complement to your truck. Then you have checked all the American boxes.
Our trucks meet another American demand: the power to go anywhere, any time. The full-size trucks, which are designated as ‘half tons’ or, by the numbers, 150 (Ford) or 1500 (Chevrolet/GMC, Ram), have long been powered by V8 engines. Thanks to the delusional idea that car engines cause “global warming,” that has changed somewhat; Ram and Toyota no longer offer a V8. Toyota’s i-Force V8 is one of the best ever built, and will be sorely missed. Ram replaced their excellent Hemi V8 with a puny three-liter, twin-turbo V6.
I weep for the future of Ram trucks.
Fortunately, we can still buy Ford and Chevrolet/GMC trucks with sizable V8 engines, and GM is developing even better ones. They are clearly planning to give us big power for a long time.
Power is important. It means that when we are traveling, we will never come across a situation where we cannot move ourselves forward. Be it towing a heavy trailer up a hill or passing an 18-wheel heavy truck on the highway, we know our vehicle can always get the job done.
America works the same way. Cheap, abundant power allows us to invent, expand, and grow anything and everything, from manufacturing to health care. Whatever we want to do, we can do, thanks to an abundant supply of power. Simply put: we Americans see no reason why anyone should settle for less, when we can make more happen.
Last but not least: our trucks allow us to go anywhere. The truck is the epitome of individual freedom: to have a vehicle that can cross any terrain, defy any weather condition, and brave any element that nature throws at us. My trucks worked their ways through snow storms where normal passenger cars got stuck by the numbers. Thanks to their outstanding drive-anywhere systems, they saved us from accidents traveling down ice-rink slippery highways. And thanks to their high ground clearance, they could overcome most backroads, get through snow barriers, and avoid debris on the road like it wasn’t even there.
This form of individual freedom is essential to the American spirit. It embodies the idea that our Founding Fathers wrote into the Preamble and the body of our Constitution: that all men are created equal; that our rights come from God, not government; and that government powers, not our rights, are enumerated.
But wait—we are not done yet. Not only did we invent the full-size truck with its incredible power and usability, but we also invented smaller versions of the truck. For those who don’t need the almost limitless capabilities of full-size trucks, Ford has offered the Ranger in different versions for a very long time. In the 1980s, Toyota decided to launch the Tacoma—you know, the one from the movie Back to the Future.
Today, the Tacoma is one of the most iconic trucks ever invented.
The demand for trucks is so high that other manufacturers have gotten into the market. We Americans even inspired Honda to invent the Ridgeline, a quirky but innovative take on what it means to be a truck in America.
Plain and simple: there is a truck for everyone. They are big, small, fast, thirsty, fuel efficient, bulky, nimble, overlanding, city-dwelling…
In short, our trucks are just like us: American.
The Truck: A Rolling Symbol of America
Can a car, or a passenger vehicle, capture the very spirit of a country?
As a matter of fact, it can. The car has evolved differently depending on where in the world we go. Cars in India tend to be small because their cities are so crowded and the purchasing power is generally low. Japanese cars have historically been incredibly reliable, because people do not expect to have to buy that many of them throughout their lifetime.
Swedish cars—back when they built their own cars and not Chinese clones—were modest, safe, and ‘lagom’ (‘just right’)—three adjectives that define the Swedish national character.
But what about America? What vehicle captures the American spirit?
It would be easy to say that the car itself, the mode of transportation that it is, embodies America. But that would be unfair to the rest of the world: after all, the automobile was not even invented in America. The Germans beat us to it.
With that said, America has a very special love affair with the automobile. That love affair started when Henry Ford invented the mass production of the automobile. Thanks to his ingenuity, an assembly line in Dearborn, Michigan, could crank out Model T in unprecedented volumes, at unbeatable prices.
Back when Henry Ford put America on wheels, there were well over 2,000 car manufacturers in the country. The prosperous 1920s and the rapidly growing cities created an insatiable need for rapid, comfortable transportation. In the 1930s, when President Roosevelt spearheaded the creation of the nationwide U.S. Highway network, the automotive industry responded by building faster, safer, and more comfortable cars for interstate travel.
After World War II, when the auto industry had been devoted to military production for several years, there was a yearning across America for new cars. The old models from the 1930s were out of date and unsuitable for the sprawling post-war economy. A new era was born, one of automotive opulence, power, and luxury.
With the 1950s came President Eisenhower and his initiative to create the Interstate system. Modeled after Germany’s Autobahns, these divided, limited-access highways allowed for even faster cross-country travel than the U.S. Highways had allowed for.
About here, smack in the middle of the 20th century, is where most people of my generation would search for the most ‘American’ car of all times. Some point to the 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood or the 1973 Chrysler Imperial; to others, the 1965 Ford Mustang is the ultimate symbol of America on wheels.
These are all great cars (unless, of course, you try to park the Fleetwood or the Imperial at your local supermarket…) but they do not necessarily appeal to a younger generation. Their epitomic American vehicle might be a Tesla.
I beg to differ. In terms of capturing the enduring spirit of America, there is no better vehicle than “the truck.”
The Brits call it a “lorry” while the Swedes have borrowed the term “pick up” for it. We Americans simply refer to it as “the truck.” It is a vehicle that seats 2-6 passengers, has a cargo bed, a relatively strong engine, and often four-wheel-drive capability. It can tow big trailers, haul a lot of stuff, and get you almost anywhere you want to go. In fact, with some after-market modifications, practically any truck sold in America can take you out across the prairie in Oklahoma, up in the mountains of Alaska, or even venture into the alligator-infested Louisiana backwoods.
Americans buy trucks by the millions. We also buy a lot of SUVs, sport utility vehicles, which in reality are little more than trucks with passenger space and a station-wagon style cargo bay. Of the 16.4 million passenger vehicles sold in America in 2023, a whopping 12.8 million were “light trucks”, which includes both bona-fide trucks and SUVs. The best-selling vehicle, all categories, was the Ford F-series. It consists of a whole range of truck variants that sold more than 750,000 units last year. Not far behind are Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, and Ram 1500.
The truck is an incredibly versatile vehicle. Having owned two myself, I cannot say enough good about this automotive invention.
For starters, it is difficult to find a more comfortable type of vehicle; the only thing better than a full-size truck for highway comfort is an SUV. This makes sense since many full-size and even mid-size SUVs are truck derivatives. The ride in modern trucks is plush, they are quiet, and thanks to the elevated seating position you have a commanding view of traffic.
Just like we Americans like our lives to be. We like to have an overview of things, and we like to be comfortable.
And, not to forget: safe. Trucks are safe. Their heft and size alone vouch for your likely survival and minimal injuries in the event of a crash. Then there are all the modern safety features that trucks share with other vehicles: airbags, anti-lock brakes,, etc.
But just as we like to be comfortable, we are not afraid to put in the work when needed. Our trucks are the same way: they work hard when we need them to, and they are incredibly versatile vehicles. I used both my trucks as family haulers for long trips, and they moved family-member households across multiple states, loaded to the brim and towing heavy trailers with even more stuff in them.
No need to call the moving company!
A truck comes in handy when it is time to clean out the garage, the storage area, the attic, or the old cabin. It is unbeatable for a run to IKEA to pick up furniture for your kid’s first home. You can use your truck to haul home a couple of Christmas trees in the morning, pick up your mother-in-law at the airport at lunch time, and in the afternoon—with some accessories mounted—you can plow the snow off your grandfather’s driveway.
The versatility, or practicality, is one of the things that makes the truck so American. Ever since this country was founded, it has been defined by ‘what works.’ Unlike Europeans, whose centuries-long traditions offer them a certain leeway—dare I say patience—in solving problems, we Americans have no such long lines of history to draw on.
For us, ‘what works’ is what solves the problem.
This attitude is in turn founded in our pioneering and immigration traditions. When people moved west, they were the first to till the land, to raise cattle there, and to build, mine, and log whatever they needed in order to survive. This pioneering spirit defined the country for at least a century and a half, and it carried over into the industrial era.
As a country, we have gotten used to rejecting solutions that don’t work. (Clearly, that does not apply to our politics, but let’s leave that aside.) Our nation is also big enough that if someone offers non-working ‘solutions,’ there is always a competitor to turn to. Hence, our free market and our zest for ‘what works’ have driven our demand for automotive transportation.
The truck meets that demand. And when the capabilities of our trucks reached their practical limit, we invented the SUV. The best ones are still the big ones, built on the same platform as trucks. Jeep’s new Grand Wagoneer rides on the same platform as the Ram 1500, and the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban are both based on their Silverado truck sibling.
We can do a lot with our SUVs. Many of them have three rows, allowing the driver to bring along six, seven, even eight people in a regular passenger vehicle. If needed, you can convert the SUV into a respectable moving ‘van’; by combining the passenger-hauling abilities of a three-row SUV with the tow-and-haul capabilities that come with a truck frame and powertrain, the full-size SUV allows you to have the best of both worlds.
We Americans hate compromises. If we can’t get ‘both,’ we invent a new way to get it. Like the SUV.
For those who aren’t entirely happy with the size and bulk of a big SUV, we also invented another vehicle: the minivan. It is like a micro-house on wheels, with stowaway seats so you can use it to schlep eight kids to church on Sunday morning and eight sheets of plywood from Home Depot on Sunday afternoon. Of course, you can also buy a minivan as a complement to your truck. Then you have checked all the American boxes.
Our trucks meet another American demand: the power to go anywhere, any time. The full-size trucks, which are designated as ‘half tons’ or, by the numbers, 150 (Ford) or 1500 (Chevrolet/GMC, Ram), have long been powered by V8 engines. Thanks to the delusional idea that car engines cause “global warming,” that has changed somewhat; Ram and Toyota no longer offer a V8. Toyota’s i-Force V8 is one of the best ever built, and will be sorely missed. Ram replaced their excellent Hemi V8 with a puny three-liter, twin-turbo V6.
I weep for the future of Ram trucks.
Fortunately, we can still buy Ford and Chevrolet/GMC trucks with sizable V8 engines, and GM is developing even better ones. They are clearly planning to give us big power for a long time.
Power is important. It means that when we are traveling, we will never come across a situation where we cannot move ourselves forward. Be it towing a heavy trailer up a hill or passing an 18-wheel heavy truck on the highway, we know our vehicle can always get the job done.
America works the same way. Cheap, abundant power allows us to invent, expand, and grow anything and everything, from manufacturing to health care. Whatever we want to do, we can do, thanks to an abundant supply of power. Simply put: we Americans see no reason why anyone should settle for less, when we can make more happen.
Last but not least: our trucks allow us to go anywhere. The truck is the epitome of individual freedom: to have a vehicle that can cross any terrain, defy any weather condition, and brave any element that nature throws at us. My trucks worked their ways through snow storms where normal passenger cars got stuck by the numbers. Thanks to their outstanding drive-anywhere systems, they saved us from accidents traveling down ice-rink slippery highways. And thanks to their high ground clearance, they could overcome most backroads, get through snow barriers, and avoid debris on the road like it wasn’t even there.
This form of individual freedom is essential to the American spirit. It embodies the idea that our Founding Fathers wrote into the Preamble and the body of our Constitution: that all men are created equal; that our rights come from God, not government; and that government powers, not our rights, are enumerated.
But wait—we are not done yet. Not only did we invent the full-size truck with its incredible power and usability, but we also invented smaller versions of the truck. For those who don’t need the almost limitless capabilities of full-size trucks, Ford has offered the Ranger in different versions for a very long time. In the 1980s, Toyota decided to launch the Tacoma—you know, the one from the movie Back to the Future.
Today, the Tacoma is one of the most iconic trucks ever invented.
The demand for trucks is so high that other manufacturers have gotten into the market. We Americans even inspired Honda to invent the Ridgeline, a quirky but innovative take on what it means to be a truck in America.
Plain and simple: there is a truck for everyone. They are big, small, fast, thirsty, fuel efficient, bulky, nimble, overlanding, city-dwelling…
In short, our trucks are just like us: American.
READ NEXT
Are Net Zero’s Days Numbered?
Erdogan’s Hour of Triumph
Christian Heritage: Worthy of Celebration