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I used to drag race my F250 diesel 6 speed against trucks with auto trannies. I have 3 trophies in the diesel class (bracket racing).

Tim -- That's still correct. For the purposes of this site, we do not consider them real trucks. They are cars built on car frames and suspensions.

"Which is probably why, at least in North America, the whole El Camino thing didn't work out -- It still looked too much like a car."

So, it did not look too much like a car, it was a car.

So "Which is probably why, at least in North America, the whole El Camino thing didn't work out -- It was a car."?

Sorry about who thinks what is truck/car: I reference my Chevrolet Truck Data Books.

I think we are comparing apples to oranges. If you choose to call the El Camino a Truck, that’s your preference. If it’s listed in truck reference books does that make it a truck? Or, is that just where Chevy chose to market it. We all know it was built on a car platform and shares absolutely nothing but the engine with a truck. As John has stated many many times “for the purposes of this site, we do not consider them Trucks”. That should be enough to end the debate as far as Stovebolt.com is concerned. Sometimes you just have to admit you lost the battle and move on to fight a different battle that maybe you can win. BTW, for the record, I think El Caminos and the GM equivalent are really cool and if given the opportunity I would own another one in a heartbeat. I just don’t agree they are trucks.

Agree completely. The ONLY new vehicle I ever bought was a 1967 Ranchero and by the time I made the hundred mile return trip to Dallas it was worth $500 less than I paid for it two hours earlier. A lesson learned that I never repeated and I can afford something in the six figure range. Big disappointment number two was it was too much car to be a truck and too much truck to be a car and not the best at either. Same applies to the ElCamino or Dodge Sweptside.

Recently I considered buying a newer truck to replace my '03. My '03 has a tick over 85K on the clock. It's in great condition but it's becoming difficult to find small parts. For example the outside mirror control broke. No place to buy a new one. I was lucky and found a seller on ebay with a NOS switch. This led me to think maybe it's time to get a newer truck that's easier to find parts for. I quickly discovered two year old trucks with almost double the miles of my '03 are selling for $25K and up. That's just nuts.

Three years ago, I sold my last modern truck -- my 2015 Ram 3500 Crew Cab duallie. Replaced it with a 2014 E-350 Superduty (15-pass extended version) with the Quigley 4x4 conversion. I'm never going back to a pickup. If the Quigley can't tow it, I have access to my work truck, an '84 359 Pete. The van has a solid vinyl floor, vinyl seats, cruise control and an am-fm radio. To clean it, I open all the doors and run the leaf blower. I can sleep in in. I haul trash to the dump in it. Gas cans. Chain saws. I 've filled it up with nearly a cord of split firewood. It tows the '49 on a trailer very nicely. Does a nice job with the Boston Whaler and the 23-ft Precision sail boat.

5.4L v-8. Love my van. Trucks aren't trucks anymore. If I actually need a pickup for something, I still have the '49.

Here are a couple cool advertisements from '37,

Funny. Even my Ford F450 aerial boom truck at work has a rear camera, radar proximity sensors that talks to you (loudly, in an obnoxious female voice), blue tooth hands free radio, steering wheel controls, A/C, auto function lights/headlights, electronic 4WD, 10 speed auto trans with manual shifting select.....but manual windows. They still don't put in cruise control on a truck that size either. The end result on the manual windows is that it is cheaper on initial order cost, but more expensive to repair being it is so rare now a days for replacement parts. 99.999% of the other F450's on the road have power windows. "On a initial $200,000+ purchase, lets save $400 on manual windows, which may or may not save us if needing repair."