Before Automakers Started Selling Luxury Trucks And SUVs, Custom Conversion Vans, Pickups, And SUVs Were King

You may remember a time before every automaker was peddling its respective take on an SUV, depending on your age, but many may not. Long before automakers like Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Porsche started selling luxury SUVs, and before the big three released luxurious versions of their pickup trucks, there was an array of conversion companies turning utilitarian haulers into lavish lounge-like living rooms on wheels.

These icons of 1980s and '90s excess often featured garish graphics and flashy fiberglass body kits outside, while acres of wood, pleated leather captain's chairs, and built-in CRT televisions adorned their interiors. These custom builds proved there was a demand for distinctly America-coded truck-based luxury vehicles whether they took the form of vans, minivans, SUVs, or heavy-duty trucks.

Modern buyers are spoiled; you can walk into a showroom and buy leather-lined, screen-filled luxury haulers direct from the factory in the shape of a minivan, heavy-duty pickup truck, or SUV, though the graphics and body kits were sadly lost in the process. The factory luxification of mass-produced vehicles really started to take off in the early 2000s, which coincided with the demise of many of these conversion companies that first dared to take trucks into luxury territories. Sure, you could call them coachbuilders, but that feels sacrilegious, so I'll stick to calling them conversion companies.

Green Hawk Drive's video focuses primarily on conversion trucks, and does a great job of showcasing the gaudy, oh-so-nineties products that these companies somehow managed to sell. At one time, the market for these monstrous mile-munching machines was robust enough to support hundreds of conversion companies, but now the market is almost entirely gone. This video celebrates the zany, ostentatious, and now hilariously dated trucks, complete with scans of original sales catalogs and plenty of photos of the glorious creations that came out of this niche vehicular craze. I love everything about it.

In the '80s and '90s, pickup trucks were almost exclusively viewed as utilitarian tools for demanding jobs, passenger vans were just that, and even minivans were mostly tall wagons saddled with flat vinyl bench seats. Then, conversion vehicles entered the chat and bridged the gap between those austere appliances and the modern extravagant offerings sold directly from major manufacturers today. Despite this significant role in changing the tides of automotive culture, conversion vehicles are a largely forgotten sector of the automotive aftermarket. This video celebrates the wacky phenomenon of classic conversion trucks, so if you're looking for a dose of nostalgia or you're simply trying to figure out the appeal of these machines, give it a watch.