What Is Your Favorite Pickup Truck Of All Time?

I don't define myself as a pickup truck fan, but I have to admit, there's a ton of about them love. Who can say no to the labrador levels of happy in a Chevy 3100's front fascia or the raw excitement of a Ford SVT F-150 Lightning or the weirdness of those 1970s Dodge trucks? No one, that's who. I'm not immune. I even get a giddy thrill when I see a '90s Ford Ranger. Just so cute! And useful! Whether rugged off-roader or kid-retrieving vehicle, trucks are out there doing all sorts of work.

We hate on the Cybertruck a lot around here, and for good reason, but trucks in general are cool. Their wild styling (at least, in the past) and performance potential belies the essential utility of the body type. Sure, that leads to a lot of truck owners who don't do truck things with their trucks, but plenty of everyday people now have full social calendars all because they need to help their friends move. I guess truck owners can use their truck for their own handy work and stuff moving as well. Maybe. I don't know, I'm not a cop. 

We can be pretty loose with the definition of pickup here as well. If it's got a bed, it's a truck, or truck enough for our purposes here today. Which brings me to my pick...

I thought it would be easy to pick one truck to be numero uno in my heart. Just pick a favorite pickup! It's not that hard. But then you really consider the options, a whole world of really cool vehicles opens up. Still, there's two I always come back around to: the Chevy El Camino and Ford Ranchero. These weird 1970s utes epitomize the American spirit of being both fun and functional while harkening to the contributions of Spanish speaking people in this country. Like a reverse mullet, they're party up front, but all work in the back.

Were they useful to their owners? Eh, probably not. Were they cool and unique and we won't see their like again in this country? I'd say, definitely. The Chevy SSR was as close as we got to a resurgence of the ute body type in the U.S., but that was just a bulbous blip on the timeline. So what about you? What truck, past or current, holds a special place in your heart?