Pickup Trucks: from Workhorse to Joyride

America has a love affair with pickup trucks. In 2022, the top three best-selling vehicles in America were pickup trucks, and among them, the Ford F-series reigns supreme. The Ford F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for more than 40 years, and for that reason, it’s a useful proxy for pickups overall.

It's worth noting that the success of the F-series isn't due to the overall popularity of pickups. Pickups have only recently become ~20% of the market. They've never been the largest market segment.

Instead, for several reasons pickup sales have been concentrated into comparatively few models for decades.

First, we've had a 25% protectionist tarrif on foreign-built pickups since the 60s. The excuse for passing it was as retaliation in a trade war with France and Germany over frozen US factory farmed chicken, so it's called the chicken tax. So there's a number of foreign cars and SUVs on the market, but very few foreign pickups.

Second, companies like Ford and Chevy focus their pickup sales into fewer models than SUV/car makers tend to. Ford buckets all of the F150, F250, F350, etc. sales into the "F-series". The F-series includes 2 door and 4 door trucks, long bed, regular bed and short bed trucks, regular trucks and their luxury trucks, etc. The lions share of trucks they sell are F-series.

Pickups have been getting steadily larger and less practical, sure, and the F150 is a great poster child for the trend. But the fact that pickups are consistently best-selling models has much more to do with industry shenanigans than any real American "love affair" with them.

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About half of the people where I live drive these huge pickup trucks, and I've never seen one hauling anything.
America has a love affair with pickup trucks. In 2022, the top three best-selling vehicles in America were pickup trucks, and among them, the Ford F-series reigns supreme. The Ford F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. for more than 40 years, and for that reason, it’s a useful proxy for pickups overall.
It's worth noting that the success of the F-series isn't due to the overall popularity of pickups. Pickups have only recently become ~20% of the market. They've never been the largest market segment.
Instead, for several reasons pickup sales have been concentrated into comparatively few models for decades.
First, we've had a 25% protectionist tarrif on foreign-built pickups since the 60s. The excuse for passing it was as retaliation in a trade war with France and Germany over frozen US factory farmed chicken, so it's called the chicken tax. So there's a number of foreign cars and SUVs on the market, but very few foreign pickups.
Second, companies like Ford and Chevy focus their pickup sales into fewer models than SUV/car makers tend to. Ford buckets all of the F150, F250, F350, etc. sales into the "F-series". The F-series includes 2 door and 4 door trucks, long bed, regular bed and short bed trucks, regular trucks and their luxury trucks, etc. The lions share of trucks they sell are F-series.
Pickups have been getting steadily larger and less practical, sure, and the F150 is a great poster child for the trend. But the fact that pickups are consistently best-selling models has much more to do with industry shenanigans than any real American "love affair" with them.
And this is why I had to put a new motor in my work truck this last winter. It was cheaper to buy a new motor for a 25yo truck then buy even a used 10yo truck. As someone who needs a work truck I hate the mall trucks just as much as the rest of you.
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