I Love My Common-Cab Pickup, however Let’s Face It, It is No Household Automotive

From the December 2022 difficulty of Automotive and Driver.

There I used to be with the wind speeding previous, the starlit sky above, the air alive with the mushy thrum of a V-8 on a heat autumn evening. Was I driving a Mustang convertible? One thing fancier, like a Mercedes SL? Nope. I used to be within the mattress of my 2003 Dodge pickup, questioning the place all of it went mistaken.

There is a distinction between using within the mattress of a truck for enjoyable and using there since you should. I used to be within the latter camp due to my very own selections—specifically, my silly devotion to the regular-cab pickup. Ours is a household of 4, and the Ram seats three. When these unforgiving information collide, the man who purchased the truck will get to expertise the nice outdoor whereas listening to his spouse slipping the clutch slightly an excessive amount of (however not having the ability to say something about it on account of being, technically, cargo).

After I purchased the Ram, it did not happen to me that its three-seat, regular-cab format was something apart from superior. Everyone seems to be driving a four-door truck, however not me. I am an iconoclast with my bench seat and handbook transmission. A purist. And if that results in occasional inconvenience, that is the worth of artwork. The artwork, on this case, being a third-gen Ram with clear-coat that appears prefer it was utilized at Chernobyl Reactor 4.

Again and again I’ve prioritized my nebulous sense of automotive greatness over practicality, or affordability, or reliability, or security, or gas financial system, or consolation, or refinement, or resale worth, or having the inside switches labeled in English. I am definitely properly acquainted with the view from the highest of the petard, so many instances have I been hoisted. Within the mid-’90s, I used to be the one individual I knew with a cellphone. And I wanted it due to my dumb vehicles.

Complications pertaining to automobile selections sometimes stem from considered one of two conditions: Both your automotive is sensible however unreliable, or it is dependable however impractical. Of my prior vehicles, Saabs largely populate the primary class, and our E36 M3 convertible epitomizes the second. I keep in mind telling my spouse, “If we have to carry plenty of stuff, this automotive has infinite vertical cargo room when the highest’s down.”

Our Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is ultra-practical and dependable. However a current fender bender despatched it right into a weekslong parts-sourcing purgatory at a physique store. We borrowed my sister-in-law’s equivalent Pacifica till she was impolite sufficient to ask for it again, at which level the Ram assumed an outsize position in our lives. On a typical day, I would drive my youthful child to high school, return to take the older child and a classmate to high school, then decide up my spouse and drive her to work. Ha, who wants a again seat? You must stay that regular-cab life to know the fun of efficient passenger-management logistics.

However ultimately, you must drive someplace with 4 folks. Or 5. Or seven. Then you definately’re ruing your life selections because the plastic Ram mattress liner brand imprints in your backbone. Throughout this time of travail, my father-in-law supplied to mortgage us his Saturn Sky Pink Line, which has two seats and trunk area for one set of golf golf equipment, assuming the course options windmills and fiberglass volcanoes. Whoever advisable he get such a factor? Oh, proper.

Naturally, I urged we purchase one other automotive, however my spouse disagreed {that a} 2003 Chevy Blazer ZR2 with 238,000 miles was the answer to anyone’s issues. As a substitute, I ordered a Pacifica headlight on eBay to expedite the restore so we might return the Ram to its rightful position as a specialised fringe participant.

Which, as I write this, has but to occur. I believe again to once I purchased the truck. Standing within the proprietor’s driveway, I requested why he was promoting such a scrumptious machine. He gestured at an extended-cab Tundra by his storage and mentioned, “I wanted a again seat.” I’m wondering when he realized that. I wager he remembers what the climate was like that day.