1982 Dodge Pickup Ad
1972 Dodge Pickup Ad

The best evidence that many modern-day pickup-truck buyers don’t use their trucks as “real” trucks is bed length. For example, Crew Cab versions of the Chevrolet Silverado can be had with a 5.5-foot cargo box—a bed far too small to accommodate the traditional 4 X 8 sheet of plywood, much less a couch. This is telling, because Crew Cab models are far and away the best-selling Silverados.

Contrast those new crew cabs with the Chevrolet LUV compact pickup ad at the end of this article. One of the LUV’s selling points is its 7.5-foot bed. Note also that the Toyota ad below lists transmission gear ratios, among various other technical tidbits.

Furthermore, every ad here depicts a regular-cab pickup. Today, many dealers won’t even stock regular-cab trucks, loading up instead on 4-door-crew- and extended-cab models. One source estimates that the regular-cab share of the new-truck market is less than ten percent.

Given how comfortable most new pickups are, their expanded role as commuter vehicles isn’t especially surprising. Still, we at Consumer Guide rather miss the honesty of an old-school 2-door truck outfitted with steel wheels, a bedliner-free steel bed, and a manual transmission.

Collected here are 10 years’ worth of pickup ads, all from the Seventies and presented in model-year order. If you’ve ever spent time with one of these work-oriented trucks, tell us about it. Was it really so hard to make do without Bluetooth connectivity and satellite radio?

More classic-car ads

 

1970 Chevrolet

1970 Chevrolet Truck Ad
1970 Chevrolet Pickup Ad

 

1971 Ford

1971 Ford Truck Ad
1971 Ford Pickup Ad

 

1972 Dodge

1972 Dodge Pickup Ad
1972 Dodge Pickup Ad

 

1973 Toyota

1973 Toyota Pickup Ad
1973 Toyota Pickup Ad

 

1974 Mazda

1974 Mazda Pickup Ad
1974 Mazda Pickup Ad

The Minivans of 1987

 

1975 GMC

1975 GMC Gentleman Jim
1975 GMC Ad

 

1976 Ford

1976 Ford Courier Ad
1976 Ford Courier Ad

 

1977 Datsun

1977 Datsun Pickup Ad
1977 Datsun Pickup Ad

 

1978 Jeep

1978 Jeep Honcho
1978 Jeep Pickup Ad

 

1979 Chevrolet

1979 Chevrolet LUV Ad
1979 Chevrolet LUV Ad

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