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Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?

Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?


  • Total voters
    65
I have owned 4x4 pick-ups for the last thirty five years. I do not use it in my work, but haul a lot of stuff with it, lumber, firewood, dirt, brush, rocks, concrete blocks, equipment etc. and I also use the 4 wheel drive quite often. I went 5 years without a truck and missed it so much that my next vehicle was another truck. It has nothing to do with trying to be cool. When I want to be cool I drive my Vette.
 
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I have owned 4x4 pick-ups for the last thirty five years. I do not use it in my work, but haul a lot of stuff with it, firewood, dirt, brush, rocks, concrete blocks, equipment etc. and I also use the 4 wheel drive quite often. I went 5 years without a truck and missed it so much that my next vehicle was another truck. It has nothing to do with trying to be cool. When I want to be cool I drive my Vette.

Agreed, I'm white collar but have 3 acres to deal with. That's a lot of leaves, grass, dirt, etc. And I garden as well - so a truck is necessary. Since I'm out in the boonies, a 4x4 truck for the winter during bad weather etc is also a good thing to have. Being utilitarian and cool with a truck? I don't LOOK or SMELL cool after using it most times.
 
Do you tow stuff much? Just askin'... in my experience there's a gap between what a vehicle can theoretically tow, and what it can really tow without all kinds of bad things happening, like overheating the engine, breaking an axle, or being unable to reach 25mph going uphill.

Also if what you're towing is a lot heavier than the vehicle pulling, you're not going to enjoy that drive much.

I've towed with an Outback didn't have any problems. Granted, you need trailer braking and a clue about how to drive, but it was fairly smooth sailing. Still, I'm not sure it could handle that kind of load on a daily basis. My main gripe is that a ranger or frontier is more than enough to tow pretty much any boat, but they always have a fullsize pickup or SUV they "need" to tow their boat.
 
By the way, I used "play" to essentially fill in the gap of things that trucks are by far more useful for than cars are however are not related to a job of some sort or work...

Driving off road, needing 4x4, towing, hauling larger items, moving things like wood or animals you wouldn't want to put in your car, etc.

When it comes down to it at that point you generally have a choice between a truck or a SUV.

If the truck suits your purposes better than the SUV and you're using it for those things above regularly...but don't happen to use it for "work"...I would still see that as using a truck for its purpose.

Now, perhaps that's what Tuck meant by having it dirty or dinged up or whatever, but I don't believe one must be completely and utterly blue collar without a care in the world what your appearance and presentation looks like or one is incapable of having a truck and using it for its intended purpose.

I don't see it black and white, and that there is a good bit of grey area there.
 
Now, I'm bringing this up because of the big deal that has been apparently made about Senator Brown's truck. It's not about his politics, it's about the fact that this truck was made into a symbol of him being "folksy".

I was a construction worker for 11 years and owned trucks and work vans which were used for their intended purpose.

Now, my view is that when someone owns a pickup who doesn't use it for real work (i.e. not helping your friends move every now and then or driving to their "job", but as a tool utilized while pursuing a career in a field where they actually work for a living.) they are just using the truck as a fashion accessory to try and look "cool".

A real truck is dented. It's got **** all over it... a bit of concrete hardened in the bed, dirt and stray nails rolling around int eh bed as well.

It gets used as a truck, not as an oddly shaped car. It's got a bunch of empty coffee cups on the dashboard from the cold days when you take your coffee breaks inside of it to stay warm.

To me, a truly "folksy" person doesn't use a truck as an accessory, because they've had to use it for it's intended purpose. Which is work.

IMO, a pickup truck with 200,000 miles that isn't covered in ****, dented to hell and gone, but still plugging away doing it's intended job is a sign that the owner of said truck is the exact opposite of being "folksy". It's a sign of being a white collar person who thinks he or she will look really "cool" if they drive a truck. It's superficial.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to look cool, that's their business. But I can't ****ing stand the fact that this purely superficial attemtp to look cool is being portrayed as a sign that the superficial person trying to look cool is some sort of a "man of the people".

Most of the people I know who use or have used trucks and vans for their intended purposes feel the same way.

But my opinion on this is clearly biased by my own experiences. I want to know what people think of the general idea about people pretending to be blue-collar as a reflection on them as a man of the people, not about Senator Brown's politics.

So what do you guys think? Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?

Whatever it take to defeat Obama'Care, I'm good with.
 
No, unless I'm a man of the people - I owned a Dodge Ram for more than 7 years and it was the only vehicle I owned.

How stupid to think that because a person owns a pickup that he's "folksy" or somehow a man of the people.... do people really have that kind of time on their hands that this sort of thing is important or significant to them?

Really?
 
No, unless I'm a man of the people - I owned a Dodge Ram for more than 7 years and it was the only vehicle I owned.

How stupid to think that because a person owns a pickup that he's "folksy" or somehow a man of the people.... do people really have that kind of time on their hands that this sort of thing is important or significant to them?

Really?

The guy seems to be a pro-choice career politician. I am glad he won, but will withold judgement on him until I get to know more about him. Bush got a lot votes for being folksy too.
 
Using a truck in place of an automobile just to "make a statement" is a sign of stupidity.
Thats my opinion..
In truth, its a sign of rebellion, as well as a lack of intellect.
Strange, but maybe we should start respecting these folks a bit more.
 
The liberal elite don't drive pickup trucks. "See, I am not an elitist."

That's all.
 
Now, my view is that when someone owns a pickup who doesn't use it for real work (i.e. not helping your friends move every now and then or driving to their "job", but as a tool utilized while pursuing a career in a field where they actually work for a living.) they are just using the truck as a fashion accessory to try and look "cool".
Well in my experience owning a truck guarantees that you will be helping friends move, pick up stuff they bought, etc, etc.:shock:
 
Well in my experience owning a truck guarantees that you will be helping friends move, pick up stuff they bought, etc, etc.:shock:

This is true. One of the reasons I moved to a van... never thought I'd drive one, but it beats the hell out of a sedan with NO room or the friends that need a 'truck friend' dilemma. I didn't use my truck for work, either. I had it because I like driving trucks. Sue me.
 
This is true. One of the reasons I moved to a van... never thought I'd drive one, but it beats the hell out of a sedan with NO room or the friends that need a 'truck friend' dilemma. I didn't use my truck for work, either. I had it because I like driving trucks. Sue me.
I own a truck and not only does it resemble Tucker's description of a "real truck" but I only drive it to "do real work in" which more and more of late, means helping friends move or pick up the ginormous flat screen they bought thinking would fit in their Prius. They said they picked my truck becasue it is a hybrid (ethanol Ford Ranger). Lucky me.

Someone backed into the tailgate recently denting it real good. I thought it matched the white paint peeling from the hood real well and complemented the small Millennium Falcon I have hanging from the rear view mirror. She might not look like much but she has got it where it counts.:cool:
 
I own a truck and not only does it resemble Tucker's description of a "real truck" but I only drive it to "do real work in" which more and more of late, means helping friends move or pick up the ginormous flat screen they bought thinking would fit in their Prius. They said they picked my truck becasue it is a hybrid (ethanol Ford Ranger). Lucky me.

Someone backed into the tailgate recently denting it real good. I thought it matched the white paint peeling from the hood real well and complemented the small Millennium Falcon I have hanging from the rear view mirror. She might not look like much but she has got it where it counts.:cool:

I actually laughed out loud when I read that and the Prius comment. Extra points for that reference. :lol:

I used to drive an old, beat all to hell Chevy Suburban. I lovingly named it the "lead sled" and I think I got 4mpg.
 
I actually laughed out loud when I read that and the Prius comment. Extra points for that reference. :lol:

I used to drive an old, beat all to hell Chevy Suburban. I lovingly named it the "lead sled" and I think I got 4mpg.
Had a 450 Silverrado in High School, got about that same MPG................
 
Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?

I don't know. But mocking a guy because he drives a truck, as Obama did to Brown, is certainly not a sign of being a man of the people.
 
I'd love to see your suggested car then to tow an extremely large boat on a weekly basis. How is towing stuff on a regular basis not the intended purpose of a truck, whose partial selling feature is the ability to tow stuff?

See, this is a semantics difference. I view towing as making the truck do work, i.e. using it as a tool.

I see play as some goof ball going dune hopping.

Towing a boat = work (in a physics sense) = intended purpose

Driving on the neighbors lawn = play = not intended purpose.

But owning a boat doesn't really make someone a man of the people.
 
I don't know. But mocking a guy because he drives a truck, as Obama did to Brown, is certainly not a sign of being a man of the people.

I think he was mocking the way that owning a truck was being used as a sign that he's a man of the people. I don't think that's a sign of anything more than finding the whole "he drives a truck, he's like us" thing ridiculous, which equals it being a sign of intelligence.
 
Now, I'm bringing this up because of the big deal that has been apparently made about Senator Brown's truck. It's not about his politics, it's about the fact that this truck was made into a symbol of him being "folksy".

I was a construction worker for 11 years and owned trucks and work vans which were used for their intended purpose.

Now, my view is that when someone owns a pickup who doesn't use it for real work (i.e. not helping your friends move every now and then or driving to their "job", but as a tool utilized while pursuing a career in a field where they actually work for a living.) they are just using the truck as a fashion accessory to try and look "cool".

A real truck is dented. It's got **** all over it... a bit of concrete hardened in the bed, dirt and stray nails rolling around int eh bed as well.

It gets used as a truck, not as an oddly shaped car. It's got a bunch of empty coffee cups on the dashboard from the cold days when you take your coffee breaks inside of it to stay warm.

To me, a truly "folksy" person doesn't use a truck as an accessory, because they've had to use it for it's intended purpose. Which is work.

IMO, a pickup truck with 200,000 miles that isn't covered in ****, dented to hell and gone, but still plugging away doing it's intended job is a sign that the owner of said truck is the exact opposite of being "folksy". It's a sign of being a white collar person who thinks he or she will look really "cool" if they drive a truck. It's superficial.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that. If people want to look cool, that's their business. But I can't ****ing stand the fact that this purely superficial attemtp to look cool is being portrayed as a sign that the superficial person trying to look cool is some sort of a "man of the people".

Most of the people I know who use or have used trucks and vans for their intended purposes feel the same way.

But my opinion on this is clearly biased by my own experiences. I want to know what people think of the general idea about people pretending to be blue-collar as a reflection on them as a man of the people, not about Senator Brown's politics.

So what do you guys think? Is owning a pickup truck a sign of being a "man of the people"?
So your point is that Brown is not a real man, because he just drives around Massachusetts in a truck. It couldn't be that he just happened to own a truck and was using it for transportations. He likely didn't have enough coffee cups on the dash or beer cans in the bed for you. Well it's all irrelevant because he just put his foot up Obamas ass, and took Teddy's seat away from the Democrats. I don't think Teddy owned a truck, but his gardener probably owned one. The gardener was probably a real man cause he had dirt laying in the back.
 
So your point is that Brown is not a real man, because he just drives around Massachusetts in a truck. It couldn't be that he just happened to own a truck and was using it for transportations. He likely didn't have enough coffee cups on the dash or beer cans in the bed for you. Well it's all irrelevant because he just put his foot up Obamas ass, and took Teddy's seat away from the Democrats. I don't think Teddy owned a truck, but his gardener probably owned one. The gardener was probably a real man cause he had dirt laying in the back.

No, my point is that he's not really a "man of the people" for the simple fact that he drives a truck.

His political stances are what is irrelevant.
 
He needs a Toyota for street cred.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9iu2Gou8kM&feature=related"]YouTube- 4x4 Top Gear killing a Toyota part 1 BBC[/ame]
 
Like Tucker I am a construction worker. I am semie retired. I own a 1992 Chevy pickup 1500 Cheynee model, v-8. It is sitting in my driveway now. It's dead now because I was sick last winter and my bloc got a crack in it from no anti-freeze last winter. I should have junked it long ago. It is still registered and I still pay for insurance on it.

The hood is crinkled when it flew up on me on the interstate. It has three flat tires. There is hardly any fabric left on the bench seats . Musrooms and little pine tree are growing from the debris in the truck bed. It hasn't been washed in so long that it would take an electric sander to get the dirt off. You don't even need to use a key for the ignition or doors because the key mechanism can be manipulated by a flat blade screwdriver or a flat spoon from McDonalds, for that matter.

The floor of the cab is caked with about ten thousand cups of spilled 7-11 coffee. It stinks real bad. The original white ceiling of the cab is yellow from years of cigarette smoke.

Other than that it is beautiful to me. The engine still runs perfect but I can only run it for about ten minutes before it heats up due to a worn water pump and leaking block. The AC still works! The truck's color is blue I think.

Now, I know how roy rogers felt when trigger died.

In answer to the question in the poll, I voted no. It used to be in the old days that non truck drivers looked down on trucks and treated them with contempt. Now it has becom chic among some of the yuppie crowds to own one as a status symbol.

Brown's faux populism doesn't fool me.

BTW there are hundreds of ugly truck contests held throughout the US every year. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFwM_qEavMs"]YouTube- Ugly Truck[/ame]
 
I own a pickup, a F-150 with and extended cab that seats 5. I bought a canopy for it so we can throw the dogs and stuff back there in bad weather, and I keep the canopy on. I use it for hauling materials, firewood, and the dogs.

It's a 4x4 which is a must here in snow country. These pickups with extended cabs are perfect because you can haul both people and stuff, and you can keep your dogs out of your vehicle and still take them everywhere. It's also good for hauling your boat or camping trailer and trips to the dump. Also good for putting a camper on. A very versatile vehicle and hardly elitist.
 
No, my point is that he's not really a "man of the people" for the simple fact that he drives a truck.

His political stances are what is irrelevant.
His political stances are everything, that's what Massachusetts voters elected him on. He's as much a man of the people as any politician I've seen, he was a nobody state senator who got encouragement from John McCain.
 
I drive a truck for the following reasons;

1. Its the type of car I learned how to drive on

2. You need 4x4 in my area during the winter

3. I hate small vehicles with a passion.
 
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