Has The Truck Industry Lost Its Way?

Boys, I think we may have reached the tipping point in the truck game. There was a point in the long-running series Happy Days where the show was basically gassed, the creative minds behind the scenes had tapped out their creativity and were searching desperately to find ways to keep viewers tuned in each week.

They came up with a Hail Mary scheme to have the show’s star, Fonzie, perform a ski jump over a shark tank. They played the episode up and tried to hint that the show’s star might not make it, but collectively, America was pretty confident they wouldn’t off the show’s star, and interest continued to wane in the once-popular show. From that episode, the phrase “Jumping the shark” was born, used to indicate when a show or a fad has hit it’s peak and started to decline in popularity.

I think that is where we are with the world of customizing trucks.

This truck, in my opinion, is a perfect illustration of a Hail Mary attempt to get attention. For years, truck builds held our attention because they were creative and innovative. I’ve noticed lately that actual creativity has given way to flashy and gaudy to get attention, as evidenced by this rose gold wrapped Ford dually. In my personal opinion, though I believe many will agree, this is quite literally the definition of gaudy.

If I showed it to my ten-year-old daughter, I’m pretty sure she would love it, but my fifteen-year-old son would almost certainly stare in disbelief, followed by a simple-but-effective declaration of “Gross” before he walked away shaking his head. And to be clear, the only reason my daughter would like it would be because of the actual rose gold itself. If I wrapped the lawn mower in rose gold, she’d probably mow the grass three times a day.

I love trucks and I love cool, innovative rides. Hopefully, we can get back to that, if it’s not too late, that is.

 

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