To paraphrase the character Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall in the film Apocalypse Now, “I love the sound of a diesel engine in the morning.” It might be a pickup, a tractor, or an eighteen-wheeler—but I love that sound because it sounds like adventure. It is the sound that says we are setting out on a road trip, going fishing or hunting, or simply hauling cattle to auction to earn money for the next adventure.
Of course, not all of them are diesels, but Texas buys more pickups than any other state. In fact, there is not even a respectable second place. You would have to combine California, Florida, and Oklahoma to get a respectable second place in pickup sales. And if Dallas and Houston formed a separate state, they would rank second in pickup sales, just behind the rest of Texas. That is a lot of pickups, folks.
One-quarter of all new vehicles sold in Texas are pickups. Texas dominates pickup sales so thoroughly that automakers sometimes divide their national marketing into four regions: North, East, West, and Texas. Hence slogans like “Built Texas Tough” (Built Texas tough) and “Built by Texans for Texans” (Built by Texans for Texans), which you hear in so many commercials.
Pickups are luxury cars in Texas. The biggest status symbol in Texas is not a Mercedes or BMW, but a big, powerful, fully loaded pickup, such as a Ford F-250, Chevy, or Dodge Ram 2500, with a Power Stroke, Duramax, or Cummins Diesel engine.
The flagship among pickups with a Texas flair is the Ford King Ranch Edition. Everyone knows that King Ranch is the largest ranch in Texas. It was a brilliant marketing move when Ford wrapped its pickup in the masculine styling of the King Ranch brand for the 2001 model year. Every leather seat in the vehicle is marked with King Ranch’s “Running W” cattle brand, an icon of Texas masculinity.
As it turns out, King Ranch exclusively uses Ford pickups. It has about 350 of them across its various divisions, William J. Gardiner, the ranch’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, told me.
One in every five pickups Ford sells is purchased in Texas, and the King Ranch Edition is the best-selling of all Ford’s special editions, according to the financial website Motley Fool. About 40 percent of King Ranch models are sold in Texas, leaving a respectable 60 percent for those across North America who want to feel a little Texas style every time they drive. Ford is not alone in the special-edition market. Chevy and GMC have Texas editions; so does Ram with its Lone Star Edition, which is now available only from Texas dealers; and Toyota, whose full-size pickups are all manufactured in San Antonio.
As long as pickup manufacturers are creating special models, I have a few suggestions: a South Padre Edition with oversized beach tires, a tailgate grill, and a front-mounted surf-fishing rod rack as standard equipment. Or a Big Bend Edition with standard off-road tires, a factory-installed 12-inch (about 30 cm) lift kit, and a winch on the front bumper. I am not expecting royalties. Just a free pickup.
Country music, of course, has an entire genre devoted to pickups and their drivers: “Pickup Truck Song” by Jerry Jeff Walker, “Mud on the Tires” by Brad Paisley, “Rough and Ready” by Trace Adkins (gun rack, ball cap; I do not take any crap), and “Pickup Man” by Joe Diffie, to name just a few of the many.
A recent survey reported that women say men who drive pickups are the most attractive. And they were quite specific: A black pickup is best. They went even further: Black Ford pickups make men as attractive as they can possibly be. So I guess a new black Ford King Ranch Edition would be the perfect vehicle for Texas men looking to improve their image.
