Originally posted by MarkJerling I've never seen a Mercury truck! Google, google, where art thou?
Looks just like a Ford truck, in all the different eras from the '40's to '68, except with Mercury badging and trim differences. I still see some, especially at car shows. I was able to drive the M 250 back in '68, '69. It was a stripper, no options except for an AM radio and a block heater, this item especially necessary for Manitoba winters, where we get -35, -40.
It was powerful, but not a muscle car...it was a torque meister with that 300 cube (4.9 liter) inline Ford truck six. Beefy suspension and it was painted yellow. Back then, many, if not most trucks were trucks, plain and simple...not too much luxury. They were mostly sold to farmers, ranchers, tradespeople, utility companies, etc.
It wasn't till later that pickup trucks became regular everyday vehicles for many people. To me the change came in North America, when domestic (American) cars became smaller, V8's started to phase out in favour of smaller engines...4 bangers, sixes. Pickups became more luxurious, extended cabs, with 4 doors, deluxe seating and other accoutrements became normal for pickups, and you could get an engine with big V8 power in a pickup.
I would have a pickup, except my wife doesn't care for them, so I got the next best thing, a large, 4 door SUV, with different AWD/4WD settings, 310 hp...255/65-18 light truck tires, good ground clearance..for sometimes tough driving conditions.
BTW on the prairies we don't have much in the way of public transportation. No local passenger trains, highway buses (Greyhound pulled out of here a few years back)...and sure there are airplanes, but I'm not a fan of them.
Living in western Canada, on the prairies or great plains...we get 5.5 months of hard winter, lots of snow, ice. My wife and I make 3-4 trips per year to see family, across the lonely prairies...no matter the weather/season...and need something that has good payload (1610 pounds) , can carry a lot of cargo, handle deep snow, difficult driving conditions.
I'm an old guy and I've had my share of getting stuck in snow drifts...so I want to avoid this kind of stuff as much as I can....and I like traveling on the open road.
Didn't Dr Seuss say this, about traveling ?
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8...7qGS370wSM70K-