The idea of a pickup made from a car body isn’t a new one and when the Honda Ridgeline launched in 2005 it was actually one of the first times we saw a build of this nature that was more truck than car. What we want is a vehicle that drives like a car but gives us the capability of an open bed pickup, which can be difficult to master. With the second generation Ridgeline on the horizon let’s take a look at some vehicles that have carried the badge of being both car and truck for us.
Chevrolet El Camino – this is the most iconic of this breed as a slick looking muscle car front end with two doors and a cabin that fit three across the bench seat the El Camino offered a pickup bed in the back and the towing capacity to be the flexible car you need to drive. This vehicle was so popular it launched in 1959 and continued in production until 1987 before if finally was deleted from the lineup.
Ford Ranchero – The Ranchero was the original of these models as it came to be in 1957 and continued on until 1979. The Ranchero offered a large set of rear tires and a lowered front end to look like it was born to be a muscle car racer, but it certainly had the space and capacity to haul a load home from the hardware store as well.
Dodge Rampage – If you want to see a vehicle that was truly late to the party this is it. The Rampage was smaller than the Ford or Chevy and it didn’t even come to be until 1983, after the Ranchero was gone and as the El Camino was dying off. This car shared much of its build with the Charger of the time and it turned out to be a sales dud with only 40,000 of them sold in the three years it was offered on the market.
Chevrolet SSR – There are still many of these driving around on our roads today and it was built to look more like a hot rod than a work vehicle. The SSR started in 2003 and was built on a truck platform with a covered bed, a retractable hardtop for convertible driving and a wonderful V8 engine. Unfortunately this vehicle only sold about 25,000 versions and eventually was deleted after 2008 but it could be a vehicle that gave you everything you wanted.
Subaru Baja – This is another model that started in 2003 and it looks a bit like what we would eventually see the Ridgeline to be a couple years later. This was considered a bit of an oddball vehicle for the time. This wasn’t the first rendering of this type for Subaru as the Brat which was produced from 1977 until1987 in the US. The Baja had all the typical Subaru features and a great little pickup bed in the back.
Holden Commodore Ute – This was the Australian version of the truck bedded car. This was built by Holden which was the GM division in Australia, the manufacturing company that brought us the SS. The Commodore was created long after these vehicles had fell out of favor in America and this model brought in a lot of power with as much as 577 horsepower from the V8 engine, giving owners all they could handle.
Fiat Strada – Even Fiat got in this game with the Strada which was a small vehicle that offered a four-cylinder engine and the look of a tiny pickup in the back and a car up front. This Fiat is sold primarily in South America although some versions are sold in Mexico as the RAM 700 and give us the thought there may be a version headed our wat in the near future under a different model name.
BMW M3 Pickup – Even BMW fell prey to the romance of the idea and built a pickup version of the M3 five years ago for us to admire. Thankfully they one built the one and it was more of a joke than anything else.
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