It should be noted that in terms of sales statistics, SUVs are considered trucks, as are vans. Pickups do not constitute the bulk of new vehicle sales; SUVs do.
True, but for US (and Japanese) brands, vans and SUVs are based on truck platforms, unlike European models that simply raise a sedan’s ride height.
I think the original meaning of “truck” was closer to “business” or “commercial”, as in “I have no truck with that”. At some point, perhaps the beginning of motorized vehicles, “truck” got used as an adjective, as in a “truck motor carriage”, meaning a motorized vehicle for commercial or work purposes, a delivery vehicle. Somehow the “truck” part came to mean the ability to carry cargo rather than the motivation for having the vehicle. Hauling stuff around is pretty necessary for a lot of businesses and workers. That’s what they originally meant.
I live in a pretty rural county, and I think it is often true around here that half the vehicles in a parking lot are pickup trucks. Perhaps a quarter of them seem to be getting used to move cargo.
If you look it up on the Online Etymological Dictionary, you will find that there’s two different words that ended up being spelled truck. One meant “to exchange or barter” and is what you mean there. The other meant a wheel used for gun carriages, which is the source for the vehicle name.
In that chart, “Light-duty trucks” include minivans, vans, SUVs and cross-over vehicles. If you look at the detailed numbers, you’ll see the the sales numbers for cars is 2x larger than pickup trucks, and SUV + cross-over is 3x larger.
From the OP: “And, in modern day, we see that pick-up trucks, utility vehicles, etc. are still the dominant vehicle.”
We might compare a pick-up truck to an open top wagon and an SUV to something more like the covered wagons that the settlers used in the US, when bringing their family and dogs with them. So, it is in keeping with the comparison.
Old men are just as influenced by fashion as teenage girls. And they are more likely to have the money to act on that.
Wow. Tidily said. This is the most remarkable thing I’ve read in a few days!
Don’t dismiss the commercials where you see people using heavy-duty pickup trucks to do heavy-duty business that actually requires a heavy-duty truck. My firm has many clients that quite frequently buy such heavy trucks, and they are a good deal more expensive than regular cars or light-duty pickups, mainly because the people that need those kind of trucks for their business don’t have other options. They need a vehicle with an open back and a strong power plant to haul their stuff around. While the commercials are obviously aimed at blue-collar folks, there are plenty of blue-collar folks who own a business that makes use of the trucks exactly as portrayed. Car companies make tons of money on these guys, and keeping their business is important. I rarely see someone with a complete hodge-podge of vehicles - they tend to stick to one make; if they change, they aren’t changing just for one vehicle - they’ll probably buy quite a few before getting disappointed in it and switching again.