I’ve had a PU for the past 30 years. Just bought my first actual brand new one yesterday and I think I can safely say it puts me in the class of PU owners you’re targeting. A Dodge Ram 2500 diesel 4X4 with 4 doors.
I get a lot of use from my trucks though by far most of the time almost any vehicle would be just as useful. Used them to haul stuff, a lot of time spent off road, camping-hunting-fishing, etc. If they weren’t so handy to my way of life I’d probably have a Neon or something.
But Why? Do A-type personalities generally buy these vehicles?
No cite for any of the below, but anyway:
As a group they may be (probably are) more aggresive drivers than the average for the total population of drivers. But PU owners probably do not make up a random sampling of all drivers.
PUs allow freedom, certainly in the west where BLM land abounds, that isn’t as easily obtained by regular autos.
They make it much easier to do any number of outdoorsy kind of things.
Fewer women buy them and men tend to be more aggressive drivers.
PU purchasers probably tend to be younger. It seems reasonable to assume that for the over 65 crowd most PU purchasers are limited to those that need them for work, own campers, or similar reasons.
So I end up with the feeling that it isn’t the personality of the driver that demands a PU as it is the things a PU offers selects for a younger, male, possibly more adventurous/risktaking owner.
Course, I could be wrong.