PLV's

When I drive on the roads and highways of our great Pickup Nation, I am constantly on the lookout for pickups. Occasionally, I spot an ambiguous vehicle and am unsure whether or not to call it a pickup. I always take a picture, of course, but after that I am at a loss as to what to do. Since it has started keeping me up at night, I have decided to define the pickup truck once and for all.

If you ask the mighty internet what a pickup truck is, you get an answer like “a light truck with an open body, low sides, and a tailgate.” This naturally makes me chuckle because it implies that a “capped” truck is not a pickup, but I won’t argue this today. I’ll just apply this general definition to a few trucks I’ve found recently.

We've already covered Sport Utility Trucks (SUT's) and declared them to be trucks but not pickup trucks. What about an SUV that has undergone such a conversion into a pickup that it doesn't even resemble an SUV?

What about a van with a pickup bed (dressed up like a mouse or something similarly embarrassing)?

What about a car with a bed and a Spanish name?

The answer, I am afraid to say, is that these are not pickups. Like SUT's, they miss the criterion of "light truck." Since I feel sorry for these undoubtedly hard-working close relatives of the pickup, I have determined to give them a name: Pickup-Like Vehicles (PLV's). Nothing sounds more official than a good three letter acronym, or TLA. This new TLA, the PLV, applies but is not limited to: all SUT's, Jeep and other SUV's with beds, VW buses dressed like rodents with beds, Caminos, Rancheros, and Bajas. And naturally, PLV's are always welcome here at Pickup Nation.