Not only has Hank owned several GM-built cars and trucks, he has a pretty fierce eye for flaws and high points; he also uses his GMC truck for work, so he tends to think of vehicles like the H2 as tools, a perfect mindset.
Toyota folks say a substantial portion of Tacoma buyers will use the truck for work, and an even larger percentage will use it off-road.
"The functional distinction between cars and trucks (cars for personal use and trucks for work cargo use) has broken down," the safety agency said in a statement.
The new version, Ford executives said, is aimed directly at buyers who need trucks for work and other practical purposes, rather than because of their macho image.
Under the tax law, this category was defined as vehicles weighing 6,000 pounds or more, and people who need such trucks for their work could write off all or part of the cost as a business expense.
In 2004, the Sun-Times investheated the city's Hired Truck program and discovered that the Daley administration was spending forty million dollars a year to hire private dump trucks for city work, except that many of the trucks were doing virtually nothing; some were owned by felons or reputed Mob associates like Nick (the Stick) LoCoco, a bookie and juice collector.
He said the language was carried over from the days when trucks were used for work -- not to haul families and their possessions on cross-country vacations.
Mr. Farley said Ford was confident that its new F-series could succeed, because many of the people who buy pickup trucks need them for work and cannot buy a smaller vehicle regardless of gas prices.
"Cesar got in the truck with his boss for work last Friday, and as soon as they turned the corner immigration officers stopped them, said they were looking for another man," Sanchez, 49, told me in her Austin apartment.
"When you calculate it out, you can justify concrete in a heartbeat," he said, in between using a crowbar to repair a conveyor belt and running a bulldozer to make more space for work trucks by the tracks' edge.
In Utah, a small start-up has big plans for work trucks.
