Every year after SEMA, we like to give a recap of some of the trends that we noticed while attending this major automotive event in Las Vegas. Trying to give great detail of every facet of the show would take a book as thick as an encyclopedia. Because of this, we try to break it down to a certain number of trends that were prevalent enough to be considered a trend.
This year, we will call it the “Year of the Unusable Truck.” Here at Power Products, we build numerous vehicles for various platforms. Whether it be a 1000 horsepower Cummins designed for use in the desert, or a Ford SuperDuty that meshes the aptitude of a Raptor with the pulling power of a Powerstroke, or a Jeep JK with the rattle of a 4BT Cummins, they all have their purposes. And they are all USED for their purposes. No matter the vehicle, each and every one of our trucks will see a variety of uses, whether its being hooked to a trailer loaded down with a Bobcat, to flogged down a muddy trail, to being on the cover of a magazine, they are designed to do everything, and do it well. On the contrary, what we saw at SEMA this year were very one dimensional vehicles. What purpose does a truck with four chrome shocks at every corner, 24” wheels, and fiberglass fenders have besides sitting in a booth for display? Will this truck ever see a load of dirt in the bed, have a chip of paint flake from its receiver hitch…..our guess is no.
Our question to you is this: Does this type of truck appeal to you? Or are you like us and would rather build a truck that can do it all, the proverbial Swiss Army Knife truck? Should we start building vehicles with enormous chrome wheels, yellow powdercoated undercarriage, and suspension only designed to add enormous amount of lift, or should we stick to our guns and build multi-use vehicles?