Can we please stop hotlinking pics?

Knurled. said:

In reply to TJL :

Eh, it's a truck.  You do truck things with it.  That design is utiliarian and it's respectable.

No, this is utilitarian:

That THING up there is actively hideous.  They went out of their way to make it ugly.  Not sure why.

In reply to Donebrokeit :

Duke said:

That THING up there is actively hideous.  They went out of their way to make it ugly.  Not sure why.

 

It's a fleet truck. They don't want the lower (but still profitable) trim eating into their bread and butter high feature truck sales.

Not that the regular consumer truck is a beauty or anything.

Brett_Murphy said:

SO MUCH FRONTAL AREA!!!!

In reply to Duke :

I wonder whether it will grow on me a bit, in the way that an old Top Kick looks really, really ugly, but purposeful. I think it's more like you say; I'm too suspicious of them going to great lengths to inspire the illusion that it's ugly because work truck, when it's actually ugly because extensive focus group research shows that carefully tweaked ugly gives the impression of work truck.

Brett_Murphy said:

Duke said:

That THING up there is actively hideous.  They went out of their way to make it ugly.  Not sure why.

 

It's a fleet truck. They don't want the lower (but still profitable) trim eating into their bread and butter high feature truck sales.

Not that the regular consumer truck is a beauty or anything.

That's kind of the point.  Chevy worked hard to make it that ugly on purpose.

That thing is hideous in all trims.  The fleet version is not just "utilitarian" as was pointed out.  The GMC work truck I showed was "utilitarian" but could still be prettied up for higher trim levels.  There is just no redemption for the new design.

Duke said:That's kind of the point.  Chevy worked hard to make it that ugly on purpose.

That is exactly the point. They intentionally made the work truck hideous. Buyers that need a work truck are going to buy a work truck no matter what it looks like. Everybody else can have a CUV or SUV and give the auto makers their juicy, juicy profits.

And you're missing my point that the fundamental design is hideous no matter what trim level.  The consumer versions are awful too, whether body colored or over-chromed.  Being black plastic is not causing the hideousness there.  It is BAKED IN to the basic design and no finish selections can make it better.

They could have made the work truck very plain and cheap (like my example above) and nobody would have cared for the very reasons you cite... but which would have still left them open to making the consumer version prettier.

Instead they chose to make something that nearly everyone I've ever talked to HATES.  The absolute most positive response I've personally seen is "Meh, who cares?"

Alienating your customer base doesn't seem to be much of a business model.

Woody said:

​​​

Is that a really young David Freiburger from Hotrod? 

Duke said:

And you're missing my point that the fundamental design is hideous no matter what trim level.  

I agreed that the consumer version isn't much better- but it is better. The main issue is that the full size trucks are huge- there is a lot of real estate to fill up on that massive front end, but somehow the nostalgia craze that got the muscle and pony cars hasn't hit the truck market yet.

Given how some people seem to regard their pickups, I think they are missing some pretty obvious styling queues for the big front end:



 

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Walter Payton's death. Has it really been that long?

Ahh the 70s.

Brett_Murphy said:

Duke said:

And you're missing my point that the fundamental design is hideous no matter what trim level.  

I agreed that the consumer version isn't much better- but it is better. The main issue is that the full size trucks are huge- there is a lot of real estate to fill up on that massive front end, but somehow the nostalgia craze that got the muscle and pony cars hasn't hit the truck market yet.

Given how some people seem to regard their pickups, I think they are missing some pretty obvious styling queues for the big front end:



 

Nope. The high level versions are a whole level of ugliness above and beyond the base version. All that tacky chrome and bling is piling on the awfulness. At least the base version is shouting ‘I’m a tasteless redneck’ from the roof tops. 

Appleseed said:

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Walter Payton's death. Has it really been that long?

And two days ago was the passing of Greg Moore. 

At least the back looks better.