The desire for pick-ups is truly inexhaustible. After having invaded the American landscape with those kinds of highway transatlantic ships called Ford F-150 and Ram 1500, now it’s Europe’s turn. And Italy’s, of course. There is no American trend, no matter how senseless, that sooner or later does not arrive here as well, disguised as practical necessity and a conquest of freedom.
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The reasoning, as we know, is always the same: in America the pick-up is used for work, to carry trailers, to go hunting, to feel like a real man even if you work as a clerk in an insurance company. In Italy, instead, it serves the same purpose for which off-road vehicles were once bought: to feel a little bigger, a little tougher, a little less stuck among cars and scooters. Only now the off-road vehicle has gone out of fashion, and the pick-up has taken its place. It is rougher, more honest in its claim of catalog masculinity.
The technology
Thus arrives the DR PK8 from the Dr Automobiles Group. Two liters of turbo diesel, selectable 4×4 drive, maximum slope of thirty percent, five years warranty and, above all, a price that seems designed just to make you say “well, I’ll take it”. Thirty-two thousand nine hundred euros delivered. For that amount, in another time, one would buy a station wagon and load the whole family on it. Today you buy an open bed with side steps that becomes a paradise for leisure time.
Marketing calls it “Cool Wuv”, Work Utility Vehicle. Inside it has everything: the vertical ten and a half inch screen, the 360-degree camera, the central armrest with refrigerated compartment. Because when you unload sand or carry construction boards, it’s essential to have cold drinks within reach. The air conditioner also has an anti-odor and anti-allergen filter.
The strategy
The target is very clear. It’s not the village plumber who needs a sturdy vehicle. It’s the construction entrepreneur from the Milan belt, or the owner of a small moving company, or simply someone who wants to have the best for their leisure time, to carry surfboards, motocross bikes. Everything.
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In any case, the pick-up in Italy has become the new status symbol for those who no longer want to make a status symbol with the German sedan, but also don’t want to be seen as someone who settles for a normal station wagon.
Beyond fashion
And so, while cities shrink, parking lots multiply miraculously only in renderings, and diesel continues to be expensive, this almost five and a half meter long object arrives promising to solve the most unthinkable transport problems. The thirty percent slope is there, ready, for when we decide to climb Monte Rosa with a load of concrete. The selectable 4×4 drive is for when it rains hard and we have to cross any stretch.
The desire for pick-ups does not stop. It is stronger than any reasoning, any traffic data, any evidence on the consumption of public space. It is a desire that has to do with work and leisure time. It has to do with the ancient and somewhat pathetic idea that an open bed and a noisy engine are enough to feel a little less prisoners of one’s ordinary life. It always works. It worked with SUVs, it works with pick-ups. It will also work with whatever comes next.
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