Though I can appreciate a cool truck and would certainly enjoy having one as a second vehicle, I’m not really much of a truck guy. Even the toughest “truck stuff” I need to do in my life (hauling mulch, mostly) is more than capably dispatched by my RAV4, and if I ever do need substantial heft/bulk handling ability, I just rent one of Home Depot’s F250 flatbeds for about the same cost as a couple of pizzas.
If I had to do real (but not gnarly) truck stuff on the regular and daily a bed-equipped vehicle, I would be drawn much more to the Ford Maverick and Honda Ridgeline (and Hyundai Santa Cruz, I guess) than “real” trucks. The more car-like, the better. Better still if the vehicle is more car than truck, small and lightweight, in the mode of the Volkswagen pickup. Yep, just put a bed on a Rabbit and call it good. Feel free to click the graphic if you’d like to visit the story:
I’ve always enjoyed El Caminoizations of cars (or Rancheroizing, if you prefer) and The Autopian has frequently explored the concept both as historical artifact and speculative what-if, and I find them all fascinating. Again, you can click on any of the images to view the stories.
For today’s Autopian Asks query, I’d like to know what cars you’d like to see get the bed-graft treatment – or a ute conversion, we mustn’t forget how the Aussies do it. I think electric vehicles in particular are ripe for the for El Caminio-ing, thanks to the much greater flexibility of component packaging. Hence the Model Y in the topshot. A Tesla with a truck bed? Model Y-not?
But who cares about what’s easy or difficult or even feasible; if your dream car-truck would be based on the C8 Corvette, so be it! Honestly, having the C8’s LT2 sitting in the open bed would look incredible, even if it would make it impossible to fit a sheet of plywood in there.
Your turn:
What Cars Would You Most Like To See Get The El Camino Treatment?
Top graphic images: Tesla; Honda
That’s what I was going to do with that Silver Shadow herse that was on shitbox showdown recently, and could do with today’s sedan for that matter. So that, or maybe a Spectre if I had to pick a modern Rolls
My ultimate Ute conversion:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWheels/comments/8iuz77/mgb_custom_convertible_pickup/#lightbox
But the Volvo 242 featured here the other day was pretty cool, albeit a bit rough around the edges.
I have seen a few MGB trailers made from MGB trunks. Tow one behind that MGB.
Oh, I always thought the the Toyota Previa would look good as a pickup, and apparently I am not alone, scroll down and check this out,
https://speedhero.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/proof-of-concept/
That Previute is fantastic.
I would have kept the roundness of the rear window intact and not have that lip, but I am sure his fabrication skills are better than mine and the is probably a reason.
It’s like the time I realized the whale tail on the 911 Turbo is just there to hide all the extra plumbing.
About the Prius, I occasionally see one or two on the road that are missing the hatchback.
Myron Vernis has a very nice 914 pickup built by Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes, sort of modeled after this other one that they built
https://www.gunnarracing.com/Misc/914-6%20Troutman%20Truck/Detailed%20Photos/080811.html,
except Myron’s is more normal.
Chevy Nomad??
Going to get some pushback for using the v-word here, but the El Camino treatment would totally redeem the Nissan Versa. Something that unremarkable turns into something that actually has utility? And any of the body styles would be an improvement in small truck form.
Isn’t Miata always the answer ?
For actual truck purposes, a Bluebird school bus. Nice big cab with easy entry, and option out the balance of bed length v. remaining passenger rows.
I have seen several busses with the back hacked off for mud trucks and SXS.
Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid
The name “Toyota” must be spelled out in big white letters across the tailgate.
And then the first T and A are painted out so it says YOTA.
Personally I would add a leading A because I love palindromes, but yota seems to be the fashion hereabouts.
Just to make an unusual car even more unusual I humbly suggest:
The Autopian Nissan Murano Crosscab-amino.
Might even be able to get a mock up of that one in short order.
You could easily carve out a bed from expanding foam.
Cross-camino?
Sort of surprised the Bronco does not already have a 2 seater in 4 door length with a pan and a mini drop top for the 2 seats it would have.
Porsche Taycan, Hyundai Ionic 6, Genesis G90, AMG E53 wagon, BMW M5 Touring, Audi RS6 Avante.
Porsche 911, but since it is rear engined, put the bed in the front.
Ah, like those “cargo bikes” you see in the city?
https://www.amsterdam-bicycle.com/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/E-Cargo-Classic-Long-Olive-Green-Matte-2024.jpg
I like you. You’re my kind of warped.
Hear me out: the recent Honda Prelude. Nobody uses the rear seats anyways!
Honestly I was thinking this as well but didn’t have the gall to suggest it.
All the mid 2000s Toyota hybrids I think are great for this. 2nd gen Prius ute what a sight. The model 3s have gotten cheap enough especially when wrecked that they could be very interesting as well. Van truck also especially keeping it as a crew cab. I see people do it to ram vans transit or sprinter could be fun.
I know you *used* to be able to get van cab-and-chassis, and I’ve seen more than a few with truck beds.
-Regal TourX (classic wagon-to-ute route)
-Volvo C30 (like a stubby little VW Caddy)
-Ford Edge (or just lower a Maverick)
-ID Buzz (seconding 4jim… my favorite suggestion yet)
-Bentayga or Cullinan (found mockups of each online… the Bentley works particularly well, looking like an homage to 1950s pickups)
I’m with you with the Regal, except they didn’t make enough of them and so I’m loath to hack one up.
Wrangler and Bronco (ditch the rear seats for the 2 door versions, keep the rear seats for the 4 door versions, little beds for both).
Express Van Extended cab pickup.
I’ve always wondered if Jeep could take the 2-door cab (including the rear seats) and put it on the Gladiator which would also give it a 6+ foot bed. At 5’10” I actually fit in the rear of the JL fairly well.
From my understanding the Gladiator body has room for the frame rails and the 2 door does not. I think what they should have done is changed all the Wrangler bodies to make room for the frame rails on the Gladiator so they could make 2 door and 4 door variants, and just use a new rear bumper design that covers up the frame rail gaps on the 2 door and 4 door Wranglers.
Then they could allocate bodies between the Wrangler and Gladiator lines as necessary
Give us a new Scrambler!
My favorite truckified car creation has to be “El Coroneto”.
https://bangshift.com/general-news/ebay-find-2/craigslist-find-a-1959-dodge-coronet-camino-is-it-wrong-to-like-this-creation/
That thing just looks soooo evil and sinister like it sneaks out of its garage at night to terrorize the local villagers.
Paint it black and paint the headlight eyebrows and front fender trim red and you have Batman’s pickup.
Or at least Adam West’s pickup.
When I looked at this and imagined it driving, the sound I heard was: Exhaust leak. Now I can’t look at it without hearing that in my head. There’s no way the Coronino doesn’t have a bad exhaust leak that will never be fixed.
New Charger/Charger Daytona. Partially because if you take the hatch off and the back seat out, you’re like 90% of the way there. Partially Ram doesn’t have a truck under the 1500 (I guess there’s the Gladiator). But mostly because;
https://media1.tenor.com/m/E01n6xrCHroAAAAC/archer-lana-anthony-kane.gif
So long as they give it manual door handles while they’re at it.
I kind of wish they made a Transformer type thing for this. back in the day some of the rear clamshell swing out combo rear doors were genuinely useful in the wagons. Add in a roof panel that could pop out or slide forward and still not leak and the things would have been truly swiss army like.
Not Take that Charger and figure out a way for the rear deck lid to swing down and the glass to slide forward and the seats to include an all weather fold out tray to protect door card and rears of the front seats and that would be pretty cool to me. Probably not cool enough for the added cost, but cool none the less.
Nissan Pulsar with the modular back end?
I recall seeing a pulsar that looked like it had a wagon setup. I always though that was more like early Blazers, a fiberglass cover that could be swapped out for the weird trunk style hatch?
Mustang, both in Mach-E and ICE forms.
ID. Buzz bring back the Doka !!!!
Great Idea!
And an air cooled flat four range extender option and I am down.
yes, and we know were it would go.
I’ve always wanted to see a Honda Accord El Camino. I think thew new 11th gen would look really good as one.
I think Honda missed the boat by not making an Element ute. Make it an AWD two-seater with a truck bed, and you e got America’s first true compact import pickup truck in decades. It would have looked cute as a button, too.
Buick Park Avenue? A Parkamino maybe??? I feel like I’ve heard of that somewhere…
Toyota Prius Plug in hybrid would make for a good El Camino.
On the BEV side, the Kia EV6, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and the Ford Mach E
In all cases, turn them into 4 door pickup trucks by elongating the rear with a bed.
And make an optional cap for them that has louvers like this:
https://www.motor1.com/news/304625/fastback-pickup-bed-cap/
Not directly related to the main part of your comment, but I too like just “Mach E” as a better name for it. Ford could name its EVs utilizing long defunct or trim level names from heritage models – stop calling it an F-150, give us a Galaxie sedan, etc.
I would like to see a new Lincoln Continental/Ford Thunderbird as a top-end full size electric vehicle for each of the brands.
And differentiate them in a meaningful way like make the Lincoln with standard AWD and air suspension.
The Ford would have RWD and AWD optional. And it would have a coil spring suspension
Oh and if I ever buy a Mach E, I’m gonna remove the ‘Mustang’ part of the badging.
Thunderbolt could be a good name for the Ford version of that.