Chevy Throws Down Another Gauntlet

While I couldn’t tell you the names of either team that played in the Super Bowl this past weekend, I can go into great detail about all the new car commercials that were broadcast. The one that has been providing the most entertainment for me is Chevy’s post-apocalyptic vision where their buddy Dave couldn’t make it because he drove a Ford. While the commercial is typical Super Bowl fare, seeing Chevy have the balls to call out Ford by name in a commercial was surprising.

Ford’s lawyers got into the act at the eleventh hour trying to get the advertisement pulled before it was broadcast. They provide the fact that there are more Fords with over 250,000 miles on the road than any other vehicle while Chevy is using a single element of a bigger report to make their claim on durability. This contest between Chevy and Ford goes all the way back to 1928 when both companies released the very first pickup trucks (following the lead set by Brockway Motor Truck’s example set three years earlier).

1928 Ford sold by RM Auctions

1928 Chevy featured at rpmgo.com

The Hatfield / McCoy relationship between the two companies is best seen in the stickers that fans put on the back of their rides. Sure there are collectors that just like old trucks but the ones that are the most fun to chat with are the ones that have aligned themselves behind one company or the other. Any comment on a particular strength of their chosen brand will almost immediately be followed up with how much better the feature is on their Ford/Chevy than you will find on any year of a Chevy/Ford.

Given that there are roughly a billion of both companies’ trucks on the road, collectors have a wide range of choices available. It’s not too hard to find a fixer upper from the 40s for under $5,000 or a fully restored ride from the 50s in the neighborhood of $60,000. Even trucks from the 80s are now considered to be collectible and prices have started to rise.

Thanks to testing performed by the folks at Top Gear, my choice for surviving the apocalypse is a Toyota Hi-Lux. My choice isn’t likely to change until I see a Ford or Chevy surviving similar testing.

Sources: RM Auctions, rpmgo.com, How Stuff Works, PickupTrucks.com