I'm sure glad I don't have to write about brand-new trucks because there really isn't a heck of lot more a guy can do to a new truck than hang an air-freshener from the mirror and then call it a day. Of course, if I had to write about a truck that is only a couple of years old, I guess I could talk about my '05 GMC Sierra. After the incredible gas mileage and impressive acceleration that the Jimmy's little 5.3 Flex-Fuel L59 V-8 provides, the next thing that comes to mind about the truck is the cheap, fuzzy gray cloth on the seats that General Motors tries pass off as upholstery. Not to insult Kmart, but the crummy material reminds of me of the store's cheap work socks. My first experience with the inherent lack of durability engineered into the cheap gray cloth happened only one week after I drove the truck off the dealer's lot and discovered that anything transported on the seats other than a human biped would wear off a spot that resembled a dog with a bad case of mange on its butt.
With this in mind, I thought back to the '58 Chevy Big-Window my dad bought new in late 1957 and remembered that by '64 he had to have the seat reupholstered with a rose-pink metallic Naugahyde he had picked out. Reminiscing even further reminded me that the old man used to go through terry-cloth seat covers on the '58 like they were going out of style. The expression that "they don't build them like they used to" comes to mind, but not for the reasons one might think. Concentrating on what all this means, I realized that the odds of my dad's '58 still being on the road after 50 years of service are pretty good. Sure the rose-pink Naugahyde might be a little worse for the wear, but that would be easy enough to fix. If I had to bet on my '05 GMC being around half a century later, in 2055, and that some guy was going to be able to restore the interior, I would wager the odds are zilch. Not that I'm "Victor the Predictor," but I can't imagine there will be custom upholstery shops around in 2055 that will be able to replicate an early 21st-century truck interior.