Earlier this week I helped my ex-girlfriend move into her new apartment with the Ford Maverick press loaner I had. This was the day after I drove her and my current girlfriend back from our collective New Hampshire climbing trip —before which I drove up to New Hampshire, six hours each way. Before that, the Maverick moved both the last of my stuff and the first of my ex’s stuff between dwellings. It was the truck owner’s nightmare, and I loved every minute of it.
Normally I’m Jalopnik’s resident small-car lover and large-vehicle hater, decrying the death toll of massive vehicles while telling everyone to buy kei cars or ride motorcycles. But recently I’ve had a couple of pickup truck press loaners — a Toyota Tacoma and the aforementioned Maverick — that have made me really see the benefits in pickup truck ownership. Specifically, the benefits that other truck owners see as flaws. I love having a vehicle that can haul all my friends and all their stuff, I love being able to help people move and enabling them to take big trips, and I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t.
Let me help you move
In the Tacoma, I filled the bed with bouldering crash pads and the cab with friends for rock climbing trips, then loaded the bed up with beach supplies to help my friends and I enjoy a day in the sun, and later used it to help my roommate make an Ikea trip and buy furniture from Facebook Marketplace. The Maverick saw even more use, with its bed and cab fully loaded for moves three times in addition to its own loaded-up climbing excursion three states away. The worst part wasn’t the requests for help, it was that the trucks were pressers that I wanted to keep pristine. I would’ve done even more if it were my own truck that I could damage at will.
I never complained, never turned down a request for help, and never got paid in anything more than dinner. When I gave the Maverick keys back to Ford, it came with a pang of sadness harsher than any prior press car I’ve returned. I would really have loved to keep this one around, if only to help more friends of mine out when they need it. The part of pickup ownership that everyone else seems to hate has somehow become my favorite bit.
