Technically, the Ford Ranchero is or was part truck and part automobile - a car with a smallish pickup bed grafted onto its rear - but it was or became one of the iconic suburban, urban and occasionally rural vehicles on the American vehicle-scape. This particular Ranchero is from the late 1950's - I saw it parked in a suburban driveway in the small Oregon town where I live - and there's something about its lines...that gets to me.
That goes back a ways! I remember my uncle having a 3 sp on the column, and I thought it was so cool.My dad had a blue and white one with a 3 speed shift lever on the steering column. It is the vehicle in which I learned to drive!
...3 speed shift lever on the steering column.
Known as "three on the tree." Yes, I'm that old....3 sp on the column...