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Ford Reveals Great American Truck Survey 2020 Results

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Survey says pickup owners would give up their meat before their trucks

Great American Truck Survey 2020 header
Photo: Ford

Mere days away from the much-anticipated reveal of the all-new 2021 F-150, Ford has released the results of its Great American Truck Survey 2020. Ford turned to Penn Schoen Berland to survey 2,000 red-blooded, truck-loving Americans to learn just how much they love their pickups. Turns out, they love those pickups quite a lot, they sure do.


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One of the more interesting reveals from the Great American Truck Survey is what folks would be willing to give up before they’d give up their truck. Eighty-two percent of respondents said they’d give up streaming services like Netflix and Spotify for a year, 71 percent (insanely) said they’d stop drinking delicious coffee for 365 straight mornings, and 47 percent amazingly said that they’d go a full year without their phones.

But perhaps most interestingly, 44 percent of respondents indicated that they would stop eating meat — presumably, no vegetarians were polled here? — while 38 percent said they would stop having sex before they’d give up their trucks. Well, then! In the pursuit of finding out how deep one’s love of trucks goes, it seems no topic is too taboo.

Great American Truck Survey 2020 Never Givin Up My Truck
Weird flex but ok (do people still say weird flex but ok?)
Photo: Ford

It’s also worth noting, what with the fact that questions about meat and sex seems to indicate a stereotypically masculine tilt, that 54 percent of respondents were men and 46 percent were women. PSB also polled a pretty broad swathe of age groups — 27 percent of respondents fell between the ages of 18-34, the largest group in the bunch, while 17 percent were people above the age of 65. Yet despite the high prevalence of boomers, there was seemingly no option to see if respondents would be willing to give up complaining about millennials for a year to hold onto their trucks.

Truck owners love to help friends, have truck tattoos (trucktoos?)

Apart from asking people about their dietary preferences and libidos, the Great American Truck Survey 2020 hit on what truck ownership makes people feel. Among the common buzzwords: capable, accomplished, self-reliant, proud, and dependable.

Speaking of dependable, another common trend is truck owners giving folks an assist in a pinch. Ninety-four percent of those polled said that they’ve used their truck to help someone at some point or another, and 34 percent said that they use their trucks to help people on a weekly basis.

Along the lines of friends and family, the survey found that a quarter of truck owners have given their pickup a name. Examples include Betty, Big Bertha, and Cognito. Why that last one? Well, according to Ford: “So when they go out, they’re riding in Cognito.” Whoever wrote that joke must have come up with it in a truck named Sane. Because they’d have to be in Sane to think that anybody’s laughing at that.

The survey also showed that 15 percent of truck owners have a tattoo of their truck or a tattoo related to their truck. Cool beans. Experience your joy, people.  

Forty percent of truck owners excited about electric F-150

Great American Truck Survey 2020 All Charged Up
Photo: Ford

The next wave of the future for the pickup truck segment is electric, and that includes the upcoming all-electric F-150. As part of the Great American Truck Survey 2020, respondents were asked how they feel about the arrival of electrified trucks, and just 40 percent said that they’re excited. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the percentage was considerably higher at 62 percent among truck owners from California.

But with Ford saying that the F-150 electric will be revealed within the next two years — seemingly indicating that it’s a way off from its debut — there’s time enough to reassure the truck-buying public. According to the survey, 38 percent said they’ll switch to an electric truck if essentials like power and capability are the same, which Ford is already pushing with testing of its electric F-150 prototype.

Thirty-seven percent say that they’ll want to have access to a large network of public charging. Fortunately, as is being pushed with the launch of the Mustang Mach-E, Ford has the largest such network in North America and offers two years of complimentary access.

Thirty-five percent say that lower maintenance costs would also be a key selling point, and that’s also something that Ford’s been touting as an advantage of its Mustang Mach-E.


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Read Great American Truck Survey 2020, watch 2021 F-150 reveal

You can clock the whole Great American Truck Survey 2020 infographic in PDF form by following this link. Keep your eyes peeled for the 2021 F-150’s debut live on YouTube this Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT; so that it’s nice and easy, you can find the video feed below.