While everyone was talking about a certain other Ford yesterday, Regular Car Reviews tackled a very different one, a '96 F-150. How does it drive? That doesn't really matter.
You see, this truck was made a few years after the second-gen Dodge Ram, the first aspirational work truck. That truck is the reason why so many full sized trucks are as luxurious, showy and expensive as any other car. Before that Ram, trucks were strictly utilitarian vehicles – more like tools than anything else. No one aspired to own a better truck.
Ford (and everyone else) responded to the '94 Ram by trying to fancy up their current offerings with new interior niceties, and in the case of this F-150, side graphics to modernize the look. However, beneath all of that it's still an honest work truck, made before trucks had to impress everyone on the job site.
It conjures up sanguine images of good honest men, who lived their lives in good honest ways. It doesn't really matter if that sort of person never drove this truck, or even existed; a truck like this '96 F-150 calls to mind those strong ideas.