Barkeydog–conditions are different than when I was a young driver 50 years ago. The interstate system was just being built. Even the big U-Haul trucks are easier to drive with the power steering and power brakes than the 1950 Chevrolet one ton pickup that I owned. I owned the truck from 1972 through 1975. I had just finished my graduate degree and settled into a job. My wife and I had bought a 5 acre tract in the country. I used the truck for local use for hauling fence materials, hay and straw, etc. Trucks back in the early 1950s were ‘work trucks’. It wasn’t until the late 1950s that pickups began having more creature comforts and power to compete with cars for daily transportation. Even though GMC and Ford offered automatic transmissions in 1953 and Chevrolet followed in 1954, automatic transmissions didn’t become common in pickups until the mid 1960s. Today, I don’t think that half ton pickups are even available with standard transmissions.
I like cars and trucks from the 1940s and 1950s. I get to step back in time when I visit my brother who restored a 1954 Buick very much like the one my dad owned when we were growing up and I later bought from my dad in my second year of graduate school. However, the drum brakes, slow steering ratio and a clutch pedal that takes almost 2 feet to depress isn’t a car I want to use for daily transportation today.