The truck's role in American society changed dramatically from the 1960s through the 1980s, with the rise of off-roaders, the van craze of the 1970s and minivan revolution of the 1980s, the popularization of the SUV as family car and the diversification of the pickup truck into multiple forms and sizes. This comprehensive reference book follows the form of the author's popular volumes on American cars. For each year, it provides an industry overview and, for each manufacturer, an update on new models and other news, followed by a wealth of data: available powertrains, popular options, paint colors and more. Finally, each truck is detailed fully with specifications and measurements, prices, production figures, standard equipment and more.

Popular Science gives our readers the information and tools to improve their technology and their world. The core belief that Popular Science and our readers share: The future is going to be better, and science and technology are the driving forces that will help make it better.

Though American Motors never approached the size of Detroit's Big Three, it produced a long series of successful cars that were distinctive, often innovative and in many cases influential. This history examines AMC's cars from the company's formation in 1954 through its absorption by Chrysler in 1987. The Gremlin, Pacer and Eagle vehicles are examined in detail, as are the AMC custom cars of George Barris and Carl Green. The text details AMC's 1980s involvement with the French firm Renault and the design legacy of that joint venture, which includes the Hummer. The evolution of Jeep is covered from the 1960s through the 2000s. Features include some 225 photographs; a listing of AMC / Rambler clubs, organizations and business entities, with contact details; tables of detailed specifications and performance data; data on technical devices, trim packages and all model variations; a comprehensive account of AMC / Rambler appearances in film, television and cartoons.

Six months after its American introduction in 1985, the Yugo was a punch line; within a year, it was a staple of late-night comedy. By 2000, NPR's Car Talk declared it "the worst car of the millennium." And for most Americans that's where the story begins and ends. Hardly. The short, unhappy life of the car, the men who built it, the men who imported it, and the decade that embraced and discarded it is rollicking and astounding, and one of the greatest untold business-cum-morality tales of the 1980s. Mix one rabid entrepreneur, several thousand "good" communists, a willing U.S. State Department, the shortsighted Detroit auto industry, and improvident bankers, shake vigorously, and you've got The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History. Brilliantly re-creating the amazing confluence of events that produced the Yugo, Yugoslav expert Jason Vuic uproariously tells the story of the car that became an international joke: The American CEO who happens upon a Yugo right when his company needs to find a new import or go under. A State Department eager to aid Yugoslavia's nonaligned communist government. Zastava Automobiles, which overhauls its factory to produce an American-ready Yugo in six months. And a hole left by Detroit in the cheap subcompact market that creates a race to the bottom that leaves the Yugo . . . at the bottom.