Even when it’s empty, a truck bed carries a lot of weight. The Chevrolet El Camino, the automotive equivalent of Nickelodeon’s “CatDog,” has the looks of a car, but the bed of a pickup. You can call it a hybrid. Some refer to it as a coupé utility. I discovered something interesting about Chevy’s way of identifying the original El Camino after I chose this 1959 as Pick of the Day.
Brochures are a great way to get familiar with an automaker’s range of models for a given year. Luckily, there are plenty of 1959 Chevrolet brochures online. But you have to look in a certain kind to find the first-year El Camino. No, you won’t find it alongside the Biscayne or Parkwood, even though Chevy called the El Camino “an ideal blend of passenger car glamour and truck utility.” The El Camino shares brochure space with the Task Force 59 pickups. While Chevy mentions it “offers the best qualities of a fine passenger car,” it goes into greater detail about the El Camino’s ability to get work done. That “man-sized pickup box” had a “graintight tailgate” that could “support long loads solidly” when lowered. And, of course, the El Camino was available with V8 power: a Turbo-Fire 283 or Turbo-Thrust 348.
The four-barrel 348ci V8 in this reportedly numbers-matching El Camino has been rebuilt and comes paired with a column-shifted Powerglide two-speed automatic. According to the selling dealer, the silver body panels are straight and the bed and undercarriage are clean.
When this truck’s working day is over, its red, pink, and white vinyl interior offers the comfort and convenience of rebuilt power steering, dual-circuit power brakes, and a Custom Autosound AM/FM radio.
If you ask 10 different people what kind of vehicle the El Camino is, you’ll probably get seven different responses. If you pay the $52,500 asking price for this ’59, you can call it yours.
Click here to view the listing for this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com.