Whatever Happened to the El Camino? Everyone in Australia has One

A lot of folks look at my Chevy SSR and wonder if my convertible truck is a possible comeback for the old El Camino car which was simply a two door, two-seater car with a pickup bed instead of a passenger compartment.

I used to tell those people “No, my car is a Chevy convertible truck. I miss the El Camino too.”

Wanna know what happened to the cars with the pickup beds? They are all over here in Australia. And they are made by Ford, Chevy, Hyundai, and other auto makers. I even saw a kickass Dodge truck that would make some American versions of the Dodge look weak.

I snapped this photo of this ford Falcon on my first day in country. I couldn’t’ believe that they were selling cars like this until I saw similar vehicles that were 20 years old.

Know what is really cool? A 1969 Chevy Camaro screaming down the street- with the steering wheel on the right hand side of the car. Or a 1972 Chevelle, likewise with the steering on the right. Yep, I saw that too.

I have seen so many American television shows on TV around here. Ellen Degeneres is on Daytime TV just like at home. Glee is extremely popular. I was in a pub not 30 minutes ago where Big Bang Theory had a raucous crowd gathered around the TV. Nickelodeon is a popular TV channel over here and they are heavily pimping the Nickelodeon awards starring Jack Black.

In fact, there are so many American influences on pop culture in Australia, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that I’m in a foreign country at all.

I was out at a pub tonight really trying to understand Australian rules football, and began to become enthralled in the no-pads hitting and the brutal gang tackling. And then I saw that the oblong football they were using had a gigantic McDonalds emblem on the side of the ball and I performed an audible facepalm in the pub.

Between that and the 4 dollar bottles of Diet Coke, I’m aware that I’m not in the US, but only barely.