Sharing the underpinnings of the new Chevelle, the El Camino was poised to enter the muscle car arena. Even though the El Camino originated on the Impala line, it turned out to be a hit based on the Chevelle. The El Camino thundered back onto the scene in 1964, riding on the new, redesigned A-body platform. After once again seeing the success of the Ranchero– newly redesigned on the Falcon platform– Chevy decided to close the books on the El Camino. Chevy redesigned the El Camino for 1960, but sales plummeted with only fourteen thousand units sold. The previous year the El Camino sold just over twenty-two thousand units, eclipsing the Ranchero both in 1959 sales and its 1957 debut. Interestingly, the steel bed floor could be removed, revealing the rear portion of the Brookwood floor pan, foot wells included.Īfter the relative success of the Elky in 1959, it had a rough time in 1960. The El Camino was also billed as the first Chevrolet pickup to have a steel bed floor rather than wood. The car was based on the Brookwood 2-door wagon, the exterior trim was that of a Bel Air, and the interior was borrowed from the Biscayne. When it was introduced, the 1959 El Camino was a conglomeration of several GM cars. markets, and the El Camino followed two years later. Allegedly this came about in the 1930s when a woman wrote a letter to Ford Australia asking for a vehicle that could “carry them to church on Sunday and take the pigs to market on Monday.” This simple request eventually led to Ford’s creation of the Ranchero for U.S. For years, farmers in Australia had been using vehicles called Utes to tote goods and equipment back and forth from farm to market. While the El Camino was radical in design, it was a new play on an old idea. The El Camino was introduced on Octoto compete with Ford’s popular Ranchero.
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