hen I was growing up, my dad was, for the most part, a Mopar guy, though that was his typical loyalty when it came to his daily drivers. As I got older, that faithfulness faded and was replaced by whatever he got the best deal on that had a decent review in Consumer Reports! However, aside from a ’59 F-100 and a handful of VW Baja Bugs, he didn’t really have much time or desire to mess around with cars/trucks as a hobby.

That said, my becoming a Chevy devotee was not in any way, shape, or form handed down from my father—actually, I (like many my age) began with Volkswagens, which in turn, kind of inspired my dad! From my first air-cooled, first-gen Type III Fastback, to a string of Beetles and Bus varieties, I eventually found myself fooling around with the earlier water-cooled Rabbits/GTIs before, one day, I drove past an Artesia Turquoise ’66 Impala SS for sale (for $1,700, which in 1988 was a million dollars to me, but it was an all-original SS, so I begged Pops for the extra dough!). That summer day was my last day as a devout Volkswagen guy … it was (mostly) all Chevys from that moment on.

For whatever reason, even though I owned (flipped is more like it) quite a few earlier Fords over the years, I was a huge GM fan—especially when it came to trucks. And that still holds true to this day. Whether it’s a newer late-model daily driver or an old classic project truck, it’s all Chevy/GMC … period. I’ve actually passed up potential projects that were of non-GM lineage—regardless of how good the deal was—simply because I’m now that “narrow minded,” as it seems! And I’m OK with that. As we get older, we get set in our ways, whether those ways are justified or not.

So, with no bloodline affiliation with the Bowtie brethren, so to speak, my devotion simply came to be by chance that one fateful afternoon cruising my ’84 GTI down Arlington Avenue in Riverside, California, and crossing paths with the beautiful Impala (that I wish on a daily basis I’d never gotten rid of!). But I know that’s definitely not the case with many of you, and thus, am quite curious how you came to be loyal to or prefer one particular brand or car/truck. Are you as narrow-mindedly devoted as I am that you wouldn’t consider any other make/model?!

I do love the closeknit ties that the F-100, Dodge, and of course C10 clubs and followers generate. Ultimately, we are just one big family, regardless of what the badge on our hood or tailgate may say!