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Trick question: what, over the last three decades, has been the best-selling car in America?

Many of you know the unlikely answer: America's best-selling car is actually a truck.

The Ford F-series pickups, the F-150 in particular, have been the cornerstone of Ford's sales in the United States and the F-series is one of the most storied product lines of automotive history. It is a quintessentially American vehicle, equally at home haulin' hay in the afternoon, picking up a teenage sweetheart for a date, or pulling up at a Texas (or, for that matter, North Dakota) political fundraiser. Few other vehicles can claim such versatility.

The F-series has been the best-selling truck in America for more than three decades and was the best-selling vehicle in the United States for the past 17 years — until the Honda Civic bumped it from the top spot earlier this year.

But how did the Ford pickup become the flag-bearer, outpacing the Dodge Ram (Arguably tougher, often the construction-worker's choice) and the more versatile Chevrolet C-series (The basis for the Suburban)? Well, Ford had a bit of a head start.

The car that launched the horseless carriage boom, at least for the average American, was the Model T of 1908. In 1917, Ford introduced the Model TT, a heavy-duty one-ton chassis designed to be fitted with a box or bed after purchase. By the mid-twenties, Ford was fitting boxes to both the T and TT chassis, creating the first mass-market pickups. By the time the Great Depression ravaged America, Ford already had a decade of experience putting pickups onto farms and into delivery businesses all over the country. In a sense, the nation was built on the shoulders of these early workhorses. The pickup, and the Ford pickup in particular, are inextricably woven into the fabric of America.

Fast-forward to the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the post-war boom. In 1948, Ford introduced the F-1 pickup as not only its first non-car-based pickup, but its first post-war designed vehicle. And from there, Ford never looked back.

The series originally spanned the F-1 (a half-ton) to the F-8 (a three-ton). These early pickups produced from 95 horsepower up to about 150 — about half the power they offer today. A steady evolution over the past 60 years has seen engine and drive train improvements increasing the available power and hauling capacity, and trim and styling packages designed to reflect the needs and wants of the day. Among these, a Camper Special was built to accommodate the slide-in campers of the 1960s and early 1970s, and a Contractor's Special that included a behind-the-seat toolbox and heavy-duty suspension. In 1990, Ford introduced a heavy-duty service package ideally suited to snowplow operators.

A real milestone came in 1975 when Ford brought to market the F-150 -- the truck that has become the most popular of the series. Introduced in part to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations, the F-150 was a relatively small-sized truck with an outsized payload. With the half-ton F-100 still in production until 1983, the new F-150, capable of hauling just over 1,000 kg when properly equipped, became known as the "heavy half-ton."

In 1980 the trucks underwent a major facelift, getting a squarer, sharper look. For aficionados trying to date their retro trucks, it's worth noting that it was in 1982 that the blocky, uppercase "FORD" was cleared off the hood and replaced by the now-familiar blue oval logo on the grille.

The mid 1990s saw Ford introduce a luxurious Eddie Bauer edition for the maturing Yuppie generation. In 1998, Ford built a limited number of NASCAR edition F-150s and later introduced the Harley Davidson and King Ranch versions. But it isn't these special models or the standard features of the F-series that make it so widely accepted and so popular, it's what the trucks represent.

Generally speaking, the F-series build quality has nothing on a German or Japanese sedan (the interior panels, for example, have often had only a vague acquaintance with one another) but it is over-engineered in the right places and truly is good enough to get the job done. It is affordable in basic trim levels, and if it breaks down in Tombstone, Arizona, odds are that behind the next gas station there's a spare one ready to give up its parts.

But this pickup is, in many senses, America. It shares many of the nation's best qualities. It is practical, durable, outsized, and unpretentious. Its cultural versatility is the ultimate in egalitarianism, but unlike its rivals for that title — the VW Beetle and Mini — it is fully homegrown.