Meet Bev. She’s 92 years old and still drives a 2000 Ford F-250 Super Duty every day. It has a 7.3-liter Power Stroke diesel engine, a six-speed manual transmission, and oh yeah, 334,000 miles on the odometer.
That’s not only impressive for the truck but for Bev, too, as it can be painstaking to keep any vehicle with such mileage in good condition but hers looks great. I barely have the energy to maintain my cars and I’m a third of her age. Her commendable truck ownership will come as no surprise once you hear her story, though, as Bev has been behind the wheel of a manual truck for a long, long time.
You get to meet Bev in this promo clip from Jim Vreeland Ford in California. She’s been buying trucks from them since 1983 and has always had Fords. OK, so she might not be a recent customer outside of maintenance on her current pickup, being that it’s 25 years old. But it’s earned the right to stick around. It’s kitted out for ranch duty with its rear headache rack and louvered tailgate, so it’s likely being used for towing a gooseneck or fifth-wheel trailer.
Her 25-year-old Super Duty isn’t her first work truck; not even close. Bev got her driver’s license at just 13 years old, during WWII, and has been driving stick-shifts for 78 years. Her first truck was a 1945 two-on cab-over with a flatbed and a three-speed manual. She bought it for $25 and used it to haul hay on her family ranch. She has photos of the flatbed packed with tons of hay from 80 years ago, proving its life as a workhorse. But that’s what Bev’s trucks always have been: reliable workhorses.
Since Ford hasn’t sold a pickup with a manual transmission in years, she seems content with her 7.3-liter. And I don’t blame her a bit. I hope I see another video from this dealer someday down the road showing an older Bev, with even more miles on this old Super Duty, still kicking ass.
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