Trucks get aerodynamic touch

Light truck and SUV designers must reconcile conservative customer tastes with need for reduced drag to boost efficiency.

The increasing popularity of light trucks and SUVs as family vehicles rather than as purely utilitarian machines brings increased pressure to improve their fuel economy, both from government regulators and from customers who are disappointed by their fuel efficiency. Also, the increased use of trucks as replacements for cars means that today's customers are more interested in reducing the wind noise that results from blunt profiles and large mirrors that are common among trucks.

Responding to these pressures, manufacturers seek to trim their trucks' appetites for fuel and quiet their passage through the air by making them sleeker than ever. However, customers in these segments tend to be very traditional in their estimation of how a truck should look, and they demonstrate little interest in buying vehicles that look more ready for high-speed runs than a trip to the feed store.