These are the coolest pickup trucks we have driven

At Business Insider we test everything from modest family cars to first-time cars to supercars.

We also check out pickup trucks. A lot of pickup trucks.

Americans love pickups. The best-selling vehicle in the US since possibly as far back as the Eisenhower administration has been the Ford F-Series. Year after year after year, the F-150 wins the annual sales crown, selling millions of units.

General Motors' Chevy and GMC brands also move plenty of pickups, as does Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Ram, and the Japanese carmakers swim in the pickup pool too. According to some, Toyota makes the best pickups in the world.

Increasingly, Americans are opting for pickups with luxury features. Gone are the days when the pickup was just for hard work; now it's a machine for living.

Here are some of the coolest rides that we have sampled over the years.

The Ford F-150 — America's favorite pickup.

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Full-size pickups like the F-150 are all about hauling lots of stuff.

Ford revamped the F-150 for 2015, using more aluminum in the construction to shed weight. The automaker didn't screw up its most important vehicle.

The Ford Super Duty — America's favorite pickup on steroids.

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That's a big old bed.

Like the F-150, the Super Duty was also redesigned — after two decades!

The GMC Denali HD WITH A SNOWPLOW — just because.

Sure, you can put stuff in the bed. It's a pickup, after all.

The party is up front!

The snowplow GMC was a bit of a fluke. It had been in the Northeast for a dealer event, and GMC asked if we wanted to borrow it. Sadly, a massive snowstorm's results had melted, so I couldn't find much to plow beyond attacking some ice mounds. Still, it was wild to have this thing in my driveway for a few days.

The Ford Raptor — America's favorite pickup turned up to 11.

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Our Raptor came with a "short bed" configuration, but it was still large enough to handle a couple of dirt bikes.

The Raptor is easily the most over-the-top pickup on the market.

The Honda Ridgeline — the pickup truck for people who don't like pickup trucks.

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The svelte yet versatile Ridgeline bed can handle any normal suburban task.

Honda redesigned the Ridgeline to be more pickup-like, but it still handles more like a car than any other truck we've driven — and that's a good thing.

The GMC Canyon Denali — possibly the best pickup for the new generation of pickup fans.

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We subjected the bed to a classic home-improvement challenge. Rocks!

A very nice truck, and with its roomy extended cab, typical of the new generation of pickups. Most go for four-doors, though you can get a basic two-door "work" truck.