(MONEY Magazine) – Back in 1957, Ford took a Fairlane-style station wagon, chopped off the roof to create a cargo bed and dubbed the result the Ranchero. Chevrolet ran with the same car-meets-truck idea two years later, and its odd-duck El Camino sold for 21 years and spawned at least that many punch lines.

No one's laughing now, not with every automaker slicing and dicing car and truck styles in their design blenders, looking for the next crossover hit. And on the pickup front, no one's been busier than GM. First came the Chevy Avalanche and Cadillac Escalade EXT, those hulking hodgepodges of pickup truck and SUV. Now GM is grafting cargo beds onto a trio of unexpected models: a flashy roadster, a family SUV, even the love-it-or-hate-it Hummer H2.

If you crave attention, the Chevrolet SSR delivers bombastic boulevard appeal. On sight, the retro-style convertible pickup sends onlookers into a jaw-down, thumbs-up tizzy, not least when you hit a button and make the hardtop pop, pivot and disappear into the back. A 5.3-liter, 300-horsepower V-8 engine and rumbling exhaust deliver more sound than fury, loping from zero to 60 mph in a leisurely 7.6 seconds. But the $41,995 question remains: Is this impractical pickup a novelty act whose appeal will melt faster than Vanilla Ice or will sheer splashiness give it staying power?

The GMC Envoy XUV ($31,890 to $38,715) features a power retractable rear roof that creates an open-air cargo bed that can carry tall items upright--grandfather clocks, saplings, homecoming queens, what have you. GM's clever midgate, a folding panel at the rear of the passenger compartment, drops to let you slide extra-long cargo into the back seat. A dual-function tailgate folds down or opens from the side.

As if fording streams, climbing boulders and churning desert sand weren't enough, GM's Hummer H2 SUT can report for Home Depot duty without mussing the civilians inside. It's a virtual twin of the Sierra Club's favorite fuel sucker, the Hummer H2, only with a tidy cargo bed out back. Dropping the midgate extends the bed into the rear-seat area. The Hummer pick 'em up goes on sale in June as a 2005 model, starting at around $50,000.