Follow the evolution of light trucks from the ‘50s to the new century, and you can’t help but be impressed by the incredible updates in technology. The basic concept hasn’t changed that much, but the execution is remarkably more efficient and comfortable than it used to be. Trucks are still utility vehicles, though when you climb aboard some of the new ones, you might think you were riding in a luxury limo.

In some respects, Piper’s 6X is the aviation equivalent of the modern pickup. Strip away the PA-32’s paint and interior, and the basic airplane is recognizable as essentially the same machine it was 40 years ago, the durable Cherokee Six 300. These days, however, the 6X package is a far more sophisticated machine, blessed with better performance and efficiency, an expo­nential improvement in the state of the avionics art and comfort more reminiscent of the living room than the garage.

The 2007 Piper 6X now offers most of the features of the popular Saratoga II HP. (In fact, retractable gear and the fourth side window are the only significant differences between the two models.) When I flew the 2007 model 6X on these pages, I was struck by the similarities between the basic six-seat Piper and a gorgeous Nissan Titan Crew Cab pickup I borrowed recently from an old college buddy. Jerry now owns a Nissan dealership in Texas (like me, he was a music graduate, so naturally, he sells cars/trucks for a living, and I fly airplanes and write about them), and flies a Piper Mirage on those rare occasions when he’s not working, but despite a lot full of new Nissans to choose from, he drives a Titan most of the time.

Like the Big Six, the Titan features seating for up to six (two rows of three rather than three rows of two, alternately bucket seats in front, 300 hp or more, the ability to haul a huge load and a level of sophistication you might not expect from a truck. Fact is, of course, neither the Titan nor the 6X need define themselves strictly as haulers. Jerry drives his Titan to social events, on business commitments and on family errands, and he says the Titan garners admirers everywhere he goes.

The Piper 6X often engenders the same reaction. Taxi a new 6X up onto a ramp at Teterboro or Boulder, and you’re liable to attract as much attention as a new TBM850 or Cessna CJ-3. The Piper is remarkably well finished inside and out, an imminently attractive machine.

The Cherokee PA-32 is essentially a Cherokee 180 on steroids, stretched and expanded specifically to accommodate six folks or large, heavy objects and transport its payload over the horizon. Cabin width is over 48 inches, as broad as the old Piper Chieftain cabin class twin, so there’s no need for even a six-pack of Dallas Cowboys linemen to rub elbows. Cabin height is slightly less generous, 42 inches from floor to headliner. Accordingly, seating position is semi-supine to fit six folks into a 42-inch-tall cabin.

The six-seat Piper single was introduced in 1965 as the Cherokee Six 260, and it featured an unusual talent. The Six 260 had the ability to carry nearly its own weight in useful load. At 3400 pounds gross, that first 260 featured an empty weight of 1706 pounds, so useful checked in at an amazing 1694 pounds. This made the big Piper the first single capable of lifting such a huge load. (The Cessna 206 was to surpass the Piper’s record a year later, but for a short time, the Six 260 was the weight-lifting champ.)

Over the next four decades, the Six 260 was to graduate to 300 hp, a 3600-pound takeoff weight and a variety of other improvements. Today’s Piper 6X features options not available in the ‘60s. Piper was one of the pioneers of perhaps the ultimate luxury in personal aircraft, air conditioning, and avionics improvements have been virtually exponential. The airplane also accommodates a quick-change interior, ad­aptable from seats to a large, open, 10- foot-long cargo configuration in minutes.

The 6X offers a feature not found on most other airplanes, a forward baggage compartment. The unusual front baggage area will accept 100 pounds of stuff, a major advantage for those instances when you need to balance an aft CG. (A fringe benefit of a cargo section between the main cabin and the engine is better sound proofing. You can also plan on keeping warm virtually anything stored up front.)

Loading the main cabin couldn’t be much easier. Pilot and copilot board through the conventional right front overwing door, but the left rear fuselage has twin portals that provide good access to the aft four seats as well as the rear baggage compartment. They also open up a huge cavity in the side of the airplane that allow easy cargo access, a great place to push out hay bales to starving cattle and excellent pan and tilt range for air-to-air photography, both still and video. If you can’t afford Clay Lacy’s Astrovision Learjet or a B25, a Cherokee Six or retractable Saratoga can make a wonderful air-to-air platform. (Back in the ‘80s when I was working on the ABC-TV series, “Wide World of Flying,” a Saratoga SP was our photo ship of choice.)

The panel is relatively conventional, now that everyone considers glass panels “conventional.” Practically all electrical switches are overhead, turbine style. Engine start is typically Lycoming lean, and even hot starts usually don’t present any special challenge.

Power-up for takeoff provides better acceleration than you might expect. At 12 pounds per horsepower, the big Six doesn’t exactly leap into the air, but after a short pause to catch its breath and accelerate to 90 knots, the 6X will climb away at 1000 fpm or more. Better yet, there’s still a respectable 600 fpm remaining at a density altitude of 6000 feet. Best rate of climb speed is 90 knots, but you may find 100 or even 110 knots will produce nearly the same vertical ascent and yield slightly better efficiency.

Speed is always important in any personal aircraft. Otherwise, we’d probably all be riding bicycles, driving or taking the train. Blazingly quick cross country travel is perhaps less significant, however, in an airplane designed more for what it can carry and where it can go than how fast it can get there. Plan on block speeds of 140 knots in the 6X and normal true airspeeds of 145+ knots at 6500-7000 feet MSL and mid-cruise weights. Remove the airplane’s slick wheel fairings, incidentally, and you’ll lose about six knots of cruise.

Fuel consumption at 75 percent power is about 18.5 gph, so the big, 102-gallon tanks provide an easy 4.5 hours plus reserve, worth 700 nm. Pull back to 55 percent, and you can extend that to 800 nm on 14.5 gph. That’s Chicago to Dallas or San Diego to Portland. With a service ceiling over 17,000 feet, the 6X can top the highest mountain in the Southern 48, though the airplane is happiest in the bottom two miles of sky.

At 3600 pounds gross, you wouldn’t expect the 6X to be quick on ailerons or elevator, but the airplane does better than you might imagine. Controls are still heavy and roll rate is ponderous, at best, and you’d best keep the elevator trim moving during approaches, though those characteristics are about what you’d expect of an airplane in this weight class. Perhaps strangely, the 6X flies better when loaded heavy than light. Also, it handles landing configuration with more aplomb when the CG is centered or aft. It’s possible to run out of up trim if you have two big folks up front, full fuel and the nose baggage compartment full.

Flaps are manual, perhaps appropriate to the airplane’s typical utility mission. The flaps have four positions, full up, 10, 25 and 40 degrees, and you can deploy or stow them as quickly as your right bicep can flex. Extend the flippers full down, and stall speed drops to 59 knots, allowing short field approaches as slow as 75 knots, just over 1.2 Vso. Pilots in Alaska and other places where plunking it on and stopping it short is an art form sometimes use 70 knots with a quick shot of power in the flare to cushion the touchdown. This technique isn’t in the book, by the way, so unless you’re very familiar with the airplane, leave such tricks to experienced bush pilots.

The Piper 6X won’t win any prizes for short field performance, but like Cessna’s Stationair, the utility Piper can use 2000 foot strips at sea level without stretching the limits. As with most other airplanes, the 6X can sneak into places it may not be able to leap back out of. If you’re a talented test pilot such as Piper’s Bart Jones and you do everything right, the airplane will grind to a stop in less than 1000 feet. Even utilizing Bart’s abilities on takeoff, however, plan on covering at least 1300 feet between power-up and liftoff.

These days, it seems virtually every model of general aviation airplane features some form of flat panel display. Piper has one-upped the rest of the industry by offering your choice of the Avidyne Flight Max Entegra system or the Garmin G1000 on the PA-32 models. The basic Avidyne (without charts, DME or ADF indication) is standard, but Piper has certified the Saratoga/6X family of models with either Avidyne or Garmin glass. You also can buy air conditioning ($15,900) and/or Piper’s Inadvertent Icing Protection System ($30,100), a TKS installation, for those accidental encounters with ice (the 6X is not approved for flight in known icing.)

In a similar sense, the Nissan Titan offers a GPS-based navigation system, dual mode air conditioning, four-wheel drive, quick-change crew cab interior and a large area for cargo. On the other hand, the Titan offers only about half the 6X’s cruise speed and nothing like the same rate of climb.

After two days of driving the Titan around Texas, I had to admit it was a whole new generation of truck. Except for perching higher off than the ground than I was used to in my car, I’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference. Of course, if I had my choice on a trip longer than 100 miles, I’d take the Piper 6X over either my Infiniti or Jerry’s Nissan Titan.