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She said nothing at first. Hers was a storm-building, cloudy mood. Flashes of lightening in body movement. I battened my psychic hatches.

Two hours later, she blew.

“How much does that one cost?” she asked.

My wife is like that. She gathers information, and then clobbers you with it.

“What one?” I asked, feigning ignorance.

“That Chevy S-10, the one with the extra space in back and the power windows…You know, the one I wanted.”

“Twenty-four something,” I said. She winced.

Two months ago, we bought a base, compact S-10 pickup truck, really base — 2.2-liter, in-line four-cylinder engine, rubber mats, crank windows, standard cab, two-wheel-drive, white paint job. It also came with an optional four-speed automatic transmission, an allegedly stereo sound system and air conditioning — for about $12,000.

But my wife is from Texas, and Texans are crazy about trucks. They like “real” trucks, the kind with big engines, four-wheel drive, lots of stuff. To her, the 2000 Chevrolet S-10 LS 4WD delivered as a test vehicle was more of a “real” truck than the stripper we bought for local transportation and household chores.

“I thought you liked your truck,” I said.

“I do,” she said. “It serves a purpose.”

Hmmm. Translation: “It’s another this-will-do thing, which I hate. I want something for me!”

“When we get more money, I want something like a Chevrolet Silverado, or maybe that [Ford] F-150 Harley-Davidson you had,” she said. “That would be something for me. That’s what I want.”

I winced.

She barely stands five feet in heels. She’s a little woman. She wants a big truck. In Texas, trucks are to personal transportation what fund-raising is to politics.

She asked for the keys to the S-10 LS 4WD and invited me to ride shotgun. It was the least I could do.

Right away, she griped about the seats in the S-10 LS, saying that they were “more cushy than the seats in my truck. But they’re still too low.” She adjusted the steering wheel, which she can’t do in her base S-10. “That’s better,” she said.

The test truck had an “extended cab,” which is not to be confused with a “crew cab.” An extended cab simply offers a bit more room behind the front seats. There is a tiny, wall-mounted, foldaway seat behind the front passenger’s chair. But that little seat is practically useless. It’s better to think of the extended cab’s rear space as a stowage area.

A crew cab pickup, by comparison, can seat four or more adults.

Ah, power. Whoever called it an aphrodisiac spoke the truth. The S-10 LS 4WD comes with a 4.3-liter V-6 that develops 190 horsepower at 4,400 rpm and 250 pound-feet of torque at 2,800 rpm.

The 2.2-liter, four-cylinder engine in the base S-10 develops 120 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and 140 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm. That performance wouldn’t be so bad had we also bought the standard five-speed manual transmission. But Ms. Texas insisted on the power-draining automatic.

As expected, she was excited by the V-6’s performance. “This is sooo much better than mine,” she said. Which is what she also said about the SB suspension (“comfort ride”) in the test vehicle vs. the LB suspension (“firm ride,” a k a “trucky”) in her base S-10.

I smugly restated my manual vs. automatic argument, saying that she’d have more zoom in her truck had she chosen manual. She countered: “This one has an automatic transmission, doesn’t it?” I nodded. “See, we would’ve been all right had we gotten the V-6.” I said nothing.

And, yes, she appreciated the myriad power options in the test model. Her praise confused me.

I mean, she’s a “truck woman,” right? But all of the stuff she likes turns trucks into cars. Maybe, after all, it’s not so much that Texans are crazy about trucks. Maybe they’re just plain crazy.

Yeah, I know. There’s a bed in the base ment of my house. See ya.

Nuts & Bolts

Chevrolet S-10 LS 4WD Complaint: GM/Chevrolet should scrap that flimsy rear seat in the S-10 extended cab. It’s inadequate for adults and dangerous for children, especially in side-impact crashes. Why invite disaster?

Praise: Chevrolet’s virtue is its product value. The GM division routinely offers very decent cars and trucks that get the job done at a reasonable price. That remains the case with the S-10 LS 4WD, whose price can be reduced by using a $2,000 consumer rebate now in force, and by deleting some options.

Head-turning quotient: Minimal. It’s a conservatively styled, compact truck. It gathered neither whoops nor boos.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Very decent ride, assuming that you favor car-like over truck-like. Good highway acceleration. Handling is compromised by inadequate turning radius.

Capacities: Seats two people. Interior cargo capacity is 39 cubic feet. Maximum payload is 900 pounds. It can be equipped to tow a trailer weighing 5,900 pounds. Fuel tank holds 19 gallons of regular unleaded gasoline.

Mileage: About 18 miles per gallon in city/highway driving.

Price: Base price on the tested 2000 Chevrolet S-10 LS 4WD pickup with extended cab is $20,081. Dealer invoice price on that model is $18,219. Price as tested is $24,372, including $3,731 in options and a $560 destination charge.

Purse-strings note: Clearly, if all you want is a good, base compact pickup, you don’t have to pay that much. You can buy the base S-10. You can shop worthy rivals, including the Dodge Dakota, Nissan Frontier, Ford Ranger and Toyota Tacoma.