Is The Vehicle That Home Improvement Driver Mike Baxter Drives?

Last Man Standing, a popular TV show, concluded its nine-season run with an emotional goodbye on Thursday night. The series finale featured Mike Baxter’s stolen 1956 Ford F-100 pickup truck, which served as a metaphor for the departing series. The truck was so crucial to the show that the entire series finale was devoted to a storyline wherein the truck is stolen, a thinly-veiled metaphor for the show’s departure.

The finale resolved around a car rather than a store, making it seem like the truck ever featured in the show similar to how Home Improvement show Tim Building 2. In Season 9, Episode 2, Mike Baxter meets Tim Taylor, who plays the Tool Man in the show. The Baxter family and friends attend a memorial for the truck, and Mike laments with a nod to longtime fans. When the truck gets stolen, Chuck (Jonathan Adams) confirms that the truck is gone forever. Mike hosts a memorial, and the set for the Baxter’s garage is nearly identical to Tim Taylor’s garage in Home Improvement.

Mike Baxter’s final vlog of the series uses the truck as a metaphor for the show’s departure. He tells Vanessa that he had the truck for 10 years, which is longer than he’s done improvement on his home. The truck serves as a reminder of the importance of preserving and celebrating the past, even after the show’s end.