As we know from the works of Cormac McCarthy, despair can be kind of gratifying. And yet, as much as I hate to disturb our national mood of decline, I have some good news regarding the auto industry. You may return to your comfort drinking presently.

The heel-and-toe downshift -- whereby drivers "blip" the gas pedal with the blade of their right foot, revving the engine, while keeping pressure on the brake pedal with the ball of the same foot -- is becoming a lost art, a performance-driving shibboleth known to few and practiced by fewer.

As the redesigned 2009 Ford F-150 pickup starts rolling into dealerships, Ford marketing executives are eschewing those elaborate TV commercials in which trucks swing by their tow hooks in giant centrifuges, race through gantlets of flying steel pendulums or chatter their brakes to the edge of a precipice while trying to stop a 10,000-pound trailer.

The chocolate-brown leather is softer than a Hershey bar in a cop's back pocket. The topstitched upholstery across the dash and doors seems sewn with a needle borrowed from Miuccia Prada. The interior wood accents are carved from the most majestic lumber in the old-growth faux forest.