We found this compact pickup truck, Barkan Design's Counter Balance buried way in the back of the New York International Auto Show. There was nobody there to talk about it, and it was barely on the show floor, but it was clear that this is a prototype that somebody wanted to show to the world. It's certainly like no pickup truck we've ever seen.

It turns out that the Counter Balance is the brainchild of Elad Barkan, an Italian designer who had trouble getting attention for his ideas from the big car companies, so he built his ideal pickup truck himself. The Counter Balance has a trunk in its front for easy grocery storage. Its "smart bed" is expandable—basically it's a small pickup whose bed can be expanded from 5 feet to 7.5 feet with just a couple of adjustments. It can run on E85 (ethanol) or, oddly, propane. No word on whether it will ever go into production, but we wish Mr. Barkan luck with his undeniably, well, unique looking truck.

Counter Balance