This is my reason for joining "Fuck Cars"
Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anticonsumption/comments/1dh3net/because_of_the_anticonsumption_mindset_i_have_so/
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Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anticonsumption/comments/1dh3net/because_of_the_anticonsumption_mindset_i_have_so/
What i don't understand is how fuel efficiency does not seem to be a concern of an average buyer? It is a large factor for me, and I'm proud to have highly efficient car for its class. Are those large trucks somehow more efficient than older, smaller models? Or are average buyers just not concerned with efficiency?
Well not everyone has seen the light of factorio, so i might be over-fixating on efficiency.
Oh, they don't care. Didn't you know the price of gas is always the fault of the opposing parties last or current elected president??? That's the AMERICAN way! Blame everybody else, and never accept the consequences for your own actions.
Or the fuckers rolling coal in lifted diesel pickup trucks. Like if you drive in that trash your opinion on gas prices is null
For people in modern countries - that's about 28 litres per 100km that these selfish, thoughtless fuckers are going through. Cunts
My wee car uses about 5.5 for reference
Kept reading about the fuel costs but never bothered to do the conversion. I understood they drank a lot so didn't feel the need to know exactly how much...didn't realize it was quite that high. Fucking hell... And I thought 10-15 was a lot for a car.
Part of the issue is that, despite people whining about how "high" fuel prices are, they are extremely low compared to most of the world, even during periods where it's higher than usual. Although a sustained period of higher than usual fuel prices can get some to switch, like the period around the financial crisis.
Got myself blocked by a friend who was bitching about the high cost of gasoline and pointed out how cheap gas actually is in the US because its subsidized so much. Wait, the block came later when he was complaining about welfare queens or something. I mentioned that was an interesting take from a farmer since they are the biggest welfare queens in the country.
To put this into perspective, current petrol prices are hovering just below £1.50 per litre in the UK, that's $8.64 / gallon
My coworker complains about gas every other day. Like asshole, you drive your pickup truck three miles to work behind a fucking computer.
It's a 8 minute bike ride.
My 91 Cherokee has better mileage than a lot of modern cars, I think the last time I did some basic calculations it came out to about 25 MPG.
The diesel HD trucks can average nearly 20mpg, and the diesel half tons can get almost 30. The gas trucks will get 10-17mpg with good highway tires. Off road tires bring it down to 8-15.
I’m completely in agreement that the people bitching about fuel prices are often the ones driving something like this. My truck is an HD gasser and I pay 4.50 a gallon right now. Sure it sucks, but I have a need for a truck. Other guys just drive them to an office job where a smaller fun car could easily get the job done. In a surprising twist though of just efficiency and aero dynamics my twin turbo V8 sports sedan will pull almost 28mpg on the freeway. Both are not hybrid.
I have definitely said though that I wish there was a hybrid gas HD truck. It makes perfect sense. If I need to run a welder or other high power usage tool I would love to have that capability, while still being able to tow 17k pounds no problem and carry 6 people comfortably. They have already proven it works with the F150 power boost, and that gets almost 28mpg freeway.
Wait that's still the mpg in the us ? That's the same gallon we use in the uk ? (As I learnt the a us gallon can be different when talking about whisky or some thing along those lines...)
They are different standards, 100%! I hate that MPG in both English speaking countries means two different things. It’s like how Americas horsepower number is different than Britains. I feel bad for Canada too who’s caught between British units and American Units, and that’s before being dragged into the metric vs imperial. It’s unfortunate.
Eh, we Canadians officially use L/100km, which just make so much more sense to compare fuel efficiency. MPG can be so misleading.
Correct, but you use imperial units for home building. Which I imagine is annoying and confusing.
Different gallons. One US gallon is 0.832674 UK gallons, or 3.785412 liters.
An imperial gallon is slightly bigger than a US gallon.
UK mpg are different than US mpg, it looks like 1 mpg US is ~1.2 mpg UK
I’m getting 30mpg in the hybrid Maverick, I won’t buy anything else for my employees.
Full size trucks can get about 22 mpg highway. A 2011 Ford Ranger, the last year they were made, got 19 highway, with the v6..
They have gotten more fuel efficent.
Light truck fuel efficiency has slowly been dragged up kicking and screaming by CAFE "fleetwide" rate by .25 to 1.3 MPG per year over the last decade or so. If memory serves we get 1.7 more MPG on light trucks in 2025.
Not sure if you're aware but Ford has resumed production of the Ranger, it's just now the same size as the Chevy Colorado: huge.
Im aware. I dont consider it to really be a ranger
With all due respect, those numbers are terrible.
Fuel efficiency is a consideration but if you want a truck you really don't have many options. You would think the mid size ones do ok but they really don't, at least mine didn't. I just got a full size diesel truck which can get around 30mpg on highway but usually the diesel engine costs more than the price difference of using a gas engine over like, a lot of years. (20mpg vs 30mpg but $5k more at purchase. Can buy a lot of gas for $5k).
Gods I’d love A small truck like that if they made them, I know this is fuck cars and I agree with the sentiment, but I’d much rather these be everywhere than the monstrosities on the road today
May I introduce you to the Kei-Truck?
We've met, and it goes too far in the tiny direction and can't drive on highways. It's like suggesting a moped to someone who wants a smaller street bike.
Aren't those illigal to drive in most of the US? Besides that, they also cap at like 60mph, right? That really limits thier usefulness in a lot of the US, these are mostly good for cities, right?
Don't get me wrong I love kei trucks, but I think having small regular pickups would help a ton too.
They're illegal for road use in a lot of states, yes, but not private use. So in most states, if you need something for around your property, you're still allowed to buy one. Some states will let you register them for road use though.
The bigger issues are 1. To be imported, they have to be at least 25 years old, so the current ones are from the late 90s. Thus, they have the tech to go with it, limiting their speed.
And 2. They're built and designed for Japanese roads and regulations, not American ones. Speed limits are different there, and as you said, they're better for city use, I'd say non-highway use.
They're legal in my state, and I want one when I can afford one, but I'm also less than a mile from a major home improvement store, and the other two stores I would need to visit are within 20 minutes driving by backroads. But I'm a fringe case, but I'd say for most people who live reasonably close to a Lowes or whatever and are only going to use it for weekend projects would be perfect candidates for a kei truck.
Beyond that, yeah, they're limited :/
I think they're awesome but yeah, unfortunately limited in most bigger cities due to how everything is laid out.
Their use case is basically "never need to go on the freeway". Going over 50 mph is maybe possible, with a tailwind, downhill, but would be terrifying.
Oh for sure, I'm not trying to defend the status quo, if anything g I'm saying we need kei trucks and stricter regulation making regular pickups smaller and more efficient. No one who doesn't actually need a massive hauling truck should have one imo
Only on high ways. They have all the required features (lights, seatbelts, indicators) to be legal on roads, only two states have official bans on their use for roads with speed limits faster than 55mph. But I don't think any sane person is buying these things for long distance commutes, those that would would just buy a smart car instead.
If it’s old enough, you can import and drive them. Some kind of classic car exception.
It varies state-to-state wether you can register them for road use.
Illegal to drive on the highway
So happy with my 80's c10. Once I do the engine swap, I'll be able to run it on biodiesel.
Canoo is supposedly going to make a pickup based on their electric van platform that looks really interesting:
https://www.canoo.com/pickup
The expanding bed is an absolutely killer feature IMO. Small footprint the vast majority of the time but expands out large enough to fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood when you need that. All the fold-out workbenches are a really cool touch too.
The whole thing feels like the Kei trucks people in other comments are mentioning but upsized and up-powered to be more feasible on US roads.
Just went through Japan and Korea and there are a lot of perfectly capable trucks that aren't giant land-whales
Maybe Telo Trucks might be worth keeping an eye on?
Even from the renders I can tell you that it's probably not going to work out, all other things being equal. Sharing the "format" of like, a cabover, similar to a kei truck, means that it would more readily be suited for smaller scenarios in which maybe turn radius and immediate over the hood visibility is more important, right, but then, its size kind of defeats that, and I suspect that the slant of the window, in order to make it aerodynamic at highway speeds, and efficient, is going to end up putting the driver back so far that it's going to eliminate your ability to actually see over the hood as much as you might want to. Probably the format also has adverse effects on crash safety, as you really want a hood on your car in order to catch a pedestrian, scooping them up by the legs, and also as a crumple zone to dispel some of the force of crash from the front, which is ideally where most of your crashes are coming from.
I think probably also that the conventional american automotive taste might defeat it, as americans kind of, historically, prefer a larger shittier hood on their vehicle. They prefer the sort of idiot dominance that a big hood gives them. Carolina squat style. I could be wrong on all that, though.
I think my biggest concern would probably be that, even though light trucks are the segment of the market which are very obviously viable for EVs right now, the people who buy trucks won't want to buy them, and the people who want EVs won't want to buy them. Implicit in both of those is those who can afford them, which I think automatically maybe selects for people who have the worst taste of all time. Light trucks make sense for EVs, right, you have a rear suspension which is supposed to be beefier for large loads already, conventionally in consumer trucks you're not going to want a longer travel distance because they're not supposed to be these highly efficient vehicles, and going electric gives you a pretty good and easy tow rating and high levels of torque low in the power curve like you might get with a diesel engine.
But I dunno. Basically I think americans might be too stupid for it. Might see more success in japan, but I have no idea what their EV infrastructure is looking like or if they already have kei trucks or larger cabovers which are electric. Fleet vehicles would probably need something like a swappable battery on the cheap, or a fast charging system that doesn't destroy the battery immediately, but the first one probably requires more infrastructure and the second one seems maybe like it would be a limitation of the technology.
Doesnt even list payload or towing capacity. What a joke.
Not 100% definite and it's likely going to look a bit weird, but real good chance we're going to have a model based on the transit vans you see rolling around called the 'ford courier' in a year or so but regulations make it difficult to release a truck like that nowadays.
Ford Maverick
So rare, all the 2024 are sold since months in Canada, I don't even know if you can buy a 2025 as maybe they are all already reserved.
"We know you want one because it fits your needs and your pricepoint, but we don't make enough margin on those, so buy an F150 for more money please."
I was very interested in the Ford Maverick up until the 2024 model year when the hybrid engine stopped being standard and instead a $2500 upgrade on top of an already significant price hike. That, and the complete inability to find one to buy anyway were what made me give up on the maverick entirely.
A move in the right direction for sure.
I had one, a proton Jumbuck, great little machine. I'm not sure they are still made but you see them second hand occasionally.
Giant land yacht with the LED permanent highbeams tilted up to blind oncoming traffic.
I would not say that we can completely get rid of cars, or that all cars are evil, but such absurdly big, extremely inefficient trucks with negligible visibility just should be taxed to shit.
At the very least you should need a special license to operate them. They're classed differently to avoid safety and emissions regulations imposed on regular cars, so its perfectly reasonable that there should be different requirements to purchase them and get behind the wheel.
That's brilliant.
I cannot believe my license lets me drive all sorts of vehicle sizes that can outright crush/kill, right off the bat.
But to operate a forklift or ride a motorcycle that is more likely to kill myself? Nah gotta have a license.
Not to mention the massive loads they can haul which basically turn them into semi trucks, vehicles which you would in fact need a special license to operate, with worse visibility to boot. Way too many people out there hauling ridiculously large campers and sometimes even towing an extra vehicle at the end of their train with zero special training to do so.
Not even taxed. Outright banned. What happened to governments regulating and revising car safety standards? They can even collect all these back and offer change into more environment and traffic friendly ones, like they were doing 10 years ago.
What happened? Regulatory capture happened.
Capitalism progressing to its natural end stage.
The guy that drives the land yacht once brought home a couple of two by fours in it from Home Depot, so he feels justified in owning it too. "Sometimes there's just mo substitute for a good truck." When his ac cannot handle the heat, he still won't experience any introspection.
The beds are the same size too. It's not even a better truck than the old one.
But it's legal to manufacture today, unlike the old one. CAFE rules changed in 2012 to be based on footprint instead of vehicle class, so they essentially outlawed small trucks and gave auto manufacturers an easy way out of efficiency regulations by just making cars bigger every refresh cycle.
Thanks Obama!
But jokes aside that's how everything geta done.
Industry writes rules for themselves and nobody knows how such thing happened but nobody is at fault and nothing to be done really ... Kk thx bye
This was more of a misguided response to other manufacturer fuckery.
They would just classify everything as a truck before. The fucking PT Cruiser was a "truck."
In tejas we called that corruption...
Meh. The Ranger, S-10, and Dakota were major sellers for the automakers and they've felt that hit . The Ranger has come back in name, but not in size.
The fact that a 2008 Ford Ranger with 150,000 miles can still sell for 12-15k tells you there's still a huge demand for this class of truck. The manufactures don't get another dime out of that S-10 that's changed hands 4 times - often to people who would have gladly bought new if it were an option.
Another vehicle class just died to increasingly-strict CAFE rules on vehicle footprint - the small cargo van. The Nissan NV200, Ford Transit Connect, and Ram ProMaster City were all discontinued in the last few years. These were all hugely popular.
Because they did the truck job for kinda cheaper?
Why sell you practical good value product when they can sell you FORD HEMI 650 69 litre
we can talk about the product by product basis but if you look at the big picture, it now became clear what they did back then.
Aren't some of these going to a 4.5 foot bed? I once had a bargain basement Isuzu pickup because it was the cheapest car you could buy new in the US (early 90's). I'm pretty sure that had an 8 ft bed or close to it.
I hate these bullshit oversized trucks too, but to be fair the big one has a much bigger cab for more passengers, a much bigger engine, and a much bigger towing capacity.
This is the wrong sub for such comments... but I agree with you. If you need a truck and you have a family you can buy the smaller truck, but then you also have to buy a car to carry the family. The larger truck will let you haul your family and give you the pickup truck that you need.
Yeah, I don't care about the downvotes.
The comment I replied to implied the vehicles capabilities were similar, which just isn't the case.
It's fine to hate cars, especially these oversized trucks, but let's keep it real.
Whenever I see some jackass driving these I comment to them how nice and clean it is. Usually they don't get it but sometimes I go a step further and say "wow you must really never do any work with this work truck!" Fucking pussies
I looked inside a parked one yesterday and saw eyelash curlers.
I see them a lot at Starbucks driven by women.
Part of that is soccer mom-ing, part of that is "urban jungle" brainworm fearmongering, I bet. It's the transition from station wagons to minivans to SUVs to crew cab trucks. You need a big cool truck that can protect you from the elements, and from the potholes when you go somewhere worthwhile, and also from the crime, even! woah, so cool! kinda shit. Just like, basic fuck you get mine style stuff, there, no questions asked, contextually devoid vacuum "I need to protect my family" mind. People being taken advantage of, by marketing.
I mean... I have worked for contractors that don't even drive their truck off work hours who kept it very clean as a point of professionalism, but then again, they had obvious signs of it being specifically a work trick. So. Your still completely right.
You could try making them paranoid. "Wow, that's big! How do you make sure you're not driving over a kid in it?"
Lol I'll probably try this out next time
Hahaha, if you try it you'll get an answer that will be some bullshit justification and then put in "Ah, I see, you can limit it but there's no way to be 100% sure."
I remember reading a study done in the late 1990s (I'm pretty sure it was ford) that looked at who was most likely to buy a pickup truck so they could market them better, and they found the people who buy pickup trucks fall into 2 categories, one, a blue collar boss buying it for his employees, or two, an insecure man in his 30s-50s trying to compensate
I assume this means for his business, to be used by employees? I can't imagine a boss buying his employees a truck.
bUt ThEy ArE oNlY sElLiNg ThOsE bEcAuSe ThAt Is WhAt We DeMaNd
I have one of those 2 seater pickups from 2010. Best vehicle ever, 7-8L/100km and the same size box as the whale behind it.
There's no way you can get 7-8L/100Km on a pickup in the city. Are you living in the countryside so there's no traffic?
A Piaggio Ape with a 50cc engine and two seats manages 3-4L/100Km (>70mpg) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have a 30km commute of mostly 50-70km/h roads.
edit: 7.8L/100km on the last fill
Yeah even in my sedan I get 7.8 and that's with a lot of long distance travel
I would love to have an EV but there's 0 charging station in a 15Km radius from my house, and way too much gas station. FML.
Home charging is not an option.
I am curious if you are rural enough to be that far from any EV charging station, why wouldn't home charging be an option? Every rural person I know can do whatever the hell they want, and slapping a 60A circuit into their primary breaker box and running one meter of cable to an EVSE is easier for them than most city dwellers, that have parking restrictions or rental restrictions or HOA restrictions that drive them to either be unable or for it to require a much longer run.
Yes I am in the rural area and not in USA. My English is not good enough to explain in detail but I'll try.
My house's electrical system is almost 50 years old. About 10 year ago, I have to "upgrade" the fuse box just so it can handle one single induction stove of 2500W (the fuse would blown immediately when it's turned on).
Even a home charging kit of 7,5KWh is out of the question, let alone the more common one of 11KWh (in my country).
A 3KWh AC charger is theoretically possible, however it would take >20 hours to charge a typical 50KWh EV.
I think you meant that its not impossible, just requires a possibly expensive panel upgrade. One thing that is done in the US in this situation is to install a 2nd service for the EV charger.
Ah, ok, makes sense.
I will say that while I wasn't happy, I did do 1.5kw charging and it overall kept up with my needs in the end for daily driving, but after a long road trip I was out of commission for way too long so I did upgrade.
If you could get 3kw, then that's about 14 kilometers an hour of charge, which you'd have to compare with your average and your peak.
But yeah, if I had electrical wiring predating 200A standard, I'd probably be reluctant with EVSE in a rural area particularly. 1.5KW worked for me primarily for being moderately urban so I didn't have to drive far constantly.
I charge my ev on 240V 15A, so 3600W. It easily charges to 80% overnight
I don't know how electrical grid work here, but I assume I can't use more than 3300W at any given time (we use 220V and the fuse box said 15A, or is it 20A? I'll have to double check). So if I were to charge an EV, I have to turn off everything else in the house? I can't live without the Air conditioner. It's a 800W unit that can do both cooling and heating.
There were some experiments with chargers in lampposts in UK. These would probably solve a lot of issues for people who can’t charge on site.
Also here some people were allowed run an underground cable to a post on side of the road for charging. But unfortunately that’s not normal.
I concur. I offset my gas consumption by using public transportation as often as I can. I reserve car usage for places that take more than 20% to get there via public transportation.
So if I go to a place and it takes 5 hours to get there by car, then 6 hours by public transportation is acceptable.
So the more remote a place is, I tend to drive.
You have a fairly large engine then right? A VW Polo V with 75hp does 5.5l/100km mixed
Now, TBH the truck in the back can carry a much heavier and/or physically larger load. Even though the beds are the same length, it’s bed is slightly deeper and likely a good foot or two wider. But how many truck owners transport such loads on the regular? In fact, how many truck owners have anything other than Pavement Princesses?
The truck in the front is more than enough truck for most “truck owners”, they just choose the back option for it’s utility as a penis extender.
You're correct. I managed two raised garden beds with two trips to Lowes in a fucking civic. I moved apartments with one of those tiny pickups.
I have an S10 with an extended cab approximately in the class of the little Tacoma above. perfectly capable truck. fits in a parking space, easily carries a sofa, there's room in the cab behind the seats for baggage so it comfortably carries two people plus gear, I've yet to find a mission my pickup couldn't do that didn't require a box truck.
Canyonero! whip crack
What's really interesting is that the bed size on both of those trucks appears to be the same.
For myself, when I'm looking at pickup trucks--which I sometimes do, although I am unlikely to buy one any time soon--I'm looking at the ability to carry full sheets of plywood.
What is the load each can carry? I ruined the transmission in a small Nissan pickup truck like in the photo hauling old carpet to the county dump.
I would need to look it up for each.
A lot of the older trucks--like the early 80s F150s--were veyr small by current standards, but still had the bed size and overall hauling capacity of current gen F150 trucks. They were very clearly work trucks though, and had very few comforts that you'd expect in a car.
The length, definitely. But having owned similar sizes with the same bed length (Mazda B2200 & F-150), I can tell you that the larger truck has a much higher max weight capacity, with at least 2-6in greater rail height and anywhere from 12-24 inches greater bed width.
As in, you could put a standard 4×8 sheet of plywood down in each, but in the smaller truck this sheet would be sitting on top of the wheel wells, while in the larger truck it would likely be sitting between the wheel wells entirely.
I get what you're saying, but looking at old full-sized pickups, the overall width is about the same. What's different is the ride height and wheel/tire size. A very high weight capacity creates it's own set of problems, namely that control is compromised when you have no load at all, because there's no preload on the springs.
You may be interested in www.minitrucks.net
Thanks for sharing
I would love a flat faced kei truck for camping. Adjust the bed into a cool mobile camping rig.
Making absolutely positively sure, that if you run a guy over, they can't sue you, because they're dead.
Can we get AI to make a version with increasing recursion into city-sized monster trucks?
https://youtu.be/MI7Tq6sRxE4
That was great. I hope the ai that made that was also ironically and horrifically resource consuming.
You see a daddy truck and baby truck just out minding their own business and decide you want them to die?! What is wrong with you?
Nah I think he said he wants them to fuck🥴
I....I think he wants to fuck them...
Wait is Fuck Cars not about smut? Oh no...
Does he call one of them 'Chase'?
"Two Trucks" by Neil Cicierega starts playing
Holy shit that was scary. I clicked the link without really looking and all of a sudden I was presented with a "promoted post" and I thought Lemmy had enshitified overnight.
Thank fuck it was just reddit being reddit and me being unobservant.
Even if you saw a "promoted post",
The power is in the people's hands on this one 🙏. Lemmy devs and admins know the best way to grow their site is to do what the users want
All my homies love Bradley M. Kuhn
Good point.
The front truck is wonderful. Put a small lift on it and you can literally go anywhere in north America
That is a 2wd model
Sure, what I mean is that brand/year/size truck, as you say, ideally with 4wd.
2wd, 75% of north America.
So what you meant is that truck but not that truck.
Also FYI the 2wd version was not liftable in any practical sense. It has IFS and I doubt anyone and a kit for it. So it would be a custom job, for a 2wd truck.
But yes you are right, that truck will literally go anywhere in America there is a maintained road. Just like every other vehicle.
Huh? How is it not "that truck"? It simply needs a not pictured accessory. My point was quite clear that a land yacht is not required to get almost anywhere.
It was the SIZE of the vehicle I was namely describing, you pedant
Edit this context is obvious if you use any critical thinking, as the subject of the meme/post photo is the relative sizes of the vehicle.
Don't be a pedantic dick. He was saying that the generation of the Tacoma that is pictured here as the small truck was highly capable. There were 4wd versions produced and with a lift they were some of the most versatile vehicles ever made. There's a reason why militaries added machine guns and artillery cannons to them sometimes. Don't act like you don't understand what they were trying to say.
Yeah but in my experience with those smaller trucks if you get stuck going forward you'll almost always be able to back out of it.
I don’t know about y’all, but I just cannot get over that driver in the larger truck in the back and how strong, virile, intelligent, secure, and selfless they obviously are.
I saw someone in a Dodge Ram yesterday when I was out of a bike ride. Frigging huge it was. This is in rural England where the roads are really not designed for these sorts of vehicles. I'd imagine that it wouldn't actually fit down some of the narrow country roads because it was so big.
Dickheads. Looking forward to meeting one around here on my tractor and making it reverse uphill into a T junction.
I know that truck
I ain’t no stranger
I know that truck
It’s a Ford fuckin Ranger
Sir this is a picture of a toyota tacoma and a ford f250
Just an FYI that you can buy used kei trucks from dealerships in the U.S. and they are pretty cheap.
https://boekiusa.com/inventory/new-jersey/paterson/all-vehicles/available
I believe they aren't legal in all states though
God I hope these aren't the only legal states. Those vehicles look great.
Looks like there's either no law in place or they are specifically legal but with restrictions:
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/kei-truck-legal-states
Also minitrucks.net
Not sure why, but those are much more expensive.
Might be because they are already in the US? IDK. Normally you can find a bunch of trucks below $5,000 on that site.
I don't understand how those trucks can be up to $8,000
I guess because they're pretty old? Most of them are from the 90s. I haven't priced used cars in a while and trucks aren't my thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if American trucks from the 90s are in that price range.
Edit: Yep. https://www.ebay.com/b/Cars-Trucks/6001?mag=1&_fsrp=0&rt=nc&_stpos=95125-5904&_sacat=6001&Model%2520Year=1999%7C1998%7C1997%7C1996%7C1995%7C1994%7C1993%7C1992%7C1991%7C1990&LH_ItemCondition=3000%7C1000%7C2500&Model=Pickup
All I am looking for with one of these is LHD, PW, AC and stick. All other non-default creature comforts are superfluous.
But yes, would love one of these, especially if it came with a 2m³ capacity dumping bed.
Check out my old forum /key truck
Tell the admin that we or she should start a new forum here.
I got permanently banned... maybe that's a reason to just fuckreddit. Nevermind, don't check it out.
Both are too big
To be fair, the first pick up can haul dirty stuff or things that stick out like pipes, signs or maybe something like small boats. It's still hilarious tho that the carry capacity is comparable. Like you could theoretically fit a small pizza oven into it xD
What baffles me about Americans is that truck owners insist that they need to haul things. And I'm always wondering why would anyone spend time and money doing that? Here in the UK delivery is usually free. New bed? Free delivery. New PC hardware or huge TV? Free delivery. Lumber for a DIY project? Free delivery. A palette of cat food? Free delivery! Why the fuck would anyone waste money on petrol and haul shit themselves? The only paid delivery is groceries and it's £1 from Sainsbury's, I ain't driving for £1, fuck it.
The thing is, looking around at these monstrosities - the people driving them are almost never hauling anything. For the most part, they are just carrying the dumbass driver. And they are about 25% of the vehicles on the road.
And here in america nothing is free
I see...
You listed all new item purchase things, where delivery is just part of the price you paid for it in the first place.
What do you do when you're not purchasing something, i.e hauling shit you already own from your old place to your new place when moving?
or if you have a shit ton of stuff and a big house: pay movers to drive it in a shipping truck like all the rest of the middle class fucks that can afford one of these trucks.
So you need a driving license to move in the UK?
I moved once by strapping a sheet of plywood to the roof of my car and tapping in nails along the edge. We Beverly Hillbillied our stuff and tied it down. It was one of my greatest achievements. Note: I took side streets to my new place and got everything done 3 trips I think.
As a Swede, I think the reason this baffles you has a lot to do with the fact that the U.K. is comparatively tiny, with 67 mil inhabitants on 244 sqkm. Sweden for example has 10.5mil inhabitants on 450 sqkm.
What happens is that densely populated areas will have access to these services, perhaps not for free, but they're at least there. Less sparsely populated areas have less service coverage, and so you get more car dependant. Here in Sweden at least we have a decent public transport network so even in my old village of 600 people you could make do without a car, you just couldn't be particularly spontaneous about things.
The U.S. is very much structured around owning cars. Massive roads, poor pedestrian/cycling infrastructure, and a general lack of public transit. I visited Massachusetts back in 2019 and got a completely different perspective on things. Until then I didn't understand why my friend just didn't bike everywhere, but having been there it's easy to see that it's not viable. Even the cul-de-sac they lived on wasn't very pedestrian friendly.
That's not to say that the U.S. could have more sensible sizes on their cars, they definitely could. I think the sizes of cars growing has to do with manufacturers wanting increased profit. We're seeing an increase in the average car size here in Europe as well, with a lot of the more compact cars being taken off the market.
The problem with your logic is that top 5 most popular vehicles in the New York City are:
Tell me more about how these guys live in a sparsely populated area and need hauling hay and lumber all day long.
Unfortunately a lot of people buy these to haul kids. They act like you can't put car seats in a sedan and put strollers in the trunk. We had 5 people in my dad's 1972 Mercury Capri when I was growing up. The back seat was small. Of course we weren't as fat as typical Americans are today.
When I had two kids in car seats I upgraded to a bigger car. It was a VW Jetta wagon/estate. Plenty of space for both kids and all our stuff to go on week long vacations. And since it was a diesel it got like 40mpg highway.
I mean there's status tied to car culture as well. It's a common problem with consumerism, and why people build these tribes around brand loyalty and whatnot. The fact that massive vehicles are popular in NYC isn't incompatible with the notion that delivery services and public transport is available there. According to this... Powerpoint (??) on nyc.gov, about 53% of households in NYC have access to a car (page 53), which is significantly lower than the national average.
Yes, unfortunately in the US it's two parts 1) rural areas are not very well-serviced as you say, there is a lot of land in the US (~8,000,000 sqkm) much of which is empty, so being able to do more yourself is always the better option 2) there's always been kind of mythos around self-reliance in this country that has become kind of exaggerated with certain political demographics, so that leads to people in cities owning these giant vehicles as kind of a political status thing "Look at me, I'm a self-reliant manly man who doesn't need help from any community or collective." Which us a ridiculous attitude to have when living in a city, but that's the political climate undortunately. Also plays into why so many of our services suck arse.
It doesn't even have to be that rural, honestly. My friend lived in a town in MA with about 70k inhabitants. To me this is a fairly large town, my current town is about 20k, and my previous town was about 30k. Honestly I didn't even have any idea that the town they lived in was so populous until now (as I just looked it up), because it didn't feel like it. In terms of services and population I got the impression that it was smaller than my hometown at the time. It's just spread out over a much larger area and very little is made to be accessible by walking.
My friend had a ~30 minute walking distance from their house to the nearest grocery store. In my current town I have 2 grocers within 9 minutes of walking distance. Both are easily accessible with bicycle as well.
There's also the general consumption attitude. My friend went shopping once every 7-14 days. Nowadays I order in groceries in bulk every 7 days, but in the past going for groceries was a more spontaneous thing. I know plenty of people who pick up groceries more or less daily on their way home from work. From what I observed, a lot of consumer goods is available in larger bulk quantities in the U.S. compared to what you see here. You generally also don't buy drinking water here, but in the U.S. that's sometimes required.
There's a lot of nuances. I live quite comfortably as a pedestrian/cyclist over here in Sweden. I don't think I could do that if I'd lived where my friend did.
Sure, no individual is like to force you to live in the middle of nowhere, but circumstances might.
I'm not saying that cars should be a thing, but rather talking about (some) reasons they are. The biggest determining factor really is just car culture. The car and oil industry has done a great job at manufacturing demand for cars, and I'd wager that's the main determining factor.
If you want to see a reduction in cars on the roads, the best way to do so is simply to make other means of transport more feasible. You don't fix traffic by widening roads, that just induces further demand. Instead, set up bus lines, mark certain lanes as bus only. Heck, convert some lanes to bicycle only lanes.
It's been easy for me to take that kind of infrastructure for granted. Where I live for example, there's a pedestrian/bicycle path all the way from my town, to the nearby larger town ~35km away. It's fully possible to bike over there if you're prepared for a 1-1½ hour ish ride.
Because US "cities" are sparsely populated suburban wastelands that take hours to drive across. The model of exclusively cars and suburbs just doesn't scale.
American here looking to buy a truck that's not absurdly oversized and over priced. I need it to haul hay and bring garbage to the dump. I save a couple hundred a year for bringing my own garbage instead of doing trash pick up, and hay deliveries cost way more than they used to.
Plus my rural area requires driving everywhere and the winters are pretty bad so a 4 wheel drive vehicle is good to have for going to work or emergencies.
I'm looking into those tiny Japanese kei trucks as a potential alternative if I can't find something that's reasonable though.
Let's be honest here, the majority of Americans with trucks don't live in a rural area. Rural life is different ofc, people not only have trucks here, but also tractors, telehandlers and whatnot.
Even out here in the rural areas people who have these ridiculous, oversized, luxery trucks aren't using them for actual work. I guess that was kinda my point. People who haul stuff want something affordable that can take a bit of a beating. Not some gas guzzling humongous thing that doesn't even offer more hauling space.
Those trucks are definitely not being built for work. I hate them because finding a decent work truck that won't bankrupt me is becoming a huge hassle.
I needed a truck for almost the exact same reasons - including hauling garbage - and made do with a pretty old Silverado 1500. Trucks are built like, well, trucks and with even minimal maintenance.
I got mine in 2013 for about $12k with 180,000 miles on the odometer, and drove it for 70,000 more miles with minimal maintenance until I moved to the suburbs and didn't need it anymore. Hauled rocks and hogs and feed and garbage, got stuck in a muddy field and dented and scratched it as much as I wanted because it's a truck for doing truck stuff.
Ford Maverick? Same price as a Civic, good mpg (for a truck), and it can replace your car.
Oh my fellow European, affordable delivery just ain't a thing in America, always shocked me just how expensive daily life there is. But even then you're absolutely right, 99% of everything Americans "haul" would easily fit inside a regular family car or even a smaller car like a Renault Clio. And for the 1%, why not just borrow/get a small trailer or rent a small van?
Also just a side note, I was shocked when I visited my American buddies and legit NOTHING fit inside those huge ass vehicle. We bought like 8 bags of groceries for a week trip and 2 of those bags were on my lap IN THE FRONT SEAT!!! I mean you're not putting anything in the trunk, shit'll break, and the back seats have barely any space, it's ridiculous.
I can assure anyone who is wondering that a 60" tv fits in a 2007 Mazda 3. Sure I had to take it out of the box but it fit in the back with the seats folded down.
I once hauled about 200 paving stones in a Mazda Protege. I spread them out on the floor and in the trunk so it wouldn't hurt anything for the three mile drive I made back form the home improvement store
So I have a theory that the carrying capacity of a car has nothing to do with the size of the car and everything to do with how much the owner cares about the car and the comfort tolerance of the passengers. Out of all the loads I've observed carried with a car(pickups count as cars but not vans or trailers) the biggest are always in a small beat-up old car full of tolerant and poor young people. I can't think of a time when I've tried loading a car and stopped because the car is too small, it's always because the owner objects.
I like this. It feels like something Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett would have written.
It's not free; it's included in the price. Those are entirely different things.
As for why someone would want to haul things themselves, well, there are a lot of things that you can not reasonably expect delivery on, or paying another person to haul would be unreasonably expensive for. Does that necessarily make up for the cost of a truck? Probably not by itself, in most cases.
Technically - yes. But you won't get a discount if you try to haul it yourself. You'll just spend more money and time.
Particularly in rural America, that's not an option. When dealing with used stuff, well one person or the other is going to need a truck to haul it. If you take a boat regularly to water or a camper regularly to outdoors, you need something that can tow.
I rarely need to haul, but I do need to tow a lot, so I have an SUV that can tow and rent a trailer on the odd occasion I have to haul stuff. The SUV is from a European manufacturer if that's comforting.
But these pickups have laughably tall heights that is just a detriment to utility and a safety hazard. Ironically brought on by efficiency standards that gave a pass to larger vehicles, so when the car company can either try to engineer more efficiency or just make them bigger, they chose 'just make em bigger'. The truck buying market doesn't help, with a lot of people getting giddy at the thought of playing "I drive a big rig" with their personal vehicle.
I didn't know that NYC counts as a rural area, pardon me.
It turns out that over 97% of people in the US do not live in NYC. I don't know why you think when I cited rural America I would have even possibly been trying to cover NYC...
Because 97% of Americans don't live in rural areas.
Well, it gets trickier.
About 20% unambiguously live in 'rural'. That's pretty significant and a lot of folks that get hit with this are in that 20%.
But 'urban' can be... not very urban. So the example led with NYC, the biggest and most dense city by a wide wide margin. I live within one of the top 50 cities and need to rent a truck on occasion. I'll say for sake of argument roughly the top 50 cities represent areas that are so well served they shouldn't need a truck. Only 15% of the US population lives in the top 50 cities. Only 30% live in cities larger than 100,000 people, if you want to assert that relatively smaller cities 'should' be better served. So 70% of people live outside of cities over 100,000....
That's a Piaggio Ape (or Apecar), which has been made in literally any and all possible shapes and uses. It has been used by generations in Italy and many other countries to haul everything imaginable. The standard variation has an open bed, the one posted in the image is a modified Ape with a closed bed.
It's the Vespa of the pickup truck world.
Oh, I only ever saw it like this, didn't know it came with an open bed variation. mkay, I stand corrected, that is absolutely beautiful!
Oh boy! I want to see you get on a highway with that and then drive it 50 miles in traffic at highway speed.
Motorway speeds in the UK during rush hour is comparable to a walking speed.
Or you could not do that and still get where you're going, albeit slightly less fast.
I'd do it.
And that's why those aren't available in the US.
That Tacoma is what USA got. Check out the Toyota workmate which was born out of a camry with an aluminum tray. Even the 2024 model is modest by today's vehicles. https://www.toyota.com.au/hilux/workmate
And both manage to have the same internal dimensions of a Nissan Micra.
Fuck the chicken tax
Capitalists hate competition
I have a similar comparison between my 2000 bmw z3 and 56 Chevy bel air with a 74 Chevelle engine and I have tested my z3 mpg and got 29mpg and knowing my z3 tank and bel air tank are the same size and every week of daily driving my z3 has about a quarter of a tank left and my bel air typically has half a quarter left so I guesstimate my bel air gets about 20 or 25 mpg but because I work at a dealership I get to see the mpg of every brand new car that comes in and I've seen 4runners tundras and Silverados that roll onto the lot rated at as low as 15mpg how the fuck is my car from the 50s more eco friendly than a considerable number of new cars on the road today if my car had a overdrive I could probably understand but I have a 3 speed automatic that it came out the factory with I should be needing to have at least a modern engine and transmission to make my bel air comparable but no just having a early 70s motor is enough to get better mileage then new 2024 trucks
Here, you dropped these:
. , . : ; , .
The bel air probably doesn't have any emissions stuff. That's why it gets better gas milage than you expect, whereas the newer stuff absolutely does. Plus trucks are geared for torque, unlike a car, which reduces mpg. A more apt comparison would be to older ('50-'70s) trucks, where you were probably talking more around 9-10mpg without emissions.
Also remember that those trucks are both heavier and less aerodynamic than your Bel-Air. A well-equipped Tundra or Silverado is pretty close to the weight of your Bel-Air and Z3, combined.
I guarantee that your 70s motor isn't really all that eco-friendly. Once all the emissions stuff is warmed up, those trucks are honestly pretty "clean" in regards to tail pipe emissions compared to even a car 20 years ago. Remember that CO2 and water aren't the only things emitted, and while they're worse on the CO2 front, anything without a catalytic converter is going to emit some pretty nasty stuff in addition to all all the CO2.
I used to own a 2012 Jeep Patriot. I swapped the air filter, fuel filter, spark plugs, plug wires, and coil pack. Chrysler sent technicians to me to verify that, yes, as long as I kept the tach between 1000 and 2000, I was getting 35/50 mpg.
I figured this out because I was a delivery driver at the time, and managed to go from Lexington, KY to a town in northern South Carolina that I cannot remember the name of, on one tank of fuel.
fuck cars
On the flip side, the number of people I see towing an RV behind a mid-sized SUV with the front wheels lifting off the ground is astounding. For every guy that bought a truck that never tows anything heavy and never sees any dirt, there's two idiots towing something 4x what their car is capable of putting you and everyone else on the road in danger.
https://i.imgur.com/vkI5EAG.jpeg
If you compare the same type of truck instead of comparing a regular cab mid size truck with a full size crew cab truck, you realize that they're mostly higher than they were before but otherwise their dimensions aren't that much bigger, especially if you compare with the evolution of car sizes. The mk6 Jetta was a subcompact even though it's the same size as a mk5 Passat which was a compact.
I agree a bit more a direct comparison would be helpful. And you're right, that besides height (which is a HUGE issue), their dimensions haven't change much outside of safety norms.
The main problem (besides that height) is what's being sold has changed drastically. In the 90's, a regular cab was the default, now it's special order or not even offered. A 2024 Ranger has way more power and can tow more than a 1995 F-150, yet so many people still get a F-150 to just tow the family trailer, if that.
So let's compare a modern mid-size to a classic full size truck then. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fmqo0vj17ytm61.png
Regular cab vs crew cab, short box vs long box, mid size vs full size, that's the same kind of truck for you?
Are there any small trucks available that aren't crew cabs? I know the maverick didn't have an option for it last time I looked and that's everyone always suggests when I bring up that I hate all the available trucks these days. I don't need to cart around a family of four. I need to haul lumber, tools, and furniture. Give me a single cab with a full bed that isn't half the size of a school bus. Thanks to the fucking chicken tax and CAFE that's impossible now.
Extended cab with 6' box are a thing, regular cabs are available on full size trucks with the same fuel economy.
It could be 8ft if they ditched the extended cab and I do not want a full size truck. I'm short as fuck and they're a pain in the ass to get things in and out of and just more of a pain to get around in general. I want a truck like the 1998 Ford Ranger. Unless something like that becomes available I'll stick to my civic and borrowing my dad's shitty Colorado when I need a truck.
The Ranger never had an 8ft bed so I don't know why an extended cab + 6 ft bed isn't ok considering that it means you have space to transport stuff outside the elements without needing a storage box inside the bed taking space.
And worst case, just get an older truck, it's not as if vehicles just explode after 5 years on the road.
I was just pointing out that they could do that and it would be better for me. If you need the stuff you're hauling to be protected from the elements you can use a bed cover or a tarp. Even with my civic I just put groceries or whatever small stuff in the passenger seat. I have little use for interior space. There have been many occasions using that Colorado where a longer bed would have been great.
As far as old trucks go you'd have to go back a lot further than five years to find something that meets the criteria I'm looking for and hope you find one that was actually cared for.
What a comparison. Pavement princess evolution.
Usually if you're hauling anything significant the bed isn't even used. You use a trailer.
The beds are usually smaller than the cabs. It's kinda silly
Eh... I've owned multiple trucks and used them to carry a shit load of stuff including 16' lumber, I only got a trailer when I switched to a car.
You really shouldnt haul stuff that long, even if you have a 8 foot bed.
#murica
Not just Murcia, I'm starting to see these mothafuckas here in Germany too 😑
I love cars (own several) and most are over 20 years old. Why? They were better. Smaller. Less tech. Better looking. Not controllable by your government/corporation (Elmo TeSSSla). I hate almost every new bloated rolling ad infested garbage i see now.
Those are trucks, not cars.
What is this? A truck for ants?!
So tiny truck built on a car platform vs heavy duty pickup
Which one holds more cargo?
In the bed? It's nearly the same size. New trucks are just jacked up with larger tires and an inflated plastic shell. Size sells even if it's all fat. Yeah- the newer model added the passenger space so you can preserve your manhood when driving the kids around... but bed space hasn't changed much.
It's not necessarily even consumer demand. Truck size and the EPA standards are linked for some reason. Essentially bigger trucks are allowed to have worse mileage.
This story talks about it. There are probably but better sources, but the point remains.
I would actually argue that many truck drivers don't want a bigger vehicle. Mid size trucks came back on the market after a long hiatus. There are even a number of compact trucks available now, like the Maverick, Santa Cruz, etc.
The reason should be obvious, large trucks are going to always have worse mileage because they are meant to move large loads. That requires large, stronger engines, and the power needed will always have a similar fuel ratio.
The problem is that there is no good method of making rules about who needs a large truck vs a car for commuting, which is where feul efficiency actually matters. Someone could be doing home landscaping that means a personal truck makes sense, or could have a large trailer they tow that requires a large truck. Does someone need a business to have horses and a horse trailer that requires a large truck?
So unless they want to ban large trucks altogether, there does need to be lower mpg standards for large trucks. The problem with random people using them to commute can't be solved by fuel standards. Honestly, the best way to reduce fuel consumption would be improving public transportation.
What about making these massive trucks require a CDL to drive? Sure some would be dedicated enough to do it, but im sure most people would see that requirement and just get something more reasonable.
I think a CDL would be overkill, but having a separate license like with motorcycles wouldn't be too bad and could be based of curb weight + hauling and towing capacity so that it covers ridiculously oversized SUVs.
Size could play a factor too, which would encourage the companies to build for target sizes and weights instead of just going bigger constantly.
No, the problem is that nobody should need either vehicle for commuting because the real issue is ending car dependency as a whole, but anti-big-truck circlejerk posts like this one are exceedingly effective at distracting the community from that point.
Why do people only talk about bed size, payload and towing capacities are far more important when it comes to trucks. Yeah the trucks are larger than needed, but they haul and tow more as well. They are for different things.
That's great but I simply do not believe most truck owners with these massive trucks are even thinking about towing or load capacity. Anecdotally, most of the people I know just want enough bedspace to be able to move thier couch when they switch apartments. I think most trucks could be a lot smaller and most people wouldn't be affected
Can also just rent a truck from HD for like $40 as well…
Preaching to the choir, man
Duallies with caps. Just fucking why? You can't hitch a gooseneck. Are you hauling lead block?
Also, weekend warriors need to learn to just rent trucks from home depot or uhaul.
Part of the problem people have with these large trucks is many of them rarely carry more cargo than the cargo capacity of a sedan. Is the extra fuel, maintaince, bigger tires and upfront cost really worth it to move 2 or 3 over sized items a year?
We get if you are hauling trailers, equipment or tools frequently but many people buy these trucks just so they can commute to an office job or other job that doesn't require that power or capacity.
Neither of them seem to be holding cargo
Well now I want an airplane to park next to them.
The thing that did it for me is the picture making the rounds of the truck sight lines showing the M1 as safer than an F250 in terms of blind spot. These things are really ridiculous.
Like an M1A1 Abrams tank?! Source?
Warning, Reddit link: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fkftiwovba73b1.jpg
There is one, right behind the larger truck.
From what I've heard they're the same bed size, but the newer one has a back seat area too
Those monster-truck wheels have to take a lot of usable space.
The small one has a lower bed, but it's higher over the wheels. It all depends on how the bed is arranged around those. I'm really curious about those, just not enough to do some research...
The Taco can't carry 4ft wide goods between the wheel wells, that SD can. Bed length is about the same on these two trucks (too small). The 5ft beds were for toys on mini trucks and they haven't changed any. Real work gets done in 6.75 and 8ft beds.
People pussy foot around the answer and give you the wrong answer of the same, but the f-150 can haul up to 1000kg and tow 6300kg while the ranger can haul 850kg and tow a whooping 3,400kg.
The superduty, and it's not even close.
2001 Tacoma: 1,600lb in the bed or 5,000lb towed 22/25 mpg EPA
2018 F250: 3130lb in the bed or 17,600lb towed (not EPA tested, real world 16mpg, Lie-O-Meter usually shows 18mpg)
I really don't understand the fetish for small pickup trucks. They aren't coming back, if only due to safety standards. Plus, you can't get in them while wearing a hard hat.
quick edit: my old '95 F150 is a 6cyl. It carries about 800lb of tools and materials every day and gets a real 17mpg on the highway if I keep it at 65mpg. Since it's that old wheezy I6 motor it'll drop to about 14mpg if I push it to 75mph. 15mpg on my normal days staying in town and not driving long distances on those fast highways.
The smaller trucks are primarily for non-business uses like hauling smaller amounts of lumber or mulch, possibly with a smaller trailer in tow. You know, situations where nobody is wearing a hard hat.
Do people really get into trucks with hard hats on?
No, they do not.
Every day.
Why not use a regular pickup truck for the smaller amounts? They have them for rent at every Home Depot. I've never understood keeping a toy pickup around to haul some bags of mulch, minivan does the same thing.
Minivan is enclosed and you can't hose it out.
A minvan is just an enclosed truck anyway.
Tye fullsize has more payload and towing
Q: How many parking spaces does the small truck take up?
A: Exactly the same number as the big one does.
The problem is all cars, not just big cars. Small cars contribute to cities being designed to cater to drivers at the exclusion of every other consideration just as much as big ones do. Small cars require just as many lanes of traffic, and just as much otherwise-useful land paved over and obliterated for parking. Walkability gets ruined by minimum parking requirements just as much whether the cars in those spaces are Priuses or F-250s.
Posts like this are nothing but a circlejerk for small-car drivers to feel smug about themselves when the reality is that THEY ARE JUST AS MUCH PART OF THE PROBLEM.
This is not how the world works.
People don't always get to choose where they live. People don't always get to choose their mobility. People can choose to make good decisions for their situation, like small cars.
I avoid my car when I can, which is a lot, but it would be hard to survive here without a car. And town planning isn't going to change just because someone doesn't own a car.
People buying cars in car-centric areas are not the problem. Regulation on town planning, is. Don't hate on those that do the best they can when you haven't been in their shoes.
Edit: E-bikes are taking off here more than scooters/bikes/motorcycles ever had, so I am hopeful for change. Baby steps.
What I'm hating on is misattributing the problem to scapegoat one class of cars, which is always implicitly motivated by the desire to rationalize driving another class of them.
I don't hate on people who drive because they have no good alternatives while owning up to the fact that driving is bad, but that's not what posts like these are doing.
It's the difference between "yes, I know smoking is bad and I'm struggling with addiction" vs. "hey at least it's just cigarettes and not cigars so it's not that bad."
One problem with cars is that they kill people in crashes. Larger, higher cars are more likely to kill people.
As someone who lives in a car dependent city without a car. I prefer when my neighbors try to kill me with a small car rather than a large car.
Those two vehicles are different. The one behind carries more people, can tow greater weight and with the right tyres probably has better capabilities off-road and in poor weather (floods and snow, for example). If the owner only needed it for the boot space then they'd be daft to get the bigger one (and probably wouldn't, due to fuel efficiency) but how does anyone here know what the owners need them for? Judging by looks is rather passé these days isn't it?
Most owners don't need them. Else why is there not a single one of these cars on the roads in the entirety of Europe? Are we so different?
Europe licenses trucks and trailers differently than in the U.S. An American one-ton pickup can tow at a combined weight of up to 26,000lbs in most states on a standard Class D license. The same license you need to operate a Honda Civic. This weight would require a commercial license in Europe, raising the bar for entry.
The lengths of trucks and trailers is also regulated more heavily due to smaller European streets. A vehicle rated to tow a 26,000lb load in Europe would need to be much shorter in length to abide by these regulations. This is why you only see “cab-over” style “lorries” in Europe.
What follows is my opinion on some additional factors:
It’s more affordable for Europeans to hire a professional driver for heavy loads owing to the short distances between destinations. It’s also less likely that your average European owns land or has a need to haul a heavy load to maintain said property.
I don't think the spotless white f250 parked in what looks like a strip mall parking lot in a warm climate is doing any off roading or driving through snow.
You've got a point about towing/load capacity, but the large majority of the time I see those big 4 door pickups driving around, they have one passenger, an empty bed, and no trailer behind them.
So you're not American right? Over here large pickup trucks are literally the most popular selling vehicles. But only a small portion of these people actually use these things for anything they'd need one for. Half of my apartment parking lot is large pickup trucks. They pollute, they're less safe, they're a waste of money, and they crowd parking space.
Even among the minority of people who regularly do things necessitating a pickup, only a small fraction of those need these huge heavy duties.
I'm not mad at the rural guys with these trucks hauling heavy equipment and trailers around out in the country. It's the urban and suburban people who don't need them at all is what gets me. If you need a pickup truck once or twice a year you can rent one for a day for ridiculously cheap.