EU cave in on vehicle trade rules will cost European lives as US pick-up trucks flood into Europe
https://www.transportenvironment.org/articles/eu-cave-in-on-vehicle-trade-rules-will-cost-european-lives-as-us-pick-up-trucks-flood-into-europeOpen linkView original on piefed.ca465
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It'll be especially dangerous since they're gonna have slashed tires so often.
I can't wait to see one get stuck trying to fit past my house. I can assure you my brick wall is cheaper to stack back up than your bodywork is to replace.
A lentil placed under the cap is a more efficient method of disarmament.
Depends on the end goal. Those 18" tires on most trucks aren't cheap, especially if you have to swap one out every few months
I suppose. It takes bringing a knife though, which is less convenient than a lentil
I always have a pocket knife on me. Why are you carrying around beans?
To be clear, I have not disarmed any vehicles, so I don't carry any lentils
Pebbles work too
I would rather see a slashed tyre than a slow leak - you cant very well drive on a slashed tyre, but a slow leak just may cause someone's death that just happens to be in the wrong place
Sorry, what? A lentil like the bean? How does that ruin a tire?
Placed under the valve cap, it will press on the valve and let the air out, leading to a flat tyre.
Ahh, ok. So flattens it, not quite ruins it. Gotcha. BRB gonna go prank the roommate
You place it between the valve and valve cap so the air slowly leaks out
Using scissors/wire cutters on the stem, or just stomping on the stem if it’s on the lower half of the wheel at the time, works too, but isn’t as expensive to fix as the tire.
we can only hope
Maybe burning the trucks will help with the tyre thing? It's a long shot but I think it should be tried...
Why have they caved? These vehicles aren’t appropriate here.
As someone from the US, they're mostly not appropriate here either. They rarely get used for anything except driving to/from work. They are more like massive uneconomical vans with four luxury seats rather than work trucks (again, when they nearly always have a driver and no passengers).
That being said, my fiancé lives in the Philippines (Specifically in Manila, the most densely populated city on the planet), and every time I visit it's clear the same stupid oversized trucks are everywhere and I doubt anywhere in the EU will be different.
Just like requiring seatbelts to be a rule, you need to put rules in place so the idiots don't destroy everything, that's pretty much advanced modern society.
Yeah there are a fuckton of "real men" in Europe, influenced by the firehose of toxic culture coming from the US. I agree 100%, governments need to prevent selfish idiots from endangering others with their bad choices.
I agree. Rangers and Amaroks and a few others are everywhere. But CTs are an especially stupid step up.
Those 'real men' are showing how tiny their dicks and how fragile their egos actually are.
REAL men bike, show off their muscles, and are kind on the road. Dare to show some kindness to everyone, and that is the true manship.
Pavement princesses.
They probably figured that they can sell trucks but nobody is obligated to buy them. The taxes are on weight and prices for fuel are not compatible with gas guzzlers. The really heavy ones need a different driving license. Also in places the tax exemption for cargo didn't work anymore.
Man I sure do love when people with money can pay to inconvenience everyone else
EU works for lobbies. Not Europeans.
Examples?
Yeah, no thanks.
lol and that’s one of the smaller truck models you’ll see in the states 🫠
Good luck dealing with the shitheads who buy these. They'll whine and cry about not having space, x, y, z... I am surprised none of the EU brands have a popular small truck. Closest thing appeared to be Ford Rangers.
Time to slice some tires...
Well, they can always get a cart attached to the back of their car.
Much lower costs, fewer energy costs, and so on. And removable.
Lower cars also have the benefit of actually being easily to get into. And they're safer for the car driver, too.
Well naturally. I'm a truck owner and I have no idea why you'd opt into on over there.. hell if I could find a decent car or wagon that had a 7pin and could tow 4-5k I'd be about it. Closest are Subies but towing with a CVT ... Ehhh.
Yep a real full size truck you could probably take that car and put it in it its bed. With room to spare.
These vehicles are not really made for European infrastructure. Especially in older Cities or towns they are sometimes wider than the road itself. I guess it would be fine if people would have to have a C-Class license.
But have you considered bulldozing all the historic architecture to accommodate American manufacturers' god given right to sell product?
Knowing what lurks underneath old cities the demand for archeologist would absolutely skyrocket.
Great job creation prospects.
And then we get to queue in cars to get coffee. So convenient.
It's just wins all around
And to compete our domestic car industries will probably start making similar models :/
As these vehicles aren't officially sold in EU by their brands, they don't enter the pollution calculation of their average fleet. I doubt that they will produce even more similar models adapted to and for the EU market.
One-up it entirely and make a 'thinner' pickup truck that does comply with EU roads and usurp the Chrysler dogshit entering your nations.
Let the Germans make it.
Isn't that just a van?
Make kei trucks popular in Europe.
There is already e.g. the Multicar.
Already happened, VW has the Amarok. The first generation was apparently too small to be sold successfully in the USA and they shifted it to EU. Mercedes-Benz had the X-Class, I think it was a similar story.
Solicit your vehicle taxing authorities to raise taxes on these huge vehicles so it's cost prohibitive.
Hopefully insurance will be prohibitively expensive as well where there so dangerous.
In the netherlands road tax is paid depending on the weight of the vehicle (and some more factors). Also, a standard drivers license B is for cars with maximum weight 3500kg (unladen weight plus payload).
Do they really think US style trucks will sell well in Europe?
Yes I do. Selfishness is not an American only trait.
Too bad. I wish the US had EU and JP sized cars
I mean, selfishness is one thing, but these things literally won't fit in most parking spaces and even a number of garage spaces.
You can technically buy a bus, too, but most people don't think it's practical.
The race to size already happened in Europe once, when 4x4s started getting marketed to scared housewives under the pretense that they were safer, if that sounds familiar. I know a few people who were tempted.
Then they looked into it and got over it pretty quickly.
I'm sure you'd see some (I saw my first local Tesla the other day, the guy had blacked out the badge to avoid having it vandalized). I'm not sure we're going to see a race towards Europeans as a group buying humongous, impractical, extremely expensive cartoon trucks.
Yes, they don't belong here.
That angle almost helps its case because that's mostly large cars for the EU parked rather loosely in a spacious spot (guessing those two things are related). The Mercedes kind of breaks the illusion that it makes some sense.
That thing would take two spaces and definitely go past the max length in the average underground parking lot.
Have you seen people driving SUVs a lot? Those things generally don't fit in parking spots, doesn't stop people from trying and happily occupying two spots.
Large SUVs? Not many, no.
My point exactly.
And the ones that I am familiar with out there, mostly from people who used to like cars but now have too many kids to fit into a hot hatchback, tend to fall into the "compact SUV" subsegment, which totally does fit in parking spots and meet current EU regulations.
Also I wouldn't underestimate the size of the US monstrosities. Made me look it up. The most popular American pickup is 20 cm wider and a whopping 2 meters longer than the most popular EU SUV. I had to double check that, that's a tall NBA center longer. You could park a whole Smart FortTwo behind your SUV and still almost fit in the footprint of a Ford F150.
You could also buy both the SUV and the Smart and still have money left over before you can afford the Ford. And that's not accounting the US prices may not be listing taxes.
Seriously, regulations aren't the only reason car tastes have diverged. It's not like Ford doesn't sell cars in Europe. A nontrivial part of this has been Trump and his idiotic followers making shit up to justify things they don't like.
Well, if they pay for two...
In my city, there is no public spot above ground left where you don't have to pay for parking.
The underground parking lots I'm frequenting, however, will not accommodate any SUV, period. Meaning maybe you can wiggle your way in, but you physically won't get out. It's a crowded continent...
Don't fit yet. The US is just way ahead of Europe in bulldozing the city to make room for more cars and now oversized trucks. All Europe has to do is start knocking down anything in the way to widen lanes and make bigger parking spots.
Yes, it can happen here if the people let it.
I lived through the same thing in the US and the results are horrifying.
My neighborhood is relatively new. Trucks don’t fit in garages here, so they park them on the driveway.
In rural areas, the parking spaces are extra big. In the city? They’ll happily take over half the sidewalk or multiple spaces. Did I mention they leave their metal hitches always installed?
We need to implement a law in the US where size of shadow cast from 8 angles determines your vehicle class and minimum tax. I am an adult. You can barely see my head above the roof of a pickup.
Have you spent the last 10 years under a rock? Everyone drives an SUV nowadays
Everyone is driving compact SUVs or "crossovers". That's the biggest segment in Europe, as far as I can tell with some googling. The second biggest is even smaller SUVs.
Admittedly, what I can find also says that big SUVs are growing faster than compact and small SUVs. But still, large SUVs are like 3-5% of the market.
Why the "compact SUV" is a thing when a T-Roc is the exact same size and pretty much the same shape as a Golf GTI is anybody's guess. I don't sell cars for a living, you'd have to ask Volkswagen what the difference is supposed to be.
So no, not living under a rock.
@Eyekaytee @Sunshine Believe me, there are enough Ameriboos here in Europe (especially in positions of power) to make this a real problem if this is allowed to be normalized without some major consumer or other type of backlash.
Yes. Their market is fascist fucks. Look at the political parties.
Why would any auto manufacturer make cars under European safety standards any more if this goes through?
what in the flying fuck
@Sunshine make them undrivable.
We are already in a situation where they have to stop in the village centers to let people move out of the way for the extra wide load. I do not move. I don't think anyone should
In Europe those over the top insane-looking american "trucks" need heavy goods vehicle license, plus even if it's light enough for the regular license, it's still classified as a cargo vehicle which is subject for more tax (either yearly tax or sometimes even road usage tax). People can already buy new "trucks" (even Volkswagen makes one) and import old ones from the US for a long time, but extra tax is not something most want to pay.
The 'empty' weight of a Ford F-350 is a bit above 3 tons, so in theory, one could register those with a maximum total mass of 3499 kg and drive them with a regular 'car' class B drivers licence.
The smaller F-150 is totally in the range of what can be driven with a class B drivers licence without tricks.
I doubt that is how it works with registration.
When imported, the car has to become road approved by an authority, like e.g. TÜV or Dekra in Germany, to ensure that it's conforming with the general standards for road vehicles (which are less strict than when a brand would be trying to get a general certification, type approval, of that model).
If by construction, the car is allowed to have a maximum total mass of e.g. 4 tons, as e.g. it's stated in its US documents, it's possible to have only 3,49 tons written into the German/European documents and thus, have it classified as a 'car'.
However, if you get caught with that vehicle loaded with more than what is allowed to stay below 3,49 tons, it's considered a) overloaded, an offence under public order, and b) driving without proper driver's licence, which can be a criminal offence.
Interesting that you can simply define it to be a lower number.
I think, there is a lower limit, like e.g. you must still be allowed to have all seats occupied, but I'm not sure.
The Japanese ones are good for workers, not parents that need to take the kids to school across a few fallen leaves in autumn.
Up to member states means they probably won't do it, since it's a matter of national politics and popularity...
So as I understand this - which seems to be totally at odds with everyone else commenting - this will actually make it harder for people to drive these things on the road in the EU. Currently you can import those things without them being subject to EU categorisation and safety requirements if it's a one off (to quote Not Stanley, "I ain't no serial killer! I killed a bunch of people but they were all one-offs!") but now these will be categorised and controlled the same as EU vehicles instead, and subject to the same standards for safety, emissions, licensing etc. It's worth keeping in mind that even in the US these aren't categorised as cars, so why would they be in the EU? So someone with a car license (normally limited to 3.5T GLW) couldn't drive one, even if they pinky-swore that they wouldn't fully load it as is the case at the moment.
The EU has different licenses for cars and trucks? Cool!
I've always found it weird that a standard license here lets you drive anything from a teeny tiny SmartCar to an F350 pulling a massive palace-in-wheels, or a near bus-sized motorhome (provided it doesn't have air brakes and is under 4600kg).
Wait. Are you telling me that the American "if you can parallel park, here's your driver license" license allows you to legally drive trucks and other heavy machinery?
Not "trucks" as in a commercial transport truck (often called "rigs" to differentiate), but a large pickup-truck pulling a fairly massive travel-trailer or 5th wheel, yes.
See here for a reference on the various options, most of which are drivable under a standard license. The big difference tends to be when you get into things with air brakes, which requires a special endorsement or the truly huge sizes. Most of the restrictions are based on the towing/hauling or hitch capacity of the vehicle pulling them though, as opposed to the license of the driver
https://www.rv.com/rv/rv-classes-explained/
Also, this is in Canada but my understanding is that the US is much the same
Well, people first need to want to buy these things. When they realize they are unable to park those things properly, due to our infrasturcture not being made for them, they will return them back.
People in the NL already buy them, despite there being no way to park them.
You need like 10 idiots in a million-large city and you can already feel it have a negative effect on traffic.
Or they park in the most obnoxious places. I once saw a father waiting to pick up his kid in one, with 2 wheels on the pavement and his engine idling. This was in the eu and it had a typical macho pickup configuration: all black, spotless, tinted windows. I'd prefer it if those dickheads continued driving bmw's instead of pickups, much less annoying when they're tailgating you.
The people who buy this will feel fantastic about parking them like assholes in a way that it bothers people.
Unfortunately, no, you give people too much credit. It's a status symbol to assholes, and assholes beget assholes. People need to treat them like Teslas were during the DOGE debacle.
hopefully also when people treat them and their stupid big vehicles appropriately like shit
People will buy it despite infrastructure not being built for it. And they they will demand that the infrastructure accommodates them. And then they will build new infrastructure taking them into account. And then they'll rebuild the old infrastructure to accommodate them.
There are idiots in Europe too. There are oversized American trucks in Europe too. And they too occupy 4 parking slots if they are European sized instead of America sized.
The real money is gonna be made from exporting truck nuts.
Why would anyone in the EU buy them? They are expensive, maintanance nightmare and in most cities to big to drive comfortably. The only reason I can think of is that you need to compensate for a small dick.
I cannot think of anything else the EU could have done to damage it's own brand image as this has. It's clear the EU has it's own oligarch problem.
That is quite the claim to make and calling it "clear"
To quote Wikipedia:
I cannot describe how utterly simple and bountiful it is to search for citations and find them, so for the benefit of avoiding arguing against your complete and utter ignorance, I'll just assume you and the gang upvoting you are just being the most blatantly facetious people here.
Ibrahimovich.jpg:
I give you defense protection
In return, you give me your lives to American pickup trucks.
This is going to be unpopular opinion, but the EU caving in so quickly to one-sided trade deal, is in return for American protection and arms contracts. With Cheetos in chief in charge, this is the Munich Agreement of our time to bide time, while European arms production gears up. Let's face it, the EU is too weak and reliant to achieve strategic autonomy at the moment, if ever. Several EU members don't even want to increase military spending, because they very well know that this will take away precious funding away from coveted welfare investment, and that will be unpopular for electorates.
Many people say this but it doesn't really made sense to me, if Russia can't even win against Ukraine how would they ever fight against the EU, our army is both larger and much better equipped then Ukraine.
And it doesn't look like there is a ceasfire going to be soon so Ukraine will keep fighting which means Russia doesn't even have the troops outside Ukraine to invade the EU, and if they somehow did then we would reach Moscow by next month.
The problem is, the EU isn't united nearly enough to fight a war together. If, for instance, Russia attacks, it'll be mostly Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia defending. Maybe Romania too, and maybe with some support from the rest of the EU. As it stands right now, the EU is divided on many issues, with some countries (notably Hungary) intentionally sabotaging it from the inside.
Even if - and that's a big if - all or at least most of EU member states can come to agreement and cooperate in a conflict, our militaries aren't very well prepared to work together. This would require years of cross-border military drills between all of the member states. Especially considering the fact that the vast majority of all EU soldiers have never seen any real combat. Russia may be losing a lot of soldiers in Ukraine. But those who survive become extremely valuable assets for the military, since real world combat experience is infinitely more useful than textbooks or casual training exercises.
Yes, if Russia invades EU then all gloves are off. But in the more immediate and near term this is about military production, which Russia is in full production capacity while the West as a whole is kind of just tip toeing. The former is already outproducing the latter in artillery munitions by a wide margin. The EU produces even less than the US in military. Even though the EU became the biggest aid sponsor of Ukraine, much of that aid is non-lethal forms like finances, food and logistics. The US still provide the biggest military help to Ukraine.
Even if there is a war between EU and Russia, fact of the matter is that Russia already has the initial military production advantage over the EU, because the EU downsized and underestimated Russia's plan of aggression for years.
I think what the EU-US trade deal was about is outsourcing the military production to US, while the EU ramps up their own. After all, the key message from that deal is that the EU will invest in US military production.
RAM < Dodge < Stellantis NV
It’s not even a US company lobbying for this.
What Europe should do, is ban those anti-social SUVs altogether. And tax the ones already there to a high amount. Say 80%. But offer an incentive to lower that tax to 40%, if they switch to scooters, ebikes, and bikes, and let the car be scrapped and its metals reused for those purposes. They then can get a scooter/ebike or whatever for free, together with 10+ years of warranty.
This will offer a lot more job availability in Europe. That's only better for the former owners of those roadkillers.
Honestly they're great to drive and can often tow over 10k kilos. Not for everyone but maybe zone them out of downtowns or something. The US has more rural roads than city roads. Unimproved dirt roads and towing heavy loads are what they were made for, not trying to squeeze into a parking spot in the altstadt.
Way too heavy. Not allowed with standard drivers license in civilized countries.
Where I come from, being civilized includes not smugly degrading people simply for having different regulations. You have your rules, they work for you where you are.
Roads and drivers are a little different here, and you can tow ten tons with a one ton truck pretty easily anywhere but in the city. Very little of this country is city. Getting everything set up correctly is pretty expensive so most people don't want to have expensive repairs and learn how to do it right.
I've traveled all over the world and I noticed that only in civilized countries drivers licenses are actively enforced. If you find my remark smugly because you are feeling addressed, then that is totally your own problem.
as someone with their heavy goods, 10 ton behind a pickup is terrifying
That's why the big trucks are so big.
They're absolutely not "great to drive" lol
Not in dense cities, but on back country roads and even for interstate they're great. I would say paying for a good suspension is smart though.
Yes but American cars don't have some magic suspension that is not available to others. If anything I'd bet that European suspension technology is objectively better as it always has been.
Where did I say anything about American suspension? I put a German suspension on my last Chevy truck, but that was many years ago. I don't agree that European suspensions are universally better though. Generally European cars have tighter high performance suspensions in their cars because they don't drive on rough dirt roads like many cars in the US are subjected to.
When it comes to suspensions for really extreme conditions, I think American tech has the lead right now. The European continent lacks things like the Baja 1000 or the Rubicon trail or the thousand similar routes that we have all over the hilly and mountainous regions of North America.
Listen dude, people are just having beef with your claim that "american trucks are great to drive" which is clearly not everyone's relative experience. I admit that american cars made huge strides in the last couple of decades but they're still mostly a niche meme everywhere else around the world.
We generally solved ICE cars somehwere in 00's so whatever local variant fits your need is 100% the best choice. I drive a Japanese ICE car from 2010 and recently looked at upgrades and really couldn't find a single reason for an upgrade other than aesthethics.
Yeah, you are never going to convince lemmings that they have a place. They have a niche and in that niche they are excellent.
I know a guy who has a industrial flooring business (epoxy coatings, grinding, etc) and he has a big fuckoff american truck. Because he lives in it 9 hours a day and tows around a trailer with ALL his work supplies and still has to pick the kids up from school and take them to sports on the weekends. Its one vehicle, it does it all and most importantly because its signwritten and its his work vehicle its 100% tax deductable.
Wouldn’t a van work better? No need for a trailer then.
I've hired industrial flooring companies. Those floor grinders are huge and extremely heavy and there's a lot of other equipment needed as well. It would not fit in a van, and neither would his kids. He needs more seating and a huge trailer. You don't need special license to tow huge trailers in the US. Little trailers are more difficult to back up anyway.
Not nearly as many people "need" a big truck as own them, but some people do. The landscaping crew that comes to take care of the 7 acre property at my work (30,000 sq meters) brings 3-4 guys, two big zero turn mowers, a smaller mower, a bunch of trimmers and other small equipment. One truck, one trailer.
Thankyou, that was exactly my point.
They are wildly oversold to people who have very little reason to own one, but for certain use cases they are absolutely brilliant.
I don't know what country this is, but in my country he will have to pay 100% tax if he uses the company vehicle for private purposes. The driver will have to keep an auditable km registration.
You arent wrong, but the govt doesnt look that closely at owner operators, they expect a measure of creative accounting/record keeping.