I dunno. I had to drive a truck over the weekend, to move 3 cords of wood. I rented an F250, which is a big truck. It was useful to have; there’s no way that I would have been able to move that much wood with a smaller truck and trailer, and, if my driveway wasn’t so tight, it would have been nicer to rent a larger dump trailer (I’m pretty sure that I was over the maximum load rating on the trailer for each trip).
…But it’s not a fun truck to drive. Power is slow compared to the compact car I usually drive, and very slow compared to my motorcycle, steering feels sloppy, brakes are feel mushy, fuel economy is terrible, and it was so goddamn big that I had to drive very carefully to be sure that it wasn’t over any of the lines on the road. Aside from the ability to move a very heavy load–greater than a ton–it really doesn’t have much of anything going for it. I can’t imagine why most people would want one, compared to a vehicle that allows them to react quickly.
Bro. if you just stop being a decent person and do all that stuff with a truck. You’d be confused as a Floridian with a Lifted 03 Ford Expedition.
I don’t think anyone Ultimately hates Trucks for their intended purposes. It’s the SuperSize Me Trucks that are exclusively used to show off tiny penises and get groceries and that’s it…I know Plenty of Craftsmen with Dualies. but they also Take their workshop with them in the morning, I can do that too with my subcompact. Because I’m more of an Electrician, my tools aren’t so cumbersome
Two things: First of course is one simply must have a nicer, bigger, more powerful truck than that guy.
The second thing is no, that F250 you rented wasn’t comfortable. You most likely rented an F250 XL. The XL trim is the lowest, meanest, least comfortable version of Ford’s trucks. The people who need their brodozer status symbol drive the fancy versions that have the soft carpet, power windows, leather seats, and a bed cover because lets be realistic, that truck bed will never carry anything more than groceries.
I have an F150 XL that I bought used. It was a rental truck from some hardware store called “Menards”. It has no carpet, no power windows, no tint, steel wheels, no extended cab, no crew cab, no CD player, just a bench seat and an 8ft bed.
When I worked at a bank not too long ago I got to drive the company car once and its one of those van sized 3 row SUVs with a truck bed’s worth of space (probably a full 8 feet!) when the third row is folded down and holy cow that thing handled like a boat, accelerated poorly, breaked really hard and had a super disconcerting glide to the suspension.
I had to go pick up some packages for my department that the post office had said were a lot, but it turned out to just be like one seat’s worth of boxes, so i couldve just driven my own car and expensed the miles, so it was a waste of a trip for that giant boat
Americans think it’s tough, cool, and macho man to own these types of vehicles. Same view with voting Republican. It makes you r/iamverybadass in their eyes. Meanwhile the rest of the world just rolls their eyes.
As an American, it may have started with macho, but now it’s about safety. I drive a Volt and am frequently blinded by SUVs and Trucks in my rear view. If a 250 hits me… I’m probably dead.
Until legislation is passed limiting the height of a vehicle a regular person can drive there will never be any change. Maybe also height restrictions in certain lanes or regions would help.
Special licenses and restrictions on where we allow these cars is the only way forward.
Being blinded by headlights is already a solved problem for years now with matrix headlights. It is the US government that is full of old farts that don’t even understand what they are and how they work. We just need a government that can actually respond and update policy for new technology. Currently matrix led headlight tech is illegal in the US because of some headlight laws made in 1920…
The only nut job conspiracy I believe is that there is something in the food, water or air, that makes Americans dumb as fuck.
That’s how I rationalise their love for dumb impractical cars that look tough, and why complete dimwits get so much air time, let alone can become president.
If Flint Michigan, the fact that US meat is banned from EU (and other places like China) and all the funky shit CIA has been doing has taught me anything is that you arr probably right
For decades in yhe US, there were huge V8 powered cars blowing lead exhaust into the air.
Other countries had cars, but they also had more public transportation, and the cars they had used smaller engines. Less fuel burned = less lead = fewer lead-addled moneyed old people fucking everything up.
Story time. I was going back home yesterday when I saw this lifted F250 tailgating a Chevy sedan for going 5 over the speed limit (clearly the pickup wanted to go faster), so I can guarantee you that the Chevy driver will get something bigger if they can for their next car because having a monster truck right behind you seems t scare the shit out of most people so they feel safer in a larger vehicle.
I can’t even bother to give a shit if that were happening to me.
I’m in your camp for sure, but I can certainly understand the feeling of needing something bigger to protect yourself too. Those massive trucks driving like idiots are a safety hazard. That, and the fact that when your face is at bumper level, if something happens, no matter how correct you are, you’re still going to be pulling your teeth out of their fog lights.
Exactly. Even if we can’t ban cars everywhere, there should at least be restrictions on the bumper height of a vehicle as well as the headlight height. I know here in South Carolina, they just banned modified trucks called Carolina Squats but lately I’ve seen more of them (because “fuck the libs” or whatever), but the punishment is a ticket, they need to be impounded and the plates only returned once the modifications are removed and pass a safety inspection.
I think that compact SUV is an optimal car. It is not too big (sized like a normal car), it doesn’t consume too much fuel, you can drive to the countryside (with light offroad) and it has enough space for some load and passengers feel comfortable. It can have AWD but I think that differential block is more important than AWD.
This is far from new. The best selling vehicle in the US has been the F150 for some 30+ years now and the top 5 spots have typically been pickups from GM and Ram/Dodge.
It’s funny you say that because there was someone on Reddit that would argue with people who stated that trucks are a ton bigger than they used to be. Their shtick was that trucks of yore and today are within a fraction of an inch.
While I don’t doubt the F150 is a leader in sales, it use to be F-Series trucks which included their commercial truck line and no other manufacturers could make that claim.
last time I filled my jeep, gas was around $2.00/gal and pickups were just starting the dino-grill trend. 2020. model 3 is the quickest car I ever owned. sticker shock is real but would have been making payments anyway. still have a gas mower but looking at a robot fix for that chore. sux to be u
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