In a study conducted by Axios, researchers found that a significant portion of modern pickup truck owners rarely, if never, use their vehicles for hauling, towing, or other typical truck stuff. Instead, they are more likely to be used for shopping, running errands, and commuting.
American pickup truck culture is far from practical, it’s habitual. I truly hope our generation can break that culture. Death to pickup trucks, SUVs and sports crossovers
Pickup trucks don’t need to die. They just need to return to being the utility vehicles they used to be with a full bed and not an entire SUV worth of cab. An F-150 now is larger than a 350 was in the 90s, but has less bed than a 77 Subaru Brat. My Mazda B2200 was a great little truck that could hold a stack of plywood and some 2x4s for a weekend project and handled and had visibility like a Civic. Bring that back.
CAFE standards inadvertently killed small pickups because they allow worse fuel efficiency the bigger the vehicle is. Rather than figuring out how to build more efficient small trucks automakers just make them bigger. Congress should go back and fix the legislation, but they won’t. So we are stuck with Tacoma’s that are bigger than old T100s etc.
Add the “I need a big truck to prove I am manly culture” and even the electric trucks are too damn big. (Efficient to share parts with non-electric trucks contributes too.)
There is one justification for trucks that big. One. Towing. You have to have size and weight to control a load on a trailer with size and weight. But anything that has to be that big should also be mandated to be a cab-over style, so the driver can see in front and also be the one in greatest danger in case of a collision. Take the fucking oversized Tonka trucks away from the overgrown children who drive them. Monstrosities like the Suburban and Expedition should not exist either.
It’s a shame that Rivian had to go and try to appeal to the truck nuts crowd. Something the size of a Mighty Max could easily still weigh 2 tons with enough batteries and a motor per wheel. Give THAT the suspension and brakes to handle it and you’d really have something. Hell, give it a small ICE to run a generator and you would have a fantastic hybrid truck. But in America, at least, bigger is better. It’s sad really. We could have awesome things.
Can’t agree more. Pickups all now have to cosplay like they are semis.
I guess some people found out their precious trucks were technically still “light duty” so Ford decided to call them “super duty” to make them feel better while putting gigantic pointless front ends.
But if trucks went back to being reasonably practical designs, how could they proudly display truck nuts?
Their ownership and usage needs to be regulated into the ground… Maybe rental only unless registered to a business and that business must prove it hauls heavy things and pays a penalty for roads and stuff.
Also not sure how to make this feasible for the folks without credit cards/significant money in checking for the deposit.
Then there are those republicans who would try their best to sink any such proposal, and any political capital is better used (arguably) on fixing the health insurance system.
The latter has concrete economic benefits, the former can be blown off by the right easily.
Or, we could just invest the money and solve both problems. If war bonds can be a thing, why the actual fuck are climate bonds and Medicare for all bonds not reasonable?
We as a nation a)make good on debt, congress be damned, and b) need both climate work and also healthcare work.
American pickup truck culture is far from practical, it’s habitual. I truly hope our generation can break that culture. Death to pickup trucks, SUVs and sports crossovers
Pickup trucks don’t need to die. They just need to return to being the utility vehicles they used to be with a full bed and not an entire SUV worth of cab. An F-150 now is larger than a 350 was in the 90s, but has less bed than a 77 Subaru Brat. My Mazda B2200 was a great little truck that could hold a stack of plywood and some 2x4s for a weekend project and handled and had visibility like a Civic. Bring that back.
CAFE standards inadvertently killed small pickups because they allow worse fuel efficiency the bigger the vehicle is. Rather than figuring out how to build more efficient small trucks automakers just make them bigger. Congress should go back and fix the legislation, but they won’t. So we are stuck with Tacoma’s that are bigger than old T100s etc.
Add the “I need a big truck to prove I am manly culture” and even the electric trucks are too damn big. (Efficient to share parts with non-electric trucks contributes too.)
There is one justification for trucks that big. One. Towing. You have to have size and weight to control a load on a trailer with size and weight. But anything that has to be that big should also be mandated to be a cab-over style, so the driver can see in front and also be the one in greatest danger in case of a collision. Take the fucking oversized Tonka trucks away from the overgrown children who drive them. Monstrosities like the Suburban and Expedition should not exist either.
It’s a shame that Rivian had to go and try to appeal to the truck nuts crowd. Something the size of a Mighty Max could easily still weigh 2 tons with enough batteries and a motor per wheel. Give THAT the suspension and brakes to handle it and you’d really have something. Hell, give it a small ICE to run a generator and you would have a fantastic hybrid truck. But in America, at least, bigger is better. It’s sad really. We could have awesome things.
Can’t agree more. Pickups all now have to cosplay like they are semis.
I guess some people found out their precious trucks were technically still “light duty” so Ford decided to call them “super duty” to make them feel better while putting gigantic pointless front ends.
But if trucks went back to being reasonably practical designs, how could they proudly display truck nuts?
Their ownership and usage needs to be regulated into the ground… Maybe rental only unless registered to a business and that business must prove it hauls heavy things and pays a penalty for roads and stuff.
Interesting.
Not sure I disagree with you.
Also not sure how to make this feasible for the folks without credit cards/significant money in checking for the deposit.
Then there are those republicans who would try their best to sink any such proposal, and any political capital is better used (arguably) on fixing the health insurance system.
The latter has concrete economic benefits, the former can be blown off by the right easily.
Or, we could just invest the money and solve both problems. If war bonds can be a thing, why the actual fuck are climate bonds and Medicare for all bonds not reasonable?
We as a nation a)make good on debt, congress be damned, and b) need both climate work and also healthcare work.