Emotional support vehicles
Gotta stuff those fat americans in there somehow.
The sad thing is that they're not even that roomy. Something like a skoda superb beats this ford truck hands down when it comes to leg room.
So:
- not that great off-road (too heavy, too wide, too long, not enough weight on rear wheels)
- not great at transporting stuff, because the load bed is open.
- not fuel efficient (and low range)
- less safe (higher chance of roll over, takes longer to stop, lower safety standards compared to regular cars)
- poor visibility (too high, don't see pedestrians + low obstacles)
- not that roomy
- not that comfortable
- poor handling
A common argument is 'it can tow stuff', which is also silly because you can do that with a far smaller car too.
So it's a fashion statement or virtue signaler. I mean, obviously we all hate it, but the people that buy these kind of trucks usually get off on that. They're virtue signaling to their (internet) friends.
I would love to see the smaller car that can tow a 35 foot 5th wheel trailer.
Or the van that can haul 12 foot logs stacked 6 feet deep.
Or carry two 1000liter water totes and allow them to be filled from the overhead hose that is provided by the municipality.
Or pull a trailer with a rented excavator.
The point here isn't to argue. But I do get pretty tired of these threads just shitting on trucks for fun. They don't make sense for non tradespeople living in a city. But I could not do with one vehicle if that vehicle wasn't a pickup.
I'm building a homestead from scratch where I had to cut the trees of the forest down in order to make room to put my trailer to live in. Without the truck I could not haul the trailer all the way to the mill, all the milled wood back, and carry all of the things that I need to build the house. While still giving me 4 seats so that my nephews have a seat when I pick them up.
Edit to add: Mine is also dirty, dented, scratched, and abused. I don't have time to make a work machine shiny, I have work to do.
Yeah but people are specifically criticizing the people who buy trucks to show off in the city, not people who actually use them for what they were made to do
The comment they replied to is literally someone criticizing people for using them for what they were made to do... so no that isn't what "people are specifically criticizing".
You have a point. It's also clear that the Ford pickup in OP's picture hasn't done anything remotely close to any of the things you mentioned and likely won't be, even once a year.
Frequent campers, contractors, farmers, builders/carpenters, junk and scrap haulers, landscapers all have a use for a pickup truck. Most others don't.
Those are things that the vast majority of truck owners never get near doing. There are a ton of truck owners that have never hooked up a trailer before in their life and only have used the bed for something like transporting an appliance once. It isn't something they actively use as designed even once a month.
As an American, this is a SMALL truck. Too many of the fuckers here drive trucks that would crush both cars and keep going with a gentle bump... oh lord my Country is tragic...
As an american I can't take america seriously. It's sad. Especially vets these days... I feel bad for them, especially the ones that still have a solid head on their shoulders.
There's no humble life path here.
One of these has definitely hauled more than the other, and i guarantee you it’s not the ford.
I don't know, the Ford looks like it has to carry around a really big ego.
I’m American and live in an older suburb of a fairly large city. Half of the neighborhood seems to have a full sized truck, an extra large SUV or both in their driveway. The reason they are in the driveway is that most people can’t fit these vehicles in their garage. Older homes have smaller garages built for the cars made at the time. On the few occasions I need to haul large items I can rent a truck from the hardware store by the hour, or a cargo van for the day.
You don’t see those very often in Europe but when we do it’s always a good laugh followed by a sad sigh. What an ugly piece of crap.
I can't take cars like this seriously, I just assume whoever drives them is a total piece of shit
You never know. Maybe he needs if he works in the near by forrest. While I agree on the first part about not taking it seriously, I never want to assume people are pieces of shit without talking to them first.
If your juiced up Dodge RAM or this Ford monstrosity is all shiny, no speck of dirt in sight, then it's not a work vehicle and the original assumption probably applies.
If you actually need a truck, you wouldn't be buying the one on the right.
The F150 was the most sold car in the US last year. I've never seen so much of those in Montreal CA in over 20 years. We.are.doomed.
I have a Toyota Previa. It's a wonderful little van, but it's designed in such a way as to be able to effortlessly transport a stack of drywall in the back. I guarantee my van's hauled more than that giant bloated mess of a ford...
What I dislike about these threads is that it always devolves into shitting on blue collar workers. Of course pickups are useless city cars but have you all ever met somebody from a town of 1,000 people where every single person works in a blue collar trade? These things do work that you can't do in a different type of vehicle.
Threads like this are echo chambers of privilege. Maybe instead of shitting on tradespeople, shit on car and oil companies who enshittify the whole system.
Also pickups in 2023 that look like this are more powerful and more fuel efficient than more modest looking pickups from 90s or 00s. You may not like the aesthetics of it, but who fucking cares, you're not driving it, you're just the one judging someone else for having different taste.
Yes, there are legitimate uses. However, trucks and SUVs account for 80% of car sales in the US. 80% is NOT representative of the number of people who actually need a truck or SUV.
Trucks and SUVs kill more people, because they are bigger and heavier and have less visibility. They run over more children, because the hoods are so high you could lose track of a whole kindergarten class standing in front of them. They are more efficient than they used to be, but still drastically less efficient than a sedan or station wagon.
I don't judge someone for having different tastes. I judge someone for letting their aesthetic choices cause them to do more harm to the planet, and endanger more people, and risk the lives of their own children (because that's who they're most likely to run over because they can't see them).
If you need a truck or SUV for your job or because you actually haul a lot, or maybe because you have accessibility needs for a bigger vehicle, great. Enjoy. But that is NOT 80% of people.
Also work vans are superior to pickup trucks in almost every way.
And the comment you're replying to didn't mention anything about how over the years, the size of truck beds has shrunk, while the cab has grown. I'm sure that has a lot to do with it's utility...
Well, the people are getting wider so you need more space to fit them. The space has to come from somewhere...
most of the people buying these are buying a costume, not a work vehicle, if my neighbors are any indication
it's a status symbol
Status: insecure about their worth.
I grew up in a city of ~30,000 in the rural south. Every fucking one of my guy friends ~needed~ a truck... except the only work they did with it was mod it to be intentionally louder and less gas efficient, and go off-roading. The extent of real work put into them was occasionally hauling some furniture when helping people move: something that 1. could've worked with a day rental, and more inportantly 2. Only needed a f150 sized vehicle and not the Ferd F-teen-thousand with quintuple cab space and a v8 diesel hemi lifted on off-road dually tires blowing black smoke all over the other cars.
Most of the adults who didn't buy into all the annoying "truck guy" modifications still had the biggest gas-guzzling, space-hogging pieces of emotional support vehicles permanently shined and bed emptied, never doing anything with it but driving to their office/retail job and the grocery store.
I live in a small village in the mountains, most of my neighbours are tradies or cobtractors. Their weapon of choice (along with the farmers here) is the Citroen Berlingo.
It can tow a lot, long stuff can use the cargo hatch at the back of the roof, and it can do pretty serious off-roading. They're also good family cars.
You know what Ford stands for? Fix it again, Tony
You’re thinking of a Fiat, Dale.
Don't talk to me or my son ever again
And that's the small Ranger! The F150 is large in comparison to the Ranger.
Especially when following the law that the larger the car, the less capable the driver.
I went to the philharmony last Sunday, and the number of people with large and expensive cars who were less than capable to park them properly in an underground car park was hilarious.
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