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this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2026
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And the following question is "Why?".
Standard issue in the toxic masculinity starter pack.
Originally the F-150 was a perfect vehicle for most of non-urban America. It was very inexpensive (not a joke), simple to fix (also not a joke), dependable (I swear I'm not trolling), and very utilitarian. Eventually it became an icon and the default purchase for many, even though the more popular models have lost all of the features that made it attractive to begin with.
It also used to be a reasonable size. Larger than sedans, bit not by nearly as much.
Oh yeah, and not five foot tall at the hood by default.
I saw an OG F-100 truck the other day. The roof of its cab is about the same height as the hood of these new monsters.
Small peepee
I don't think the article specifically addresses it, but I'd guess that their numbers account for fleet purchases, which are always going to skew the numbers a bit
There are many lists of "most popular vehicles" out there. The F-150 tops some of those lists and doesn't even appear on others. There are a lot of games one can play with specificity to make something more prominent ("Ford F-series") or less prominent ("Ram 1500 Rumble Bee") in a list like that.
But the point -- that we have more pickup trucks than can reasonably be justified -- stands.
Everyone asking why and making jokes about masculinity are missing this point entirely. Ford is the most popular truck when it comes to fleets and actual work trucks, the kind you see with a flat bed or tons of built in metal tool boxes.
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The F150 is not a car, it’s a truck. For Americans, it’s a different category, for (many) Europeans, it’s a type of car.
And the dingleberry on top of the shit sundae is that Ford also killed off the EV version. Sure, the F-150 has a lot of problems simply based on its size. But, it is the most popular vehicle in the US and no amount of whining about it is going to change that fact. So, instead of pissing in the wind, the EV F-150 at least tried to meet people where they are. Unfortunately, sales weren't great and Ford gave up on the project. The only upshot is that the venn diagram of diesel F-150 owners whining about gas prices and Trump voters is a small circle fully inside a larger circle. So, the right people are feeling pain.
Wait they're no longer selling the F-150 Lightning? WTF, Ford?!
That's some VW "Oh we didn't make all the money instantly with BEV cars, so we'll scale down our fleet and effort because of all the poor shareholders"-shortsightedness (which in VW's case at least bit them in the arse properly, because right after they did that reversal BEVs got the upswing that everyone with 10+ braincells knew they'd get based on other countries, and now VW is falling behind)
Yup, it's a dead duck.
Personally, I'm watching the Slate truck with some interest. As I would kinda like a better way to haul trash/yard debris; but, an F-150 (especially the newer, juiced up ones) seems like the type of overkill reserved for killing a fly with a tactical nuclear weapon. I'd be really happy to have one of the older ('90's era) small trucks with an EV drive train. But those were killed by the rule of unintended consequences.
As I understand it, the F-150 Lightning was the rare beast that was overengineered in the best way. Ford killed it because they figured out that they made more money making batteries for the grid, so they retooled the facilities for that.
If you bought a Lightning, don't sell it.
I wonder if people will start to use AI to replace the code once Ford drops support.
I would have loved one of the EV F150s, but I'm poor
I’m not poor and never would buy one at the current generation, was hoping for them to improve it a bit but here we are
25 "Flash" trim (mid tier) here. They took some features away in 2024 (80A charging/V2L) but switched to a heat pump making it more winter efficient. And ditched the phone as a key, which is the only thing I really wish they kept.
Best vehicle I've owned. And huge space in the back for car seats and crap.
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By the time I was considering an AWD one as a sled carrier, they discontinued it. Now I'm looking at old Tundras and Titans.
Ford isn't giving up on electric trucks. It expects to sell the EV Fathom for less than $30,000 next year, and that EV platform is intended to be the foundation of a wide variety of models, with lessons learned from the F-150 Lightning and the Mustang Mach E. One big one they've talked about is the advantages of designing an EV from the ground up with no intention of sharing a platform with an ICE powertrain, and minimizing weight from wiring and harnesses following inefficient paths.
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Just make sure your schadenfreude doesn't evolve into stooping to their level. That's how we've ended up circling the drain even in an age of technological boom.
Now I'm stuck trying to figure out what the EV equivalent of "rolling coal" would be.
Tesla roadster blasting 10000psi of compressed air and road debris on anyone around them to hop over a speed bump
Continuing to drive our vehicles for 7 cents per mile.
It is interesting seeing Americans always complaining about gas prices(especially now) whilst also owning vehicles that use up fuel by just looking at them.
Its interesting people outside the US assume in a country of 300 million people that the same people buying trucks are the same people complaining about gas.
First figure I found was 725,000ish F150s sold in 2022. That only leaves 299,275,000 other people that must not complain about gas if all the complaining is done by the f150 owners.
My money is on the sales being boosted by fleet purchases of F-150's cuz its tough to find a public works department in any village, town, subarb or even city that doesnt bulk purchase Ford trucks.
The two things you need to understand about America(ns)…. American is spread out. Like seriously large and open. This has lead to a lot of “super-sizing” in general. Not just their guts. Houses, cars, etc.
The second aspect is people buy for the “5% chance”, not their 95% daily habits. What I mean by this is they might have to haul something once a year, or they might end up having to take a long road trip. Rather than renting for that one day, for that one specific purpose they want something that can do it all (incidentally this is also why EVs have had a tough time catching on).
Those two points make the F150 perfectly slotted to be the most popular “car”.
No, it's because the US government works for corporations and always has.
Trucks have gotten bigger because of a concerted effort to manipulate the market by automakers for over 50 years. It started with the Chicken Tax.
Not everyone that wants a truck is dumb enough to want a big one, even in the US.
I don't buy the America-big explanation. For that matter, so is Russia. The original colonies weren't that big, just the Western states with hardly anybody in them. And this culture is on display even in geographically-constrained areas, like Manhattan, Los Angeles, Hawaii, and the like.
The classics of racism and toxic individualism provide better explanations.
I see it this way: Yes, a lot of our local rural and suburban infrastructure is spread-out and car-centric, but that was a result of our choices and policies. (Which does indeed include a big helping of cloaked racial segregation.) It's not the case that we were forced by geography to do this to ourselves.
"America is just so spread out" can be read as "We just didn't plan this too well."
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Small dick energy is strong with this one
Isn't this has been #1 for like 25 or 30 years, except one year it was the Camry or something?
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Part of it is the sheer diversity of options and trim levels that are all under the same make and model of the Ford F-150. Taking a look at the Ford F-150 trim levels, there are basically 4 gasoline engines, 2 flex fuel engines, 1 hybrid drivetrain, 1 diesel engine, and a now discontinued EV powertrain. There are about 5 body/cab options, and several suspension options.
In contrast, take, for example, the GM BEV3 platform. It's the Chevy Equinox, Chevy Blazer, Cadillac Lyriq, Cadillac Optiq, Honda Prologue, and Acura ZDX. I've driven several of these and they're all basically the same with different options. There's less diversity in those models than there is for the Ford F-150.
It's not a car, the things are the size of a semi cab. I needed an electric truck and mine is huge too. It's annoying, it doesn't fit anywhere and it's fucking dangerous to pedestrians. Make Trucks Small Again.
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cause they don’t allow cooler cars in the US anymore
Can confirm. The idiots in my state don't even allow kei trucks on the road. Farmers still import them for getting actual work done on their own land, though.
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This really shows you the state of the average person in the US.
People don't realize how much of that is due to fleet sales.
Piggybacking off the point some people made about fleet purchases of trucks boosting sales, even with that in mind, out of the top ten vehicles sold its split down the middle with 5 being trucks and only 1 that isnt a fleet targeted truck (the Tacoma being the one truck you dont see many fleets of in the US) and the other 5 are all gas saving sedans, wagon/mini suv like rav4, and 2 electric vehicles. You knock out fleet sales of trucks and id b3 willing to bet that top 10 list jumps to 8 gas conserving whips to 1 maybe 2 pickup trucks.
RAV4 would be considered on the bigger side here and i wouldn't be surprised if the US model is bigger.
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