One of these has definitely hauled more than the other, and i guarantee you it’s not the ford.
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.
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.
“Brain small so I car big”. But in all seriousness, I don’t see the reason why these people buy these things. If they want a big car, the minimum requirement should be to have a non poluting engine(which is probably far out). What happened to walking, or bikes and rechargeble scooters? Can I ask you about your state’s(or city’s) infrastructure plans or is it simply super car dependant?
I will say non-automotive transport isn’t really an option for a large portion of US Americans. Basically anyone who doesn’t live within one of a few major cities will need access to a car for at least some of their transit needs.
The average commute in the US is 41 miles each day. This is largely along highways and stroads where cars are traveling 45-65 mph (70-100kph). Unless you have a death wish, walking, biking, and using a scooter isn’t something anyone would do unless there were absolutely no options. If there is bus service (which isn’t a given) it’s usually infrequent (every 1-1.5 hours) and doesn’t take you to where you need to go.
It’s a systemic issue that’s been implemented gradually over a few generations through policy and culture making. It can be reversed but it will take a generation or more to roll it back.
In my home state, the urban areas are trying to build out functioning transit systems, however it’s difficult to get support as so many people think transit “brings the wrong kind of people” (aka poor and black people) to their neighborhood and fight it. But progress is being made. My city is breaking ground on a new BRT line next week.
Then when there is a cohesive project that could work and serve large portions of the state, the state government has killed it because “it only serves the cities and not the rural areas” although it very much is in the best interest of rural communities to have some sort of public transit.
We do have a train that runs service multiple times a day between the two largest cities in our state, with funding secured to expand it further. So that’s a win.
The uphill battle we face in terms of transit is so many people have never experienced how great a functioning transit system is and won’t look at those “socialist areas” (aka NYC, Europe, and parts of Asia) because they believe those places are evil, and if they can’t use their car to get places they’re having their freedom taken away from them.
This is very well written and thoughrow answer, thank you. The average daily comute distance feels absolutely fucking insane to me, no wonder so many people are car dependant.
many people think transit “brings the wrong kind of people” (aka poor and black people) to their neighborhood and fight it.
I hate the system that is implied that opressed people shoud be hated, not the opressors themselves. People living below the means of wealth are the result of a failing system, one that doesn’t cater to the well being of many, but to those of a few. I’ve seen beggars on highways with toddlers(not on the sides on the highway that’s reserved for ambulances and such, but sitting against the wall that divides the ways) and I’d rather see them on public transport than there. I’m happy for the BRT line, that’s incredible. I’m also happy for the people that get to experience public transport in these following years. Sure, at peak hours it may seem crowded, but getting fast where you need to be is amazing. I grew up using public transportation and can’t imagine my life without it (as the city was designed to not be insanely large, and driving takes longer than using public transit). I mean, didn’t people used to say in the 1800’s that public roads are socialism and socialism bad ? It’s like the bird who eats a biscuit and experiences bliss for the first time, public transit can be bliss.(and it’s not like people here don’t have cars, it’s just that it’s more convinient and fast to ride the subway for example, and leave cars for longer distance roads, like holiday trips. Using cars only when absolutely needed was ironically driven by lack of parking, existence of potholes, and infernal traffic). You have the freedom to own a car, it’s just that the expenses can render you dry if you don’t absolutely need it and have alternitives. I’m rooting for you, I learned a lot reading your comment, thank you so much.
And your perspective on transit is exactly why I want to spread the gospel so to speak.
I don’t think most people here are bad for fighting against public transit, I genuinely think they’re misinformed and have never lived anywhere with a functioning transit system.
I want them to see the light! It such a happier existence on my side of the fence and I want to bring everyone I can in to have a party.
I’m generally optimistic, things are shifting, and the younger generations understand much better than their older counterparts the benefits of solid public transit.
light
Hey, sorry for the late reply. I actually work in an adjacent field so I think I’m decently qualified to speak on the infrastructure here. Firstly, I am in one of the larger metropolitan areas of the US. We are completely dependent on cars. We have a couple of train tracks but the pricing, limited destinations, and limited run times kill any chance they have of converting the masses, myself included. We have no plans for more mass transit and no plans to improve current mass transit. While they are making an attempt to make the area more bike friendly, the zoning laws effectively make these changes impossible as places you would typically travel to are too far from your place of residence. These zoning laws don’t appear to be changing anytime soon.
The real problem with my area specifically, but America as a whole is just the vastness. Due to the sheer amount of space we have, there is urban sprawl everywhere. Why live on top of one another when everyone can get a little space and we can destroy all of the beautiful nature around us and pave over paradise?
As a personal anecdote, by American terms I live close to work and VERY close to the grocery store. Store is a 20 minute walk one way and work would take me hours to get to… or I can hop in a car, be at the store in under a minute and to work in 10
Edit: and unfortunately I would love a motorcycle but due to licensing requirements (or lack thereof for motorists) and the appalling infrastructure, it is just too unsafe to justify a motorcycle of any kind.
This is me in Argentina right now. I don’t want to, but houses scarcity is forcing me and lots of others to move fast away from the capitals on search of affordable housing and the lack of transportation from the capital to the suburbs is basically forcing people to buy more expensive as fuck cars
I don’t recall the full story, but the reason SUVs and “cars” like this sell big is because they are classified as trucks and do not need to meet the same emission standards as cars. Thus it is cheaper to make and more power.
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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.
Wasn’t this mostly because of the semiconductor shortage?
Takes nearly as many components for a small cheap car as it does for a massive expensive one, so they focused the manufacturing on the big one and they’ve even had to cut back on that.
No, the F-Series has been the best selling vehicle in America for 30 consecutive years or so.
A good portion of those sales are for commercial fleets, but plenty more are just for suburban parents to drive from parking lot to parking lot.
Last year wasn’t an anomaly.
Yeah, it’s been a trope for years, lampooned by The Simpsons with Canyonero, even Robocop with its 6000 SUX.
I don’t really understand why though. Maybe it’s just because America is huge and people think nothing of driving 100 miles to go to work so want to do it in comfort, or maybe it’s the really low taxes on fuel. Maybe if they were paying UK levels of petrol duty (52.95p/litre, that’s 263 cents/gallon, plus 20% VAT), those big trucks would be quickly abandoned, along with dreams of sprawling suburban hell-holes with no pavements.
I know exactly one person who has one in the UK and we all laugh at him and call it his Fall Guy truck. Mostly because I’m old enough to remember that.
It’s due to generations of propaganda that cars=freedom and how that’s affected every aspect of American urban policy.
Most state government departments of transportation don’t fund public transit and see cars/highways as the only available option to move people from point A to point B.
This affects every level of American life. So much so that not only is gas in the US not taxed at levels seen in other developed nations, it’s subsidized.
Pickup trucks now are a defacto status symbol, and on roads where cars are getting bigger, many buyers who would consider smaller alternatives also buy bigger trucks and SUVs than they would have otherwise.
Additionally there’s a loophole in the car efficiency standards that are more lenient on SUVs and trucks than cars. This has led most manufacturers to focus on marketing Trucks and SUVs rather than cars. GM and Ford current don’t sell and have no plans to sell new cars in the US market. Their entire fleet is SUVs and trucks.
The way CAFE standards are calculated takes the overall footprint of the vehicle into account. Making the truck bigger gives them more leeway in fuel mileage. They couldn’t afford the offsets for making a small truck, they already have to buy them from Tesla even after juking the formula.
Increase fuel taxes and it will reward smaller cars. Inflation has tanked below to within targets while interest rates are still high. The market is primed for tax increases as the BoC loosens it’s monetary policy.
The CAFE footprint standard has made the huge truck count as more efficient than a small car towards the fleet standards. Then they make up the last bit by buying offsets from Tesla, which is what actually keeps Tesla in business.
Wait wait, WHAT? If you buy a tesla you don’t even get to feel smug about saving the environment, because they already sold off the smugness to someone else?
It’s what used to keep them in business, they can actually turn a profit on their cars now, which is why their stock price has gone bonkers.
Emotional support vehicles
I use this as regularly as possible. It is so absolutely on point. It cuts them to the quick.
And that’s the small Ranger! The F150 is large in comparison to the Ranger.
That’s a ranger? JFC.
The F150 is still pretty small. The Ranger is just a glorified medium car.
Imagine getting this worked uo about one of the smallest trucks on the market. You can’t make this shit up!
I hope you find peace, friend
Well I never said I was worked up. I never stated I hated the man or speculating wether or not he has a small pp. That’s irrelevant to me. I just noted that the size difference is comically large, meaning I don’t understand how these cars have any practical means of existing in a dence city where a small family car would do the job driving to work just fine and grocery shopping is literally 100m away. I do agree that the comment section in general is getting pretty heated. That’s also Something funny to me because those geting so angry are no better people.
Alls I’m saying is your title felt super aggressive and it is funny to me because you picked a ford ranger, of all trucks, to lampoon when its easily the least egregious pickup that is available currently
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.
Parking a large truck is also just plain harder.
- Parking spaces are smaller relative to the size of your car
- Sitting high up with a huge hood in front means there’s less visibility in front
- Longer cars make it more difficult to judge distance using your mirrors, somewhat eased by the requirement for parking cameras.
- Longer cars generally have a longer wheelbase, making a worse turning radius
The only saving grace as a driver is that heavier cars can be safer for their occupants, at the cost of everyone else’s safety… which most would consider a negative.
If you actually need a truck, you wouldn’t be buying the one on the right.
Now I disapprove of our car centric society as much as anyone, but there are definitely legitimate business reasons for a 150 sized pickup. I run a landscaping business and use a truck slightly smaller to haul my tools including a trailer with a riding mower (electric for whatever it’s worth, and I’d rather convert the lawn to native meadow but I do what they pay for so I mows the grasses.) Carpenters and other tradespersons, except the really heavy stuff like masonry, would use a truck this size, and even ones who may prefer something bigger like stone and concrete guys may only be able to afford this, and it gets the job done. Could it be done with Kee trucks and sprinter vans? If the ranges weren’t so wide. Here a tradesman might need to take themselves, their helper, and 2 people’s worth of tools and supplies an hour away, daily. I wish we had trains, local supply depots, etc. But for the system that’s been built already, for people who can’t change it today but need to go to work today, there are good reasons for some of that size of truck. It’s much smaller than most, though I do agree something smaller would be nice if viable.
Dude you can do all that with a ford transit
You can do a lot of that in a transit. Transits are great, I love the extra cover of the back and almost bought one over my current Tacoma. Their are limits, though. For example, as a gardener, I use a lot of wood chip mulch. It’s sold by the scoop from a front end loader they drop right in the bed of a truck. If I had a van, I’d either need to bring the trailer, which adds weight, fuel inefficiency, and maneuvering difficulty (parking). I could buy it bagged, but it costs twice as much, weighs more because the bags trap moisture, and now I have to schlep it around instead of shovelling it into a wagon and dumping it where I need it. It’s just one use case, but I’m sure there are more. Also, I’m pretty sure a transit doesn’t have the flex body of a cab-bed truck, so weight in the bed or towing is strain on the entire body, causing wear and tear. But I do wish most people had vans instead of trucks, where those vans are more efficient and safer than trucks of equivalent class.
I agree! These big pickups have purposes (just like large ambulances and fire trucks)… The only problem is, a lot of people aren’t like you and they drive their pickup solely to commute or to shop at Costco.
Honestly I would lole those tiny Japanese trucks
Kei trucks
In America those are called lawn mowers.
I am in America (rural SC to be exact) and a bunch of people around here are importing these trucks straight from Japan. I’m still shopping for mine.
Are you talking about those little Mitsubishi trucks?
Nice, those things would be so useful.
They are! I love people around here are slowly realizing that you don’t need a giant Bro truck for 90% of the jobs they want. Like, I’ll watch a Chevy truck commercial where dude has a brand new 2500 dually getting a ton of rocks dumped on the bed and think “no one in their right mind is going to spend over $100K for a truck and have rocks thrown on the back, fucking lol”
Peak design tbh.
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.
driving something that big just seems frustrating.
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.
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.
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…
@SlamDrag @TDCN both Chevy and Ford are abandoning the sedan market and focusing on selling trucks to a blue collar aesthetic, not that the global market for cars/trucks is anywhere near a majority of rural that the pickup owners in cities are aspiring to virtue signal. The US became a majority urban nation in the 70s, the world population became majority urban (as opposed to rural) in the 00s. If consumers keep LARPing as small town people in cities, co’s are going to keep selling them trucks
@SlamDrag @TDCN I live in Australia. We’ve had ‘utes’ (utility vehicles) since forever. Pickup trucks. They’re common as muck. Literally every tradie has one. Feels like about 50% of vehicles are a ute.
They’re a car with a flat panel on the back. You can put all your tradie stuff in them and bang them about a bit.
We do not need these ridiculous F150s. Which, by the way, no tradesperson is filling with concrete. Because they’re precious and fucking expensive.
@SlamDrag @TDCN And the entreaty to ‘shit on the oil company vs. the tradesperson’ is bullshit.
Ford makes these vehicles because they know people will buy them. Stop buying them. Until then, I will freely shit on all those who do.
(I live in the inner city here in Australia. I walk everywhere. I’m fucking sick of car drivers thinking that they own the earth, being given priority everywhere, taking up all the space, driving these monstrosities in our towns.)
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.
And a small peepee, perfect balance.
Can we stop humiliating men for having small dicks? Penis size is something people don’t choose and can’t change, like their skin color or their sexual orientation.
Those trying to project a “tough guy” appearance are deeply insecure. They have this idea that if they show vulnerability then other people will think less of them and they will be victimized. People don’t learn this sort of coping behavior when they are raised in a loving nurturing environment.
They don’t have small dicks. They are scared.
Fiat Panda gang Fiat Panda gang
for a community called fuck cars the simping for a car is rather interesting
Not if they actually want to fuck the car.
It’s a fiat Panda. It’s literally the best fuck cars car. It does exactly what a car needs to do and does it perfectly. If you really rely on a car the panda is just so good
Extremely common Pandino W
Not everyone that’s anti car has the luxury of living in a city that’s not built around the automobile
Or simply live outside cities, so public transportation is not an option
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‘m always surprised at how well those 2 wheel drive Fiat Panda‘s perform. We mostly use it for our farm because it can‘t really get stuck, or we haven‘t managed to get it stuck in 11 years. They also fit a decent amount of luggage!
I bet my wagon could do half these people’s “tow stuff”
Tbf using a Skoda for comparison is cheating, they’re notorious for being very roomy. 😛
I have a Hyundai I40CW and I am 197cm tall, I can easily put the driver’s seat to my comfortable position and then sit behind the driver seat at the back.
The front passenger seat if I put it all the way back and put the seat down I can comfortably straighten my legs out and sleep.
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.
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 someone else pointed out already, yes, there are people who need a truck. They don’t need an oversized death machine. There is little to no reason for a truck to have that much bulk, the bulk doesn’t add power.
However, most “need a truck” is either shit that could be done in much less vehicle, or done so infrequently that it makes 0 sense to OWN said truck. I sometimes need a truck… so far thrice in my life. I rented said truck. My wagon covers almost all of my hauling needs, rental covers the few outliers.
I don’t understand this need to tell people what they need or what they should drive. Can’t we just let people enjoy the things they like without getting all Judge Judy? I own a full ton diesel and I wouldn’t have bought it if I didn’t need it. How else am I going to tow my 32 foot RV? It’s how the wife and I vacation. Should I be flying to my vacation vs driving there because people hate trucks but someone give planes a pass??
I can see people being more upset at sportscars vs. trucks but that doesn’t happen. They are less fuel efficient than most trucks and can a lot less. An Infiniti Q37 with a V6 engine does 20MPG combined when my truck gets closer to 25MPG combined.
People need to stop judging others just because they do something you don’t.
Not when those shitstains on the road actually kill more people and pollute more of our shared planet. Same thing for sports cars. If you drive something so unnecessarily dangerous and bad for our shared space and you’re not using it for it’s purpose I will judge you with no sympathy.
If you drive something so unnecessarily dangerous and bad for our shared space and you’re not using it for it’s purpose I will judge you with no sympathy
What makes you an authority on what’s dangerous, bad or whether someone is using something for their intended purposes? Why are you so quick to judge others based on your lack of information?
Everything is dangerous if you go to extremes. Too much water can kill you. Too much food can kill you. Stressing yourself out over what others are doing will kill you or reduce the quality of your life at the very least.
It’s been proven that big trucks cause more accidents and pollute more heavily and cause city architecture problems because of parking and street size requirements. Seems like you’re lacking basic information.
Equating drinking too much water and dying to literally contributing to killing others or making their lives worse is the most stupid comparison I’ve ever heard. One hurts yourself, the other hurts other people.
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”.
Yeah that’s my bad, I didn’t realize that criticizing comment’s original point. I’d love to see someone run a small farm with a freaking sedan, what a moron.
4x4 with a tow hook. Attach an open trailer when necessary.
Here’s a 4x4 towing a boeing 747:
I get that. I really do. But a lot of these threads devolve into “there is no reason to own one of these.” So I replied to someone saying similar stuff to remind this person that there are reasons.
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.
Fair.
The amount of trail rash on my Jeep agrees with you. My rig gets used and abused on trails. More of a toy since I WFH and share my GFs much more reasonable vehicle.
You can tow an excavator, etc etc, with a Ford Transit. Hell, they can still drive ok if you stuff enough crushed cars in the back to get a curb weight of 3 tons.
Meanwhile a 1/2 ton pickup looks like it’s struggling with half a ton in the tiny tiny bed.
You are going to want to check your numbers on that transit van.
My 250 has three times the towing capacity of the transit, and the transit can’t pull a 5th wheel.
And an E45 bobcat (which is small relative to some machines I pull )is twice as heavy as the tow capacity of the transit, without considering tongue weight or the bulky trailer needed to haul such a thing.
I get it. Most people don’t need it. I do.
Ok, that’s fair … I guess because the F250 isn’t sold here people have a different attitude. For your needs here people would get something like an Iveco Daily 3.5 ton with dropside deck, they can take a good beating, about the same size as a heavy duty pickup but with more space on the back.
They also do options for a crane, tipper for agregates, and crew cab … seems like a pretty solid work platform compared to a pickup.
Pickups suck at literally everything they try to do. They are the worst of all worlds.
That’s a hot take. They excel at what they’re designed for: carrying stuff that goes outside the confines of a van, things that need to be loaded from the top, excessively dirty things that you wouldn’t want in a van or car, towing (especially 5th wheel towing), etc.
You will probably like this Documentation about the reasons why SUVs in the usa are so popular.
