Things are pretty fantastic when you use them for that they're made to do... Try safely carrying 20 4'x8' sheets of sheetrock in a small car... Or try carrying two bags of groceries in a sedan's trunk without anything holding them in place...
A van will have more cargo volume for the same wheelbase, be easier to load, and have the cargo be covered from the elements. Those are made for carrying stuff. Pick-ups are made only to show that the owner is compensating for something.
For home use I have seen most people buy dirt in bags. A sedan or even a compact would handle carrying those. The open sides can be a benefit for sure, but I don't know about putting cargo 'as high as you want to,' given that wind is a thing. And vans are pretty tall anyway!
I understand that they can have some utility on a farm or something, but the average person is not regularly transporting a 'couple loads of dirt' in suburbia.
And I never said the average person should own a truck but buying dirt in bulk (measured in yards) isn't unusual if your house has space for a garden and it's way cheaper than buying bags of it. Same for carrying lumber that would be too long for a van.
Also it's very funny that if you want to be able to do most of things a truck can do, the alternative to a truck should be a contractor's van which has worse visibility on the sides and at the back, is just as big or bigger than a truck and uses the same engine...
Aren’t there cargo nets and other accessories for that? I get it if you have perishable groceries that need to be kept frozen until you get home and it’s hot outside.
Indeed. Hell my old Ranger had a gap in the bed liner so I could slide a 2x4 (I think I actually used a 2x6) in place and have a perfect divider for groceries right at the tailgate. It was simple and worked perfect. When it was time to do truck shit the board just lifted up and got tossed in with the bricks or whatever.
My dad always has trucks, whole 30 years of my life. To prevent groceries flying around you tie the bags and put them close to the cab, unless they’re really light and that case you put them in the cab. He never had crew cab until much later in my life so stuff had to go in the bed as 90s extended cabs were not very extended lol the days of the single fold down seat behind the main front seats sucked for me
I watched a guy load bags of soil from the hardware store into the back seats of the crew cab while he had an empty bed. The bed would have been easier to load and could easily be hosed down if a bag leaked. I guess he forgot it was also a truck and not just a luxury commuter car.
Remember that the auto industry was so resistant to putting speed governors in cars 100 years ago that they invented the term Jaywalking as a way of blaming the victims of their manslaughter.
This is thankfully only about imports so it will limit the damage, but the coming fuel efficiency standards carve out an exception too (although I believe they are more stringent than the US standards at least).
EDIT: I was under the impression the tax only applies to private imports, but it actually doesn't. See my below comment. But it is limited to higher priced vehicles at least.
The US also has this loophole, all SUVs are classified as ‘light trucks’ and therefore don’t have to follow the more strict emissions laws. This is what led to these massive cars and trucks.
Also, the roads in many US states are falling apart and larger vehicles and trucks drive better over potholes and bad road conditions.
People prefer big SUVs and trucks when the roads are badly maintained and it will damage normal cars. The trend of larger rims with a thinner sidewall almost guarantees normal cars will have much worse ride quality and be more prone to damage and costly repairs.
The new trucks are so tall and have a massive blind spot in front, you can't see anything. They are a danger to pedestrians and children in addition to having blinding headlights that shine directly at eye level for any normal car.
Stop blaming roads on consumer trucks. Nearly all the damage is 18 wheelers. Same with the headlights they are just fine unless modified. You have zero evidence they are any brighter or aimed worse than every other vehicle on the road.
But I do have to disagree. At first you can look at this chart and see proof - clearly by far most road damage will be from trucks. But the other half of the equation is how many. A highway only needs a few trucks with those numbers to create most of their damage. However many local roads rarely, if ever, get full sized trucks. If you have a residential neighborhood, long haul trucks are not a thing, and delivery trucks are much smaller. So yeah, everyone owning a monster pickup might very well cause most of the damage
Not to mention average pickup truck weight has increased since the study. Older trucks were lighter because they didn't have fully boxed frames and every p/u is an extended cab now.
Stop blaming roads on consumer trucks. Nearly all the damage is 18 wheelers.
No where did I mention that the cause of road damage was caused by SUVs. I said that people prefer larger vehicles because they driver better on poorly maintained roads due to larger tires and heavy duty suspension.
Also, 18 wheelers don’t drive in residential areas and therefore don’t affect most smaller roads. Those roads fall apart due to a variety if reasons including weather and lack of maintenance and drainage.
As for your other claim, there is plenty of evidence that LED headlights are brighter. This is easily measurable and new headlights have higher lumens and a different color. Newer cars all have LED lights that are more blue than older halogen lights that were yellow.
Trucks and SUVs have gotten bigger and taller over the last 2-3 decades and those headlights are at eye level for most cars. This causes more glare and when combined with brighter LED lights that have a blue color balance lead to glare!
US laws around headlights have not been updated since the 1970s! European laws are also more strict on aiming downward to reduce glare from trucks and tall vehicles.
Most of that but the last line is just you making up assumptions across the board. The f150 and ram are absolutely pointed down and not overly bright compared to the rest and regulation.
Yes the reg needs updating. No trucks don't do dumb shit any worse than all new cars.
The law refers to cars that aren't directly sold in Australia, i.e. through private imports. So if you buy from a dealer that has a presence in Australia, the import tax doesn't apply. And it only applies to cars above a certain price I should add, hence the name: Luxury Car Tax (LCT).
You basically need to design the car so pedestrians bounce over the hood instead of going under. So you can still to an SUV, but can't really do a Ford F150 style front.
I think people should need a licence to drive anything that has a tall nose. The chance of fatality is really high for those cars and people need to be taught that.
I just want to put a small barrier between people and buying a car that's may more dangerous than any reasonably sized alternative. If people want storage space they should buy a station wagon. If they want to transport for work they should buy a Caddy type. If they want to go outdoors offroading then they should get a licence on how to drive offroad and how to prevent front-over accidents etc.
SUVs and bigger cars are becoming the default choice and I think that's a bad thing.
Honestly, they know that. But fashion is fashion, and people's desire is rarely logical. So that barrier...I don't think it will work any better than actual idiot tax. The only offputting thing would be price.
There's already an idiot tax, a crossover costs 50% more than regular. Price is not an issue for people that buy these but a license, course and having the license easier to revoke for speeding in pedestrian zone might work.
Fr, I would call every single one of those a "crossover" before I called them station wagons.
That Volvo v60 is the closest thing to a modern station wagon. If it doesn't have 3 big side windows from front to back, it shouldn't be called a station wagon.
If people want storage space they should buy a station wagon. If they want to transport for work they should buy a Caddy type. If they want to go outdoors offroading then they should get a licence on how to drive offroad and how to prevent front-over accidents etc.
Most people buying one of these expended exactly zero seconds of thought on what they need from an automobile.
If someone even managed to get any law in place like what you're suggesting (which they won't because it goes against the interests of business), the right wing idiot backlash would be furious and cacophonous and the net result would be Florida marking a day on the calendar as state wide "Ford-fuck-you-mobile" day.
mogs are cool, i don't know much about them because they seem to be primarily european, but i will probably own one someday out of curiosity, i only hear good things about them.
Personally i'm a fan of industry trucks though, tatra, oshkosh, unimog, the usual suspects. Ford can eat shit.
I agree you already need a license to drive a semi trucks I believe but just as someone who dailys a little itty bitty BMW z3 and works at a Toyota dealership and has driven 60s international harvesters anything bigger than a jeep wrangler takes time getting used to being tall and bulky hell I've seen people driving in the middle of the road because they got acclimated to driving a corrola and just hopped into a f150 as a man who has flipped my ATV making trails off roading no matter what your in you need to be instructed on the ins and outs of off roading I'm so onboard for making a sort of truck driving license
I've used huge trucks for bush work. Like we're talking going mudding just to get to work. This line of work basically put me in the position that is the subject of commercials that try to convince suburban dads that they need a huge truck in case one day their family goes on a fictional camping trip to the middle of a swamp.
Anyways, you know what I learned? These fucking things suck at off-roading.
They have shit visibility. You sometimes need to get out of the truck to see around corners, especially if you're cresting steep hills
They have a dangerously high center of gravity (I saw a bunch of coworkers roll theirs) that is only amplified if you carry large loads in their truck beds
Over-complicated features like traction control will actually kill your power if you're doing some technical driving, which will make you get stuck when you don't need to
There's no good reason for these pieces of shit to exist.
Get a properly sized pickup truck covered in dings and scratches showing you actually utilize the thing. Your penis is huge and you've got balls of steel! A paragon of masculinity!
This line of work basically put me in the position that is the subject of commercials that try to convince suburban dads that they need a huge truck in case one day their family goes on a fictional camping trip to the middle of a swamp.
This is so on point.
So many defenders go, "It helped when I had to haul shit to the dump" or "I bring wood back to build my shed".
What about the other 95% of the year? Because I rent a van to move shit and I'm happy taking the bus.
Or do what I did and pay cash for a beat up old truck to do those things with. Mine didn't even have a radio, the heat barely worked, but it hauled hog feed and garbage well enough. And I wasn't paying a grand a month in a car payment and insurance.
I volunteered driving ambulances. Started in high school, 2003-2004. Our rigs at the time were a '97 Chevy van with a box and a '99 F250 with a box. They were the biggest things I'd driven at the time.
Moved away, did life, came back a decade later. Newest rigs were now 2015 F450 Super Duty with a box you could legit stand up in. Thing was unnecessarily large. All the things you're saying are correct. The rig we purchased while I was there ended up being a slightly larger mod, but came with front, side, and rear cameras, because you're absolutely right, can't see shit. Blind spot in the front is legit 10-15 feet from the bumper.
You know what didn't change in that interim? People's windy, tiny driveways. I won't toot my own horn but I'm a good driver, I frequently tell my wife "You could fit a Mac truck through there" when she's driving and won't squeeze through a gap. So when it came time to back these rigs up these narrow, curving driveways, up a hill, it was difficult. I'd have my crew get out generally and go begin assessment so I could get the rig in place for takedown. Problem is that I couldn't drive all the time, and so the rig would frequently get left down on the road. And I don't blame anyone, they were difficult maneuvers. I knew a few members who outright refused to drive the newer rigs becaude they were so massive, so now we've neutered our manpower.
There's no good reason for these pieces of shit to exist.
So did you start taking an old civic to the in-the-bush job site then or what?
Edit: Or a midsize pickup or SUV or something? Helicopter? The down votes here are pretty absurd lol. I'm trying to figure out what vehicle to take to in-the-bush job sites in the future that can better handle the conditions, which the person I replied to specifically pointed out.
Or just a regular sized pickup truck, which I've also used for plenty of sites. But honestly I prefer the mules because they hold all the stuff I need for work and can fit through most forest understory. And in the rare chance that you happen to turtle them it's possible to pull them off/out of whatever they're stuck on. If you get a giant truck stuck in the mud you're donezo.
I also took my Toyota Prius to plenty of sites, although I'd never off-road with it when the ground is swampy or sandy it did fine on plenty of rough roads and open fields. I'm sure a Subaru or other small all wheel drive sedan could handle lots of off-road work sites.
Thank you! Makes sense. I think I was sort of misreading your statement initially. And I guess I never really thought about the 350s and aboves useful applications (or lack thereof lol).
I'll add my Honda Element did surprisingly well for many 1000s of km of rough logging roads once upon a time.
My uncle did a four wheel driving day in his Subaru Forrester one time and it could climb hills others couldn't because it was so light.
I've also heard stories of farmers with tiny 4x4s like a Suzuki Jimny using them during floods because they don't sink in the mud like the massive ones do
I prefer driving smaller cars in heavy snow because they're light enough to sit on top and not get bogged down. Back when I had a commute in my tiny little Scion xA I'd drive by bro-dozers and SUVs stuck in the snow thinking their four-wheel drive would save them from being idiots.
Not to mention they don't even fucking fit in off-road situations half the time. Unless you're in a wide open field or have giant cleared roads (in which case why do you need an ultimate off-road machineTM), most off-road situations in the eastern US are going to involve trees. Try driving around trees in that thing and you'll be stuck in a matter of minutes.
For all the actual off road work I've done, the best vehicle has always been those little utility off-road vehicles (we call them mules or gators but I'm sure they have a real name) or just a regular-sized pickup truck with 4 wheel drive and low gears.
For all the actual off road work I’ve done, the best vehicle has always been those little utility off-road vehicles (we call them mules or gators but I’m sure they have a real name) or just a regular-sized pickup truck with 4 wheel drive and low gears.
UTVs, side by sides, i've seen stuff like that used to refer to them in a more generic manner, shockingly those are so good primarily because they weigh nothing and have comparatively huge tires with way more surface area, while also having equivalent power if not more, just due to the size.
Anyways, you know what I learned? These fucking things suck at off-roading.
no shit, they're running live axle suspension, no amount of lift kit is going to get your diff case unstuck from the mud LMAO.
Doesn't help that these idiots also put small tires on big rims to get that bafflingly stupid look on them, which lowers the ride quality, and lowers the axle even more.
I'm convinced you have to be brain damaged to own a bro dozer, let alone think an f150 with live axles can get around in mud. Bro almost nothing can, a humvee might do it, but it's also literally built to do it. It's got full independent suspension, nice large tires with high sidewalls, portal axles for increased clearance. It's got a low cab, set next to the engine and transmission (that's why they're so wide) They're short, so they can get around trees and shit and likewise have a low CG.
And f150 looks like it was built to be a parody of a hummer, and it's no surprise that they drive and handle like shit as a result.
Completely. Give me a light Geländewagen (and I’m talking about the utility version that armies buy, not the blinged up Chelsea tractor version), with triple differential lock and it’ll out-drive these monster trucks any day, on any terrain, pulling the same weight.
Both my brother in laws have huge modified trucks, both live in cities, both complain that the road infrastructure and parking doesn't cater to their large vehicles... Also both have (probably) never used the truck bed.
They are so huge, tons of room in the cab. Feels like driving in a living room. Have to ride over curbs to get out of parking lots though
I once asked a friend with a truck to help me pickup a BBQ. When attempting to load it he got so worried about us scratching the truck bed that eventually we couldn't proceed. Called another buddy with a minivan, we put a moving blanket down and off we went. No whining, just work.
...minivans are fantastic purposeful vehicles and probably what one-quarter of SUVs should be driving; the other three-quarters should be driving cars if they hadn't been swept up in the road-tank arms race...
As someone from Texas, these are disgusting, and people driving this garbage are not friendly towards pedestrians at all. They have no self awareness sitting inside these killing machines.
The only reason for 99.9% of people to drive this garbage is to feel big when on the road. How petty.
There is also the factor of danger and safety. People are observing more gigantic cars on the road and being in a smaller one makes them feel unsafe. So they get a bigger one when they get a new car, perpetuating the problem.
Many of my family is in this. They keep getting bigger vehicles because they get the sense of safety. They cannot grasp how bad that mentality is and how wrong they are. And with bigger vehicles, it means that much less room for error too. And most people suck at driving. Not all the time, but that one time you make a mistake (as we all do) could be a big one in an oversized vehicle.
The one rule I would dream of seeing is soft speed throttling to ensure that cars and trucks stay a safe 3 second distance or more apart from each other. That should be relatively easy to do with basic distance sensing and calculations.
The Cupra Born I drove the other day (don't own a car and rely on carsharing and rentals for my business) while doing deliveries for a catering event did this. It was really annoying driving in narrow streets with it braking for parked cars.
My 2017 Volvo just warns me if there's a parked car in a curve, never had it brake automatically for parked cars no matter the scenario, so I guess it's just that BMW's system wasn't quite there yet at the time...
Ah true, yeah I test drove a polestar and a Hyundai ioniq 5 before deciding to go with the bmw and they both worked a lot better, but were also way more expensive since they were new and the bmw was second hand 😅
Unfortunately there weren't any second hand phev volvos available in my area at the time.
I mean, you should be slowing down at least a bit when passing someone pulled over on the side of the road anyways, no? Just like going through a construction zone. It really depends on how much braking we're talking about.
It's incredibly useful in stop and go traffic, and I'm often just too lazy to turn it off after the traffic ends, until it randomly brakes for a parked car 😅
Because it reduces reaction time? If you set the cruise control and cover the brake with your foot then you have a faster braking response than if you have to switch pedals first.
There's often cars parked on the side of the road on highways in NZ... Its also incredibly useful in stop and go traffic and sometimes I'm too lazy to turn it off after the traffic ends, until it randomly brakes for a parked car 😅
It is relatively easy. My 2019 Mazda3 does this already when cruise control is on. Its front manufacturer logo is a radar device, and there are a few more on the car. Making it full-time should be easy enough.
Black bears wouldn't have a chance of survival being hit with that thing. Grizzlys might slow the truck down, maybe. A Polar Bear is the only type of bear I can think of that you'd really need a tank sized vehicle to deal with it. Heck even a Giant Panda is just gonna bat at you to get you to go away since you aren't bamboo.
I just don't get modern truck culture. They're so big, and ugly! They are such an inconvenience to everyone else on the road. And I doubt even half the people who own then do truck stuff with them. They're way to tall, the giant tall grilles look stupid. Their stupid headlights shine in my face. A 2024 Colorado is bigger than a 1994 Silverado. Why? I hate them even more than people who wear pajamas in public.
And this is exactly why I have started referring to the massive pickup trucks as gender affirming care. It simultaneously makes fun of the “me need big truck because man” mentality, while also pissing off the types of guys who are most likely to buy the trucks. Because the guys who buy the trucks are the same guys protesting trans healthcare.
You can tell which ones aren't used for anything. Bed is spotless and unused, tires are clean, and the heaviest load it carries is its obese driver and his similarly obese family. We call them pavement princesses.
Inconveniencing everyone else is the point. That, and the belief that being in the biggest car makes you safer in a collision (by doing more damage to the other vehicle[s])
Fuck Cars
Top
This magazine is not receiving updates (last activity 0 day(s) ago).