
You Don't Need a Full-Size Pickup Truck, You Need a Cowboy Costume - ourmandave
http://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume
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PaulHoule
I'm not so sure that the market really demands large cars.

If you go to a new car dealer looking for a small car you will find they have
some excuse why the only small cars they have are used -- the factory that
made them got washed out in a storm or something.

They'll tell you it is no problem because you can get $5000 or more off a huge
vehicle.

E.g. it's clear to me that automakers are hell bent on selling big vehicles,
not so clear that it is what consumers really want.

~~~
sonaltr
idk where you live, but Hyundai has been making a killing selling smaller cars
(Elentra et al).

I do know that the American car manufacturers are looking to stop making
smaller cars though.

~~~
PaulHoule
Upstate NY.

I owned an Elantra and I am not a fan. (Just the scheduled maintenance for the
first 100,000 miles is expensive, and I was getting a $200 or so repair bill
every month for the last few months with my Elantra)

American dealerships have always tried to talk people out of buying a small
car, even at times when there have been great American small cars such as the
Neon at the end of it's run or the current Chevy Sonic.

Lately I have been getting this treatment from Honda and Toyota dealerships
too. Nissan Sentras are available but I don't want to drive a Sentra.

~~~
sonaltr
See, I've had the exact opposite experience here in Canada.

My family owns a range of Hyundai cars (Elentra -> Sonata, Veolster -> Kona,
Santa Fe -> Palisade when it releases) and all those cars have been driven to
~100-200k each. The most we've ever paid is $200/yr for the yearly service
(apart from tire cost) + $150 / 2 yrs for interior + HVAC cleaning (for that
new car smell).

I've never had a bad experience at the Hyundai dealership (can't say the same
for Kia, Nissan and Ford).

Every single thing else (maintenance, oil change etc.) was included when I got
my car (for 8 yrs or 200k km).

------
ppseafield
I have a 4 cylinder, rear-wheel drive pickup truck from that gets pretty good
mpg and has a 6" truck bed. It's been invaluable when having to move anything.
If I had the option to buy an electric one at my price point, I would have.
Much of the CC-causing pollution from transportation is caused by semi trucks.
You can try to consider how your purchases incur transportation needs, but
until those trucks stop burning gas, it'll continue to be a problem.

There's not really a whole lot of electric trucks on the market (at the time I
bought mine three years ago, IIRC there was one early 2000s Silverado hybrid
model), and there's a ridiculous 25% tariff on imported light trucks. [0] As
others have pointed out, manufacturers are not interested in making smaller
vehicles. I think they would be popular because having a truck (or having a
friend that has a truck) can make several situations a lot easier.

One thing I've done (that you can do too!) that's way better for an individual
person to help combat climate change is to switch to a plant-based diet. [1]

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax)

[1] [https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/18/health/plant-based-diet-
clima...](https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/18/health/plant-based-diet-climate-
change-food-drayer/index.html)

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wcarron
I personally hate trucks and think that we should disincentivize them (here in
USA) by adding a federal fee on them to counteract their terrible gas mileage
and the wear and tear they induce on roadways.

Trucks are simply terrible for traffic. In LA, I see a huge amount of base
model trucks that have been outfitted with tow mirrors and lift kits, just to
sit in traffic and commute to a non-manual-labor job. It's offensive and
wasteful. A smaller crossover would be far more practical. Trucks are also
much larger and heavier and therefore more dangerous for other road users. As
a motorcyclist, I freaking hate their stupid tow mirrors sticking out into the
next damn lane. They're dangerous to people around them.

They look terrible and have terrible fuel economy. And lastly, most aren't
even useful. If you've got the standard truck with a 6-foot bed, what the hell
do you even have a truck for? Trucks are for hauling things. Like motorcycles,
cement, sheets of plywood, etc. If you're not actually using a truck for what
they're intended for, why do you own a truck? Sorry, I meant finance on an
84-month loan.

If you don't use it for hauling or offroading, you're just a (P|L)oser. Drive
a lifted truck and don't offroad? Poser. Got light bars, skid plates, and push
bars and don't offroad? That's some mighty fine overcompensation you got
there, mall crawler. Purposefully modded your exhaust so you can "roll coal"?
You're an asshole and also a pathetic loser. Tow mirrors when you don't even
have a trailer? Poser.

Truck nuts? Actually, whatever. They're silly imo, but that's about it. If
you're thinking about a truck, get a goddamn crossover and put your ruler
away.

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forgottenpass
13 paragraphs, and only one has a justifiable reason anyone should give a shit
what anyone else drives - fuel economy.

I don't have a truck. I don't get the appeal. It would be totally impractical
for my life. I think it's a stupid purchase for people who don't do work that
requires a truck. But I'm not their Dad or anything, so I don't really bother
myself with their choices.

This article is just the author telling me about himself, it says nothing
about trucks nor their drivers.

~~~
wcarron
> only one has a justifiable reason anyone should give a shit what anyone else
> drives - fuel economy.

I give a shit about what other people drive. I hate trucks with a passion
because they are: bigger, taller, heavier, slower, and handle poorly. They are
dangerous for other road users for all those reasons.

Larger vehicles do a disproportionate amount of wear and tear on road
surfaces. Another strike against trucks.

Lastly (aside from fuel economy), they're likely to be lifted or have
accessories like tow mirrors on trucks that never tow a thing. Trucks are
stupid, impractical garbage boxes for the vast majority of people who own them
__in urban areas__. I freaking hate trucks.

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RickS
Preachiness and statistical weasel-language aside, the author is correct. I
have a beat-up longbed ram 1500, and my usage statistics look pretty close to
the ones cited. I bought this truck because I work on cars, and a handful of
times I'll do something that no smaller vehicle could do (towing, hauling many
tons of metal, etc). But mostly, it chugs gas like it's going out of style and
forces me to avoid even attempting to park in downtown seattle.

That said, my favorite parts of the truck have less to do with raw power or
hauling, and more to do with the "always on" parts of the truck owner costume.
(The author's point about "all cars are drag" really resonates with me).

1) Cabin room. The bench seat in my truck is effectively a couch. I'm a heavy
guy, and while I have no trouble fitting in something compact like a VW Golf,
the truck is a different experience. It's the only class of vehicle where I
feel that I have room to stretch my legs a little, literally. The bench seat
doubles as a cargo space and lets me haul more fragile things with my arm
around them, which I do considerably more often. The Dashboard shape and UI is
straightforward and uncluttered, there's no bulky center console or strange
contours the way you'd find in a modern vehicle. It's roomy in a way that goes
beyond utility, and into more of a mental feeling of unrestrictedness that I
really enjoy. It's more like a living room than a cockpit. I have found no
other class of vehicle that does this. If I could get a BMW 3 series with the
interior proportions of a 2008 pickup, I would be _very_ interested.

2) Similar to that cognitive effect, I find that one of my favorite parts of
owning a truck is the idea of "the answer's always yes".

It's a constant surplus of optionality. If I find a cool piece of furniture,
someone's giving away something interesting at the office or on the side of
the road, there are various "once in a lifetime" or just "right place right
time" things I'm always allowed to consider. I say no to most of these anyway,
because they're silly regardless of whether you can actually pull off the
logistics. But the times I've said yes have come close to paying for the truck
with just the cash value of what I've picked up. When this is good, it's
really good. Having a crappier truck helps too. I beat the hell out of it with
no remorse. Scratched the paint loading a grill the other day. Glanced to
assess the damage, moved on. That's what I bought it for. This isn't truck
exclusive, but it's peaceful.

3) Being "that friend with a truck" is kinda nice. Sure it's a pain in the ass
to be asked, and worse, expected, to help with so-and-so's move by some
coworker you've hardly ever spoken to. But many of my more urban friends are
really kind and generous to me in ways that better suit their ways of life –
inviting me to events or consulting on hipster things that are out of my
wheelhouse. I feel like a bit of a misfit sometimes, since my hobbies and
ambitions are decidedly more redneck than most of my friends. So I appreciate
that I have something from the other side that I can offer in return. Junk
removal especially – random crap piling up seems to be a legitimate stressor
on a lot of my friends and their relationships. Pulling off a dump run is a
big feat for them, and it's simple for me to do for free. I'm amused by how
grateful some of these people are. You'd think I paid for their kid's college
when all I did was make a chair disappear. This dynamic probably disappears in
rural america, but it's nice in a big city.

\---

If I had to do it over, I'd buy a smaller truck, like a vintage tacoma or
raptor. If this size of truck comes back, electric or otherwise, I think
there's a lot of demand.

As car sharing gets really good, this might get easier. Sure I can rent a
pickup from home depot for $20/hr, but that requires getting to home depot,
filling out a bunch of paperwork, it's a whole affair that feels very
constraining. As this friction is innovated away, I definitely see "truck on
demand" as a function of the gig economy, and I look forward to feeling like
this this is a thing I don't need to own full time.

~~~
ourmandave
_Being "that friend with a truck" is kinda nice. Sure it's a pain in the ass
to be asked, and worse, expected, to help with so-and-so's move by some
coworker you've hardly ever spoken to._

I hate being that friend with a truck.

Moving furniture for a barely-know-them coworker is bad enough, but when they
don't bring help and expect you to haul their heavy ass table up flights of
steps. Yeah, no.

~~~
NavyNuke
> ...but when they don't bring help and expect you to haul their heavy ass
> table up flights of steps. Yeah, no.

Imagine being the friend with the F250 and a powerlifter...I get asked to help
move all the time and some expect me to help move furniture because, as they
sometimes jokingly say, "you like to move heavy objects in your spare time
anyway"...

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Fjolsvith
If I build and sell a bigger shed, I get more profit per unit.

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sonaltr
Oh man! I love how climate change pushers (not saying I don't believe in
Climate Change - I do) love to point at something we can do to matter about
CC. I feel even if every. single. person. on the planet works towards CC
improvement, it'd not matter as much as improvements in commercial
transportation - trucks, ships and airplanes - all of which if we seriously
tackle, will raise price of our current QoL by such a massive amount that no
one wants to deal with so it's easier to just point at consumer habits.

Drive a truck. Enjoy your life. It's too short to matter in the long run. But
do be contentious about your consumption when doing so. Think about others (if
not your kids' future, other people's future).

Disclaimer: I love cars and driving (going on a 7 day driving road trip in a
few weeks) but I'm a bit tired of CC pushing me to change my lifestyle for
changes that have minimal impact from the looks of it but my QoL keeps getting
worse.

~~~
mr_overalls
The scenarios for humanity are quite grim if climate change isn't addressed in
a major coordinated effort in the next few years.

Water scarcity, the death of _all_ coral reefs, sea-level cities everywhere
being flooded, massive species die-offs (including ones crucial to human
survival, like pollinating insects), oceanic fisheries collapse. . . with more
severe scenarios seeing the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of South Asia
becoming uninhabitable.

Avoiding this scenario is going require every intervention, large and small,
that humanity can muster. This is serious stuff. There's a reason that
climatologists sound like doomsday prophets these days.

And part of any successful effort is combating the selfishness and denial of
the average person. So pardon me if I'm somewhat unsympathetic to your
attitude of self-interested helplessness - "Drive a truck. Enjoy your life.
It's too short to matter in the long run." We're literally concerned with the
fates of hundreds of millions of human beings here.

~~~
sieabahlpark
They were just as doomsday as they were 10 years ago. Except Florida still has
a coastline between the gulf and Atlantic

~~~
mr_overalls
They're pessimistic because the problem hasn't changed - either the rising
temps or the lack of political/popular will to take action.

