> And a full 35 percent of truck owners use their truck for hauling—putting something in the bed, its ostensible raison d’être—once a year or less.
Reads to me like 2/3 of truck owners use their bed at least twice a year.
From the same paragraph:
> 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never).
Over 25% of trucks are used for towing.
> Nearly 70 percent of truck owners go off-road one time a year or less.
A third of truck owners go offroad.
Add all that up and it sounds like pickups are getting a lot of use. There are no stats on what percentage of people do at least one of those things so we are left to guess but by the claims in the article it is at least "most".
> 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never).
Even once is not never, because nothing else will do that job.
Note too that there people who use their bed but never tow, the fact that a truck could serve either purpose but for some only does one doesn't mean that those people don't use a truck.
As mentioned in another subthread, rental contracts for pickup trucks often prohibit towing, and the trucks aren't even fitted with a tow hitch. If you want to tow with a rented truck, you'll need to rent from a "commercial" rental company and you'll be paying a lot more.
Even then, the rental trucks i've found that let me tow have the wrong hitch (bolted on ball of the wrong size) and don't have a brake controller meaning they can't tow my trailer.
In the suburbs, there is no penalty for owning a large vehicle.
Even if it doesn't fit in your garage (because it's full of cars/stuff), you can park in your driveway. No one will complain if you block the sidewalk, because no one walks anywhere.
Shopping areas have large parking areas and structures. It is not unusual to see pickup trucks taking up more than two spaces. Parallel parking is uncommon and usually can be avoided.
Yes. I would have liked if they bucketed the responses. Something like 0, 1-10, 20-50, etc. But they just asked (or The Drive only reported) the 0-1 numbers.
What is conspicuously absent from these numbers is a response to the question "do you never use the bed or go offroad or tow with your truck". Which is the case that the article seems to be trying to make but can't.
Reads to me like 2/3 of truck owners use their bed at least twice a year.
From the same paragraph:
> 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never).
Over 25% of trucks are used for towing.
> Nearly 70 percent of truck owners go off-road one time a year or less.
A third of truck owners go offroad.
Add all that up and it sounds like pickups are getting a lot of use. There are no stats on what percentage of people do at least one of those things so we are left to guess but by the claims in the article it is at least "most".