I laugh at the Ford every time I see it. Today i got at chance to park next to it and the the size difference is comically large.
One of these has definitely hauled more than the other, and i guarantee you it's not the ford.
Emotional support vehicles
"I think you mean S-U-V"
"Nope. E-S-V."
I use this as regularly as possible. It is so absolutely on point. It cuts them to the quick.
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:
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 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.
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"
They are still useful in some situations although they are almost always just a fashion statement. https://lemmy.ml/comment/1660615 Someone who actually needs one for their job commented on this post and explained why. Someone also replied and said they could haul more with a van, and their response was that they can easily drop things into the bed with a crane. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
edit: they deleted it, not sure why but the point stands
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.
F350 long bed with dual-ies.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
A ranger probably won't even a full sized truck in freedom parks
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.
I can't take cars like this seriously, I just assume whoever drives them is a total piece of shit
You never know. Maybe he needs if he works in the near by forrest. While I agree on the first part about not taking it seriously, I never want to assume people are pieces of shit without talking to them first.
While not the best camera angle, those tires look spotless. 19% of GMC light truck/crossover owners actually use their cars in an offroad capacity, and the same effect probably applies to full pickups. I am doubtful that the above pickup is being used in anything off road.
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.
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.
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.
I have a Toyota Previa. It's a wonderful little van, but it's designed in such a way as to be able to effortlessly transport a stack of drywall in the back. I guarantee my van's hauled more than that giant bloated mess of a ford...
Our pandemic project was doing our own hardwood floors. It was our second time installing hardwood floors, and it was much easier in our 20s than in our 30s, believe me.
I used my Chevy Bolt to take 1,000sqft of carpet and old oak to the dump. It took several trips, yes, but that was partially reflective of how quickly we were willing and able to work.
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.
Does whatever a Fiat Panda can!
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.
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.
I haul stuff sometimes... So I got an older AWD wagon. Fantastic visibility, could haul more than I need, decent MPG. I do not understand these cars getting bigger and bigger. The newer version of my Outback is a monstrosity as well. I'm pretty sure I'll be driving cars 2010 and older till I can't get them anymore.
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.
I grew up in a city of 30,000 in the rural south. Every fucking one of my guy friends ~needed a truck... except the only work they did with it was mod it to be intentionally louder and less gas efficient, and go off-roading. The extent of real work put into them was occasionally hauling some furniture when helping people move: something that 1. could've worked with a day rental, and more inportantly 2. Only needed a f150 sized vehicle and not the Ferd F-teen-thousand with quintuple cab space and a v8 diesel hemi lifted on off-road dually tires blowing black smoke all over the other cars.
Most of the adults who didn't buy into all the annoying "truck guy" modifications still had the biggest gas-guzzling, space-hogging pieces of emotional support vehicles permanently shined and bed emptied, never doing anything with it but driving to their office/retail job and the grocery store.
I live in a small village in the mountains, most of my neighbours are tradies or cobtractors. Their weapon of choice (along with the farmers here) is the Citroen Berlingo.
It can tow a lot, long stuff can use the cargo hatch at the back of the roof, and it can do pretty serious off-roading. They're also good family cars.
I encourage you to watch this Not Just Bikes video .
@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
Oh i know, we had to get a car since we live in the Midwest. Our options were overpriced Honda, Toyota or Mazdas or barebones subarus or kia boys favorite hyundai or kias.
Also, blows my fucking mind that corollas have a markups of 5k at the local dealers.
There are literally 5 cars below $25k OTD if you're lucky
@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.)
You know what Ford stands for? Fix it again, Tony
You’re thinking of a Fiat, Dale.
i guess you are thinking about my Fiat? while i can't disagree i can say that it's always dirt cheap to fix stuff and super easy because it's designed to be repaired easily.
Fiat might stand for that. Ford is fucked or repaired daily.
That's Fiat, you mean Find On Roadside Dead.
You’re thinking of a Fiat, Dale
E: included the name so others might get your original joke.
Don't talk to me or my son ever again
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.
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.
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.
Parking spaces are smaller relative to the size of your car
Nope, the caris too big to park in a normal parking lot.
Sitting high up with a huge hood in front means there’s less visibility in front
No, the car was built in a way it shouldn't, because it does not allow the driver to drive responsible
Longer cars make it more difficult to judge distance using your mirrors, somewhat eased by the requirement for parking cameras.
No. One can learn to adapt to any size of cars and trucks, but most fat pickup drivers don't care to invest the brain capacity to do so.
Longer cars generally have a longer wheelbase, making a worse turning radius
Well, if you cannot drive, you cannot drive. If the problem that you cannot drive is because of a design failure of the car, you chose the wrong 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.
In the States, that Ford is considered a mid-size truck. The F-150 is considerably larger and they are everywhere.
This is only a ranger, so not even a big pickup by American standards.
I think most cars would look big next to the Fiat.
There's another giant Ford Raptor in the same parking house and it's so large i always wonder how the hell he parks that thing anywhere here. It literally take the entire parking spot you see in the picture.
I was thinking buying a fiat panda, how is it ?
LOVE IT! it's dirt cheap in every single way you can imagine. Repairs, fuel, tax, insurance etc. you won't find anything to compeat for the quality and reliability it offers. Stay away from the newer panda 3 models (summer 2012 and newer) the engine is only a two cylinder and has a lot of issues because it is a completely new engine design. Get the older models preferably the newest you can get (up to summer 2012) the newest of them have aircondition and a slightly more efficient engine. The engine in the panda 2 is the tried and tested 69Hp Fire Engine used by many many small cars and is so reliable they can run for many hundreds of thousands of km. As an example mine is from the last batch from 2012 has run 165k km and doesn't use a single drop of oil. I change oil and it runs for over a year and the level is exactly the same when i change it again. what i love about it the most is that it is so cheap i don't really care about it much so if it gets a tittle scratch or gets filled with dog-hair i really don't care much. Just buff it out and clean it a bit and it's good as "new" is it the most comfortable car? well no, but it's not that bad. Tried much worse in other cars similar priced. Is it the pretties car? No, but it has lots of space for it's size. Does it have lots of smart features? no but i don't want that anyway. Just give me air condition and i'm happy. Damn i love it.
Haha nice feedback, I have the same expectations (cheap, efficient, pactical, reliable). I'll check this out, thx !
As a Subaru Baja owner, I'm inclined to agree. Though I did upgrade to overload springs in the rear, mostly to keep it from sagging as much when hauling heating pellets each winter.
Have you started noticing some cars are now the same height level of a semi truck? These people are so ridiculous.
I'm pretty tall. I move a lot of family members around on rare occasions. I go for week-long trips out of town in my car. I barely drive it in town (usually evenings and weekends and not even every evening or weekend). My car isn't quite that behemoth but it is large enough for what I need. I have helped with over 4 home moves in that car and even used it to transport a fridge to a civic waste site.
It does the job fine. I've never felt the need to get a pickup truck. Some people probably have genuine use cases. The majority probably don't. Those things are wild.
The mondeo is a great family car. I have a friend where his whole family, brother, mother, dag, uncle etc. each own a mondeo and sware by it because it just the right size for a family.
Yeah, I moved house with a Mk2 Mondeo and it was a breeze. Towed well, and could take 70kg over the hitch at the same time.
Really practical :-)
Yeah it's one I'm struggling to replace, but because I use it so little I'm not as fussed just yet. Will keep it until it doesn't pass MOT anymore, or something else makes more sense.
It looks like a caricature. Kinda like Into the Spider-Verse's version of Kingpin in vehicle form.
driving something that big just seems frustrating.
You will probably like this Documentation about the reasons why SUVs in the usa are so popular.
What's crazy, is that you'll never see any of these large Utes which are dirty. But, many of the same people who buy a vehicle with such high high clearance are also the exact people who exaggerate the size of potholes around, and the cost of EV's (despite paying a huge amount in petrol and servicing that would dwarf the cost of battery replacements in 15 years).
I get a kick out of watching the immaculate shiny “pavement princesses” frantically dodging manhole covers. Not even potholes, just those barely perceptible round metal manhole covers that my little Honda Fit merrily rolls over with nary a whimper.
(The actual ranch trucks just nonchalantly barrel over everything, I’m talking about the pristine city-only ones.)
Fucking love the Honda fit. My brother and I hauled about 18 bags of mulch from Lowes and it still drove really smooth. His was a fit from 2014 or 15!
Lots of people in this thread shitting on some random person. What’s the point of all this? Y’all are acting like the Ford driver is an ass hole but from the evidence in this thread I don’t think they are the ass hole here.
SUVs and pick-ups are worse for the environment and kill more people than normal cars, so there are good reasons to dislike people who drive them for no good reason
Exactly. They're rarely used for their actual purpose, and those who buy them as a status symbol or to look tough are a problem. They're excessively large and thus dangerous to pedestrians (especially children), they're more likely to kill people in an accident due to the high bumper rendering crumple zones on smaller vehicles useless, they guzzle fuel like no tomorrow and pollute excessively, and the people who drive them often do so recklessly. The drivers have a reputation for a reason.
@Onionizer @CrescentMadeJr BUT there are more small Cars who in sum kill more ppl.
Communities that only exist to put down others are generally pretty toxic.
For a few seconds i was thinking of importing a Nissan Armada to Germany. Then i came to my senses and got a Taycan.
Why did i want an Armada? What happened in my brain that made me go "big car cool need"
Even the brand name on the grid is like
As if it was made for children with reading impairment
It looks like a "human-feature compensation device"
Did you let their tyres down?
Nah I'm not that kind of person.
More's the pity.
