Can't have nice things
Can't have nice things
In memory of my 95 extended cab
144 comments
-
It’s not like people with trucks haul anything nowadays. Just a status symbol.
-
I'll ask again, any data to actually support this. Been asking 6 years now and rarely get a response. And when I do it's t9 secondary sources that all link back to a private industry report with no methodology or a MSNBC report with some of the shittiest questions for a poll I've seen
-
Do you think there is some dataset that says that people make poor choices due to emotional immaturity?
Maybe there is a dataset that shows the rate of unladen trucks per mile?
You won't get it because it doesn't exist, asking for it is an absurd notion because you know it cannot be produced.
Not like the smol pp crew is busy logging miles to the grocery store and office.
-
There's 2 F series trucks for every square mile of this country. Do you think they are all out there hauling loads and trailers, off roading and actualling being used for truck stuff, or do you think that the vast majority of them are single occupant highway battering rams built to make small men feel big and important?
Remember, 2 per square mile, and that just one series of trucks, from 1 manufacturer, going back just 10 years.
In the absence of hard statistics, I think a gut check on the sheer scale of trucks being sold in the US will suffice.
-
I may not haul things every day, but when I do need to haul things, it’s worth it despite people like you being condescending about it. 🤷♂️
-
If only there was another way to acquire a vehicle created with the intention of moving large items. That way You-haul it for way less then owning maintaining and the price difference in gas. They should also make these available at every big box home improvement store. The cyber truck was created for you have a nice day.
-
Having a tiny bed is totally OK because the people that drive these silly things dont put anything back there anyway. They even have locking hard covers on them.
These aren't trucks, they are lifestyle accessory vehicles for people who feel the need to prove that they are a big boy.
People that work in trades, construction or other manual work drive a van or they rock an old Chevy cruze to the jobsite. Why would they waste their own money on a truck when it doesn't make them any more money?
-
Gender affirming care mobiles for small, weak men
-
I see plenty of these modern roided out status symbols on actual construction sites, probably used as commuters.
-
As someone who has an extended bed standard cab 2001 Tacoma I can assure you I do many things with my truck bed. Just as the 4 metal Jerry cans from the 1960s! They are doing something called looking cool, also the bed has gotten used for the most random crap because my life is just that way, I smuggled a couple trees from Idaho through Death Valley with it.
-
Extended bed is the only bed.
-
-
Is it ok to wiggle your little finger at men with tiny beds
-
Lmfao
-
-
2 things:
- The new truck has 4 doors. That's a crew cab.
- Part of the reason for today's massive trucks is a change in CAFE regs starting in 2012 that bases fuel economy standards on vehicle footprint. It's easier to make a larger footprint than a more efficient vehicle.
-
It’s
easiermore profitable to makea larger footprintthe consumer buy a larger vehicle than a more efficient vehicle.Minor fixes, spot on otherwise.
-
I can see how 2 can be gamed by car makers, but I don't know how I would fix it. Seems intuitive larger cars will use more fuel, e.g. can't use the same standards on 18 wheelers and sedans.
Are there good alternatives? Is my intuition dead wrong
-
This is all a result of the absurdly idiotic chicken tax + American automobile companies refusing to build small trucks
-
refusing to build small trucks
It's taxes, yes, if they build larger trucks then the metrics they use to calculate taxes drops.
-
-
98 Ranger XLT extended cab. I've added trailer brake control for livestock hauling and a modern stereo with bluetooth, handsfree calling, and a sealed 10" sub cause I'm a metalhead.
It's got the pushrod V6 that will last forever, in 99 they switched over to those awful self-destructing cassette timed V6s.
It throws no codes. Redid intake manifold and valve gaskets about 18 months ago, but I've got increased Idle RPM and minor oil leak again. So, I have to redo it, looking for a more permanent fix.
My truck does 10x the work most of those oversized pavement princess trucks do. It's a little truck for our little play farm.
-
My current daily driver, which I won't upload my own photo of because it's literally enough to dox me (by people who know me IRL), is one of these:
It's not an SUV, but air suspension allows it to rise taller than some crossover SUVs, providing decent clearance. And on the road you can lower and stiffen it for better handling (or keep it in the comfort position for normal height and soft suspension). Both axles are always being driven, with front and rear diff locks being electronic, based on the ESP system.
It doesn't do as much work as your truck, but then I don't live on a farm. If I did, I'd have a truck too. It does however do significantly more work than any of those pavement princesses. In particular, it's been used for towing trailers, I've had the entire trunk, with rear seats folded down, filled when I moved most of my furniture. I've gone off road in it because I needed to go to the woods. Everything was muddy afterwards.
I'll use yank units for the fun of it, so it's got around 250k miles on it. It's a remapped 3.0 diesel, so it does over 40 mpg very easily unloaded, and can keep up with pretty much anything on the road because of the ridiculous amount of torque it puts out. I paid less than 2k EUR for it (paid pretty much exactly 2000 USD given current exchange rates actually). With all the torque it has, you could also easily tow way more than the legal limit of such a vehicle - which I've never needed to.
It's also rusty, scratched up, dented, etc. Some of the unnecessary extras don't work (park distance control? lol no, it's shorted out) It's not the best car I've owned, but it's the best one I've had for getting shit done. 3 months and 6000 miles so far, I've spent ~500 to replace some safety-critical neglected parts (brake, suspension) some of which will last the next 100k miles and some hopefully indefinitely (updated to a newer, more reliable ABS module).
It wasn't cheap for the first person who bought it, but neither are modern trucks. It was cheap to buy used though, unlike trucks. Parts are cheaper too, but that's partly because I'm in Europe.
-
I wish I had AWD/4WD sometimes. That's really the only thing I don't like about the truck.
Before this truck, I had a Malibu, kept folding the seats down, toting 2x4's and such. Ripped sheets plywood in the parking lot with a battery powered saw to fit it in before.
Parts are still pretty cheap for this truck here. They made so many of them. I only gave $3500 for it, but that was before prices on used little trucks jumped so high.
I'm hoping I don't ever have to replace this truck, but if I do, I would be looking at a V6 minivan, especially if I could get in AWD. Gut one of those, and it's basically a little truck. I think it would do everything I needed, better on fuel costs, etc. I'm not much for lifitimg suspensions, but a truck-minivan with AWD I might lift a little to get into standard truck ground clearance range.
Trucks/utility vehicles are tools and should be used and maintained like a good tool. If it doesn't have a few scratches and dents, it's not a real tool.
-
-
I see F350 work trucks all the time but they rarely have stock beds, most of them run a full dedicated tool box usually with ladder racks or a custom bed made of diamond sheet. Same deal for the 550 and 650 if they aren't box trucks.
Your truck reminds me of the garage kept spare cars I see on farms. Sometimes they just live outside near the house but they get driven. Often to pull the bigger trucks out of mud somehow
-
Yup. I have a play farm, not a real farm. Real farming is an industrial process that requires duallys and such. However, those are also real trucks. Beat to shit, tools in the bed, not lifted so much you can't load them, etc. They look the part. I do also have a 98 Chevy 3500 box truck. Drinks way too much gas to use it for anything other than its purpose, don't even have it registered right now, bad cats.
-
-
-
That sir is a trunk.
-
It's a vestigial bed.
-
Trunkvertible
-
-
Most new trucks are basically just luxury SUVs for men who stomp their feet and say they want the boyyyy car, not the mom one.
Note to any offended truck owners: I said most! Some of my best friends are truck owners! :>
Actually true! And the best part is that my truck-owning friends are petite women. But they both do actual farm work in addition to their day jobs, so their trucks are beat up and dirty workhorses.
They insist on lending me a truck any time I need to do a big lumber run to home depot. You know that old saying about instead of owning X you want multiple generous friends who own X, lol.
In addition, I have been busy this summer and I have literally spent a couple grand on lumber for what is hopefully a once in a lifetime project. Believe it or not, I'm still driving an old Mazda3 and didn't have to buy a truck! (Granted, my initial purchase was so big that I would have paid the delivery fee even if I daily drove a Canyonero with a trailer)
-
And those people who do buy trucks would often be happy with a much smaller one. They don't exist. No, not even the Maverick. That's "well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it" for trucks.
-
Yeah absolutely. And I believe we have some really stupid laws that help that effect along. Consumers are also to blame as well, but they always are.
-
I honestly doubt it they would even look at a smaller vehicle now. Most of the people I run into vastly overestimate their needs in a vehicle. They get a diesel 3/4 ton to tow their 4000lb boat because they "need" the towing capacity to do it. They would not believe that if they got the right model the Maverick, it could easily handle their needs.
I get an insane amount of comments about my work setup when I am fully loaded. "You need a bigger truck." No I fucking don't. It's a F150 with a 16' 10K trailer. The truck's legal towing max is 10,200lbs. It's engine is rated for 13,000lbs. Since I am using it for commercial use I have a maximum towing of 10,000lbs. Any more would require a DOT registration and pay fees crossing state borders etc. It's a well balanced setup that I do around 100 deliveries with per year.
I could go up to a larger setup but the cost/benefit analysis doesn't add up. I would save approximately 5 trips per year (around 20 hours) having a larger capacity but it would cost me $15K more per year in expenses for a 3/4 ton diesel truck and 17K trailer.
-
-
-
And now the Orange Turd wants these shits in Europe.
-
They are already here, usually driven by dudes who can barely see over the top of the steering wheel.
-
The dude that drives one of the oversized ones where I live looks exactly like all the people who do selfies in their truck. Balding, those glasses and weraing a cap. His truck has the fucking punisher logo too. And to round it off it also had a sticker of an AI character company on it.
-
-
Not likely to happen. Both by culture and directly street/parking/garage size.
-
They literally don't fit on European streets.
-
-
And more children die nowadays for the sake of... what? Small egos?
-
For the sake of bigger profits.
-
-
I really want a Kei Truck, and I can't be the only one.
-
OMG, there are two people in my neighborhood with them and I want one soooo bad. Only problem is I need to haul stuff to the landfill and that requires getting on the interstate which I don't think they're rated for in my state.
-
-
I have a midsize truck from a yester-decade that by now seems like a small truck. Even if it had a long bed and full cab it would be more practical, and I'd argue universally acceptable size and shape than full-sized trucks pulling even a crew cab + short bed combo. When you see a full size with a crew cab and a long or god help us extended bed, it just makes the blood boil. Because as we all know, on top of the "needs two parking spaces and probably takes 4-6 depending on the driver" situation, they have nothing in their beds practically all the time.
Trucks aren't inherently a problem, and it's okay if they're unladen plenty of the time. But most people need a truck like mine; most people have a truck like the full-sized nonsense described above. That's the problem.
-
Very few people need a truck like yours. They need one guy in their friend group with a truck like yours who they can ask for a favor every couple years.
In some places some substantial percentage need, like, an uncovered coated spray off space big enough to throw a deer into.
-
I think you know what I meant. Most people who need a truck need a truck like mine. Obviously most people don't need a truck. I only have one because the last few years have required a lot of work on my house and yard. Whenever all that wraps up I'll swap it back out for another car.
People toss out the "you just need a buddy with a truck" or "you just need to rent one" thing so much but those things require you to bend your life around, say, inconveniencing people to borrow / hoping their schedule accommodates, or, having to go collect, use, pay for, and return during a narrow window of time a rented truck, which, yes, is fine for one day, but if again, you've got years of unpredictable needs ahead of you, it's not a sin to buy a cheap, well-used truck as a second or third vehicle so you've always got it when you need it. And in that case, those "most people" need a truck like mine_.
-
Very few people need a truck like yours. They need one guy in their friend group with a truck like yours who they can ask for a favor every couple years.
Or just get a rental for that day, unless they live in the middle of nowhere. But in the latter case they will know someone with that type of truck for sure.
-
-
-
How else do you expect to fit two morbidly obese American parents and their morbidly obese children?
-
Yeah I really don't get it.
I drive an old pickup truck with a standard sized bed. Every time I've needed the bed of the truck, I've needed it to be as big as it is. If it was as short as modern truck beds I'd be making more trips or hiring a U-Haul or something.
I get a normal, functional bed AND it's still a normally sized vehicle that's easy to drive and park. When this vehicle eats shit, whoever makes a normal sized pickup is getting my money.
-
It's because they're emotional support vehicles for suburban dudes who have an incredibly fragile ego. What they need is a van or a "sensible" SUV or even just y'know a fuckin car but these men are too sensitive and scared to drive one of those so they buy a truck as a family car instead.
It's kind of pathetic honestly.
-
When this vehicle eats shit, whoever makes a normal sized pickup is getting my money.
So... either you'll be buying used or not a truck.
-
I'd be pissed if I bought a pickup that can't fit a damn couch
-
Is your username a reference to the Greydon Clark movie?
-
-
I had an 06 Ford Ranger (actually a Mazda). RWD with a 4 cylinder and a 5 speed. No frills at all. That was a phenomenal truck. You could put snow tires on it, throw some sand bags in the bed, and go just about anywhere.
-
I loved the Ford Mazda connection. I wish Ford hadn't sold off their stake in the company. My current car is a Mazda 3 and the (Mazda designed) 4-cylinder in it was also used in later model Rangers before they were discontinued.
-
I had a 98 Ford Probe with a Mazda four cylinder engine. I loved that car. The flip up headlights never failed me even in Minnesota winter ice storms.
-
-
I wish I’d never sold mine. It would still be running today if I had kept it.
-
Same. Poor decision on my part. 🙁
-
-
-
Here's my usual comment about how awesome my 1996 Nissan hardbody pickup was, with its regular cab and 6 foot bed.
-
The Slate is the currently the only modern option for a mini-truck (if it releases).
-
Telo is also struggling to get to market and will be a much better choice than Slate if they make it. They’re not nearly as well funded though.
-
The Telo is also quite a nice small size, but unfortunately double the MSRP, with the base model costing 41k. It's targeting a different market segment. The Slate's theoretical low cost is a big draw, despite it being less featured (that's actually what makes it appealing, IMO).
-
-
I look forward to it. It's roughly the same price as my 95 Ranger, inflation adjusted.
-
-
A “regular bed” has always been an 8ft bed for the last 60-odd years. Look at any full-sized Ford, GMC, AMC, or Chevrolet pickup from the 70s, 80s, or 90s -- it’s nearly impossible to find one with anything but an 8ft bed. If you wanted anything shorter you went with a “toy truck” like the Mazda B2000 to B2600i, or a Toyota Tacoma.
It’s just the utter lack of 8ft beds in full-sized modern (last 10-15 years) trucks that has had the industry reclassifying uselessly lobotomized truck beds as “regular” and normal-length beds as “extended”
-
I needed a new vehicle this year and knew I wanted a small truck to help with my forever ongoing home renovation needs. A Ranger was definitely what I was targeting before ultimately falling in love with an 88 Jeep Comanche long bed. Perfect size truck that looks Comically small when parked next to any modern day truck
-
They're a vanishing breed. I was searching Autotrader for a compact pickup, and the only thing I found was a Mazda B2300 ... from 1986. I can't use that - I'd be too worried about damaging it. It's a collector's item.
-
I definitely feel that! I bought it knowing that I will have to do all my own maintenance and repairs, which is terrifying but doable. I had to promise myself that if it ever gets wrecked, I’ll have to restore it at any cost, because there simply aren’t that many left out there.
-
-
-
Why can't they make the Maverick a 2 door!
-
Sales figures don’t support it. There is some demand, but not enough to redesign the platform to support 2-door. That’s a consequence of unibody design, 2 door is a completely different engineering from 4 door.
2 door trucks are barely available for consumers these days, you practically have to get them off the fleet lots.
Small electric trucks are coming. Slate is marketing like crazy to drive up demand. Telo is struggling to get to market. CAFE killed small gas trucks. That’s probably OK, electric is more suited for small trucks anyway, just need truck people to understand how much better electric is on small platforms vs 4cyl.
-
I'd buy a electric truck with a full bed and a single cab if they made one. There are no options that don't have stunted beds that I've seen.
-
-
-
So today's 'trucks' have just slightly more storage space than my old Mini Cooper did. Neat. Like can you legit fit like a bike or 4-wheeler in that?
-
You need a more aerodynamic cover for the bed, then you've invented the hatchback
-
Back then I was told the extended beds suck because they had more leverage and the frame was more likely to snap with a real load and you should use a gooseneck trailer anyways
No Idea how true this is but Hay if the extra length is harmful anyways then might as well shrink it more.
-
Red is peak truck for me.
-
Towing and having a real back seat. I'm really not sure what's so complicated.
-
Don't need a truck bed to tow. Need a strong frame and good electric engine (better torque)
-
I completely agree. I'd love a shorter bed + more seat room and maybe small cap. I only really need the towing the bed only gets used 10 times a year.
-
Weird. Because 95% of these I see have zero passengers, cargo, or things being hauled. They are taking up 4 parking spots, though!
-
I think you might have a weeeee bit of a bias 🤣
Every single response has been one giant projection and nerds screeching about their observations in parking lots as if they man a damn thing.
In my observation most trucks get used pretty heavily. If not the first owner almost always the second
-
-
Both can tow. The new Ranger can tow more because it's really a mini F-150. Buying a compact pickup to get back seats is dumb.
It doesn't bother me that larger trucks exist, but some of us want compact pickups.
-
The ranger only tows 8000 lbs iirc. Not enough for me. I'd probably get a large SUV at that point. I think most people I've met with bigger trucks care mostly about towing capacity vs having a bed.
I agree there is a gap in what you want, I just personally think the use case is less common and not what I want haha.
-
144 comments