The thing with pick up trucks is that they're actually really fucking practical. For people who want to be self reliant and can afford one, they're a no brainer. You've got one vehicle that can function as a car, a van, a camper van (with a demountable pod) or tow a trailer. They can go off road, and they've got enough power to help other people out if they've got into a sticky situation.
Environmentalists can protest all they want but people, particularly outside of cities, do need them for very valid reasons. Inside of cities, yes you're not taking it off-road regularly, but you could well need one if you do lots of DIY projects, spend time out in the country regularly on weekends, or just don't want to be reliant on other people or renting a van every time you want to move something large or buy furniture. Smaller versions, because they really are too big for UK parking spaces, are catching on this side of the pond but primarily because of tax advantages rather than practicality reasons.
Sure, some people use them for real stuff. Most of them are mall-crawling status symbols. I'm pretty sure 7/10 of the trucks on the road here are piloted by people that can't competently DIY a hamburger, they certainly don't DI anything that would justify a truck, moreso a lifted diesel with modded exhaust and a roll coal tune. It's just canon male identity, that's why they're rolling around with that shit.
They’re practical for certain tasks but it’s not like they’re the only thing which can go off road or tow something. The bigger thing is that you’re giving up fuel economy, ride quality, seating, and handling so it really depend on how often you need those extra things versus the cost you’re paying all of the time. For many people a rental (or delivery) the times they need more construction supplies than fit in a car but not enough to need a bigger truck, or want to go car camping, will be a significant savings.
Mostly, I wish we’d stop subsidizing them - let every pay the same taxes, add a pollution tax, and charge for parking by the square foot. That’d bring back the smaller trucks which did the job for years, but since they’re a popular lifestyle accessory in certain circles there’s basically no chance of that.
You certainly don't sacrifice ride quality with most modern pickup trucks. They are usually built on the same chassis and suspensions that the manufacturers use for their luxury SUVs. And most pickups seat the same number of people that a family sedan seats. But yes on the other stuff.
Are they they much more capable now that they’re enormous than 15-20 years ago when they were normal sized? I do not remember a pickup truck having a grille above the head of the average pedestrian when I was a kid, and I have a hard time believing that this is somehow important to any of other functions other than intimidating (or actually harming) other road users.
A 230- to 255-hp big-block Chevy Silverado 454 SS cost about $40k adjusted for inflation, at 194" long x 77" wide x 70" high. That was a big truck 30 years ago.
Why in the hell is a 2022 Silverado 20 inches longer, 4 inches wider, and 5 inches taller? What purpose does that serve? Especially being wider of all dimensions? It has a 2L-smaller engine but somehow weighs 200 lbs. more?
Part of the increase in the size of trucks is that people want big vehicles... for reasons... but part of it is just safety. Crumple zones, force deflecting shunts, and attempts to lower the weight / improve gas mileage lead to lots of foam and plastic -- which makes it look larger.
How often do you go off-road? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly? How often are you buying large furniture or moving something large? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly? Is it worth spending $10000+ extra for a truck + extra on fuel + extra pollution over a car to save a few hundred on delivery fees?
Some people need trucks for sure but I think a lot more have them than need them.
I live 10 minutes from a Whole Foods, and don’t own a trailer or a boat (which is pretty common here in exurban Maryland). I probably go off road a couple times a year. Then haul junk a several times a year. Then tow something a couple of times a year. Then buy something big and awkward a couple of times a year. And then a couple of years ago there was that snow storm and it was nice to be able to tool around past abandoned Teslas. It’d be annoying to go out and rent a pickup truck every other month to do those things. It’s not the money it’s the convenience.
No but there isn’t really a service to get one for a reasonable price when I need it. Rentals can be had but not for a reasonable price or when you need it. Let’s say I need a truck 14 days a year that’s probably at least 2k in rental fees.
The truck is cheaper than a suv and probably 10k more than a sedan
Or $280 at Home Depot, which is less than the extra cost of gas - much less the average $20+k the vehicle costs relative to a sedan or station wagon. The average truck sold for $45k last year and I’d be surprised if even 20% of the buyers ever do something a $28k Subaru couldn’t do.
I can’t imagine an average Subaru runs much less than mid/low 30s right now. It’s only a 10k difference. Home Depot changes 20$ for 90 min but good luck actually getting one when you need it and you can’t really use it to tow a boat or trailer. You can’t even use one for Craigslist pick up because it’s never available
$28k if I take the first offer from Costco Auto, and the mid-Atlantic region isn’t exactly the cheapest.
Compare to $41k average for mid-sized pickup trucks or $60k for full-sized and you could make a fair number of rentals. Since most of the ones I see are in showroom condition I am skeptical that the p75 owner would come anywhere close to that many over the life of the vehicle. The people I know who actually need them don’t need you to guess about this - one look at the truck is enough.
It's not the car's shape that is contentious, it's their size. Nobody is complaining about pickups from 30 years ago. It's these modern monstrosities that have people annoyed and concerned. IMO it's because:
1. They are extremely inefficient (gas-wise). That means more pollution, more CO2 emissions, just overall a worse environment for everyone.
2. They are built with large front grills that limit visibility. Being high off the ground might feel nice, but it's dangerous for everyone else (pedestrians, cyclists, even other drivers).
3. They are super heavy, which results in much faster road degradation.
I think if we taxed heavy vehicles more fairly (IE, tax proportionate to the damage to roads, extra deaths from impractical and dangerous designs, and tailpipe emissions) then I think people would be less annoyed.
But as it stands, the modern pickup truck has extremely problematic externalities that everyone (including the pickup driver, though not directly) is paying for.
When I was younger, pickup trucks were a great way to meet girls: they would ask you for help when they needed to move. I can see the utility in that, we all need a friend who has a pickup truck so we can get their help when we eventually need it.
Compact pickup trucks (like the Ford Ranger) were way more common in the 90s (and 70s and 80s) than they seem to be today. I owned a yellow 1976 Datsun pickup truck in the early 90s.
Trucks are great, but is there any practical reason for a general purpose vehicle larger than a 2004 Toyota Tacoma? Truck cabins can be smaller without losing any functionality.
I just checked and if I needed to get a sheet of plywood from Home Depot, it would be about $50 for a pickup truck from U-Haul but at least around here, you can't usually leave your car at the rental place, so I would need to enlist someone to drop me off and then of course after the pickup and dropoff of the payload at my house, another ride to pick me up. I probably need the bed of my pickup once a month on average. I'm not sure how much I would pay to avoid that hassle and time sink, but probably more than the savings of having a small car.
Environmentalists can protest all they want but people, particularly outside of cities, do need them for very valid reasons. Inside of cities, yes you're not taking it off-road regularly, but you could well need one if you do lots of DIY projects, spend time out in the country regularly on weekends, or just don't want to be reliant on other people or renting a van every time you want to move something large or buy furniture. Smaller versions, because they really are too big for UK parking spaces, are catching on this side of the pond but primarily because of tax advantages rather than practicality reasons.