Because the modern truck has crash safety in mind due to crumple zones and other shit. I bet if a small truck were to be redesigned today with modern collision technology it would be just as safe as the truck without being multiple tons heavy to the point you nearly need a cdl license to drive a behemoth
Check how much worse it is for the pedestrian to be hit by the pick up truck.
Go watch a crash test for a Kei truck
Edit: at 0:50 https://youtu.be/roLcNwRi1Sk
And if people were buying massive trucks for their unmatched safety, that would be a point worth making. Unfortunately, there’s thousands of cars on the market that are safer than both those options (for both the occupants and the people around them) and some of them can fit just as much in the back.
There is no justification for these trucks. Not safety, not cost, not the environment, not accessibility and not the amount of stuff they can theoretically carry.
The only excuse is “I’m a massive cunt” and people are absolutely right to not accept it.
But we’re comparing getting a Kei truck instead of regular truck in this part of the conversation so it actually does make sense to discuss the safety question.
The conversation you want to have is elsewhere in this post.
They drive them because they’re fun. Towering over Priuses and Corollas and all other sensibly sized cars makes people feel powerful. That doesnt make you a cunt imo, maybe more of an inconsiderate dickhead at worst
I mean modern kei trucks have airbags and safety features. They just have to buy 25 year or older to use the classic care rule.
If crash tests results were the main reasons for people to buy these shitty pavement princesses, Volvo would have buried the rest of the industry decades ago.
But nowhere near the same driver comfort, crash test rating, towing capacity, top speed, tongue weight, or max load weight. Bed length alone is a poor measurement for a truck’s usefulness.
So is using those other measurements as a reason to justify owning a truck for most people. The Apes (Italian) serve a purpose, not a daily driver. Living in Houston I observed American sized trucks carrying single occupants with the occasional truck towing something once a month. That’s it, none of these people needed a truck for a daily driver which is what that pic is all about.
So you expect someone to have multiple vehicles? Yeah because that makes sense…,
You can just drive your pavement princess, you don’t have to justify it to the internet
And I can’t legally drive my kids around in one of those, so yeah it’s like they are different trucks for different purposes or something…. I don’t know…. Maybe…?
In my opinion, it should be illegal to drive any vehicle so tall you can’t see kids in front of you anywhere near a school zone. Unless it’s a fire truck or other service vehicle, for obvious reasons.
It’s funny, kids aren’t getting run down in school zones in other places, we don’t let them run indiscriminately across the road. They’re taught to walk to a a crosswalk to cross the road.
In fact, lots of places ban school buses using flashing red lights inside urban areas since it’s more dangerous, it’s only allowed on rural roads.
The other way a giant truck can solve your “driving my kids around” problem is via the massive blind spot in front. If you’re impressed how much you can fit in the back, wait until you see how many tiny little skulls fit between the road and your line of sight.
I’ve literally never had an issue and I’ve never heard of that being an issue. Do you not look at the road when you’re driving or something?
Can anyone provide anything that says this is a real concern…? Because people keep saying it, and no one wants to prove it. So strange… should be easy, no? So why can’t anyone do it?
People used to use trucks for hauling. Now they are $70k+ status symbols for people who need to scream, “I am insecure.”
I don’t get why people think an ugly looking vehicle is a status symbol. To most, it symbolizes something completely different.
I saw some truck commercial yesterday where the thing was eighty thousand dollars AFTER all incentives and rebates.
I thought to myself that the people who are screaming about inflation and how the Democrat president is ruining their lives are the same people who are lining up to make crazy monthly payments into a vehicle that will immediately be upside down on the note.
This may surprise you, but cars can cost much more than that price. So what’s your point?
Completely baseless assumption, but I think it’s just a continuation of the phenomenon when toddlers get hyped for trucks/tractors/combine harvesters/anything that is big and loud, maybe because it’s associated with power, I don’t know. Some people just stay at this toddler’s mentality and they see everything that’s big and/or loud as something you can boast about. See also: loud exhausts, 6400 deciBel motorcycle sounds, etc.
Fair. They should just get a job with machine builders. I get paid money to play with power all day. Why hello chemical processing equipment, I see you pull 180amps at 460V. Now let’s see how loud you are when I push start.
If you havent made an entire factory lights dim are you even alive?
I legitimately had a neighbor tell me “this is a truck neighborhood.” In a “joking, not joking” sort of situation.
These trucks are also a very American thing. Rarely see that anywhere in Europe. Lots of toxic masculinity in the US
What sucks is you can’t even buy a truck like the second from the left anymore. I mean, you can buy a used one from a few decades ago, but nobody makes small utility trucks like the old Rangers. The new Ranger is basically just an old F150 (maybe even F250).
The Maverick seems like a reasonable size to me, but by the time I need to replace another car, I’m sure its size will have inflated beyond what I want.
Reasonable footprint, but still a very short bed and 4 door cab. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Maverick and expect to buy a 5 year old model in 5 years, but that’s because I’ll probably still be neck deep in home projects while still trying to commute. It does have great features in the bed and is known to have perfectly acceptable capability hauling full 4x8 sheets with the tailgate tilt. But most of the market is locked away in fullsize crew cabs with 6ft beds at best. 8ft beds typically require utility trims, so you can’t get a smaller-footprint nice pickup with full capacity.
I’ve had a 99 ranger regular cab 7ft bed for about 2 months. It works great for me, but I can barely get a nicer home reno/commuter vehicle. I can go 10 years newer, but not much nicer comparatively speaking from 2024.
I love my 09 ranger, one of the last years before they scrapped it and went with the Goliath model.
Honestly don’t see the appeal to the huge trucks unless they’re for work, but it’s not surprising that automakers in North America don’t really care to offer what consumers actually want to drive.
You can’t buy one because it has never existed, no truck ever had a 40/60 cab to bed ratio except for custom jobs made from using the front of a van with a truck bed.
Cab over engine trucks have existed for a very long time and have models that would absolutely have ~60% of their foot print be bed
CoE pickups haven’t been a thing outside of commercial vehicles for decades, hell, the VW vanagon might have been the last one in the 80s for the North American market…
Look at the original post, none of them are CoE.
Every time I think about the kind of car I want the next time I need to replace mine I am reminded that I miss my old 1994 Chevy S10, and options for something like that these days is rather limited.
I really miss my tiny 1986 Toyota Corolla. My 2016 Prius is not supposed to be a big car and yet it is still bigger than that Corolla. Both sedans. If anything, the Prius should be smaller because it’s a hatchback and those used to be the smaller cars.
At the time, the Corolla didn’t feel small either. Every car is too big now except maybe Minis and Fiats.
My imaginary dream car would be an EV Nash Metropolitan. It’s got 2 doors, a front and a back seat and a decent-sized trunk. I don’t haul stuff, there’s only three people in my family, I really don’t need anything else.
Small cars have poor crash test ratings, and the ratings are much stricter than they used to be. That’s why you can’t really find small cars any more.
Except, like I said, there are Minis and Fiats. And, of course, all the small cars in practically every other country on the planet. If Fiat can sell the 500 in the U.S., any U.S. company could sell a similar small car.
I just want a reasonably sized two door electric truck with a decent sized bed and only minimal space taken up by the frunk. I haul enough stuff that I could really use the cargo space, but I don’t want to drive an aircraft carrier on wheels that doesn’t fit into parking spaces. And I don’t want it collecting as much data as possible on me, but that’s not just a truck thing.
So, my options are basically leave the country, drive a 30+ year old ICE truck, or start my own car company. Because despite the fact that there is clearly demand for a smaller truck that’s actually a truck, no one is interested in making them for the US market. Not when you can make a big useless luxury truck that has a much larger profit margin.
Get a Ford Econoline pickup and an electric conversion kit. No frunk at all!
I really wonder if enough of us with those exact desires pooled our resources if we could manage an old truck conversion service.
Was gonna turn my dad’s old Ranchero EV when I inherited it before the turd totalled it, it’s shockingly simple all things considered just pricey
I’m also in the market for a truck to enable a woodworking hobby. Basic requirement is being able to haul sheet material (4’ wide) with no fuss.
Even 20 year old beaters are going for over 10k in my area.
Anything in the last 10 years or so is bloated. Even the smallest models like Tacomas are ridiculously sized, yet have tiny beds.
Basic requirement is being able to haul sheet material (4’ wide) with no fuss.
I hate to say it, but what you actually want is a minivan.
I’ve borrowed my parents minivan for this in the past, but their newer Odyssey (~8yr old) doesn’t even fit sheet goods without going diagonal, which causes problems. Plus even with care, it inevitably scratches up the interior.
I’d rather have a medium to small sized truck with a standard to extended bed. I don’t care about scratches or dents, so can just toss things in without a worry, and can load without even lowering the tailgate.
Ford E-transit with a bed, you can get one made, that’s what they’re meant for with the cab+frame option.
I’ll just wait for your next excuse now.
Well, for starters, it’s over 50 grand for the base vehicle, and that’s before adding the bed. And it’s bigger than what I’m looking for.
What I want is something more like an electric version of the Ford Maverick, but one that adds to the bed length by switching to a regular or extended cab, and by moving the cab forward a bit since we no longer need to accommodate an engine. I want different proportions, but the same basic size and price (obviously making it electric likely comes with a price increase, but that shouldn’t be enough to double it).
