Honestly this is absurd. These death machines shouldn’t be legal in europe. That thing doesn’t even fit in the parking space, even though the parking lot has the biggest spaces in the whole city. The Golf Polo is so small in comparison, it could even hide in front of the engine hood of the truck.
EDIT: It’s a Polo and not a Golf, I don’t know my cars, sorry for that!
Both of them are used to transport mostly a single person at a time. Even the small one is too big.
But you forgot that the truck can be used to haul 4 pieces of lumber twice a year!
And only costs 1000x more than it would to rent a trailer for a day twice a year.
Or, carry the same 4 pieces of lumber all year long and cause me anxiety everytime I’m driving behind.
How do Europeans get stuff for their house around? Like do appliances just get delivered as part of buying them? Or are there other companies that specialize in that sort of thing? Genuinely curious.
This question baffles me because it seems like a total non-issue to me as a European. How do Americans get stuff for their house around? Do you not have delivery or truck/van/trailer rental services, and are all your appliances (and not just fridges/freezers which are apparently hilariously big in the US) so American-sized that you can’t fit them in an average family hatchback/crossover/SUV? Or do you regularly move all of your stuff from one house to another?
The answer is a resounding yes; in most of the US it’s absolutely normal to have large appliances delivered, installed and your old appliance hauled away as part of a single purchase. Where this isn’t as true is in rural areas that, especially in the west, are often far more remote than anything in Europe apart from, perhaps, Northern Scandinavia and parts of Russia.
as someone that’s never owned a truck and moved a lot I will say one of the biggest issues with moving here is truck/car rentals. you have to be 26 to rent one and if like me you have no contact with family and you’re moving across country it becomes a real issue. thankfully I’ve had decent people in my life willing to help me but if that isn’t the case you really are just kinda screwed on a rental here in the United States.
Yes and yes.
My last SUV was quite large and I had a hard time fitting a portable dishwasher in it. Unfortunately the American largeness is in Canada as well.
Also we moved quite a lot sometimes because we can’t afford nice places and end up in places where the landlord painted over mold and shit so we nope the fuck out as soon as our lease is up.
most appliances like that stay with the house when you move. When they get replaced they get delivered and install generally by a box truck or roughly a lori sized vehicle.
Dude, as an American I had all of my appliances delivered. The Home Depot guys showed up with a box truck. It’s free delivery too so why would you even need a truck…. In fact, you can get a lot of stuff delivered for free or very cheaply from Home Depot.
The truck in this picture is so shiny it’s clearly a vanity vehicle. I’m guessing it’s owned by a member of the US armed forces judging by the star on the side? American military personnel are known to bring their vehicles with them from the mainland, to Japan or Europe.
Just a small anecdote from a truck owner. I showed up to Lowe’s to order a fridge to be delivered. It was $1,800 and I ended up buying the exact same thing on clearance for $400 only stipulation was I had to take it then and there no holds and delivery wasn’t even an option. Ya I could have rented a truck from them but it was 9pm and 45 minutes from my house. Without my truck I may not have been able to get it.
Also, I use my truck as a truck at least once a week mostly because I get free garbage at my work so I just throw everything away there and just toss our trash bags in the bed of my truck. It’s also great for small projects around the house. Like when I put up our pool. Needed to get dirt out of the back yard and was able to get my truck back there to load everything and then bringing it the sand for under and rocks for around I can get my pick up back there but a company delivering with a dump truck or something similar.
Dude. People can’t ask a question without your rude response?
Some people are too busy to fit around a delivery schedule and sit around all day for someone to show up.
You rent a truck or pay for delivery just like 80% of North Americans do.
Also how often do you need to haul furniture, the rental cost will never come close to the price difference between a car and a truck.
Or you use a trailer. Everyone knows someone with a trailer, or, at least where I live, you can rent one for a few hours for free.
I hate that you’re being downvoted for asking a genuine question about cultural differences. Do better, Lemmy.
I’m not from there. I’m curious how it works. There are many places in the US that are remote. Hauling stuff around is far more common.
Yes companies deliver. This makes me wonder about something I’ve never thought of: do American shops not do this?
No, they do and typically large appliances even have free delivery. I’m confused by the OC’s confusion. The majority of Americans don’t own those massive trucks, either. Not sure how they think we get by lol.
Aside from the free delivery of appliances others mentioned, I believe it is an EU law that a store that delivers whitegoods must also take the old one and properly dispose of it.
I ordered a new fridge lately. The delivery was free (I paid the extra €25 to have them install it and plug it in) and I had to clean the old fridge out before they arrived, but they took the old one down the same 3 flights of stairs they carried the new one up.
UK here. Yes you order an appliance and it gets delivered, and in some cases installed, by the retailer. If you have a plumber or kitchen fitter maybe they will collect it for you in their van. I’m sure you could save a bit of money on shipping if you collected it yourself, but not many people have the means to do so. And this way, if it’s damaged in transit, the retailer are liable.
Where I live in the States, all large retailers include free delivery and removal of your old appliance as part of the purchase of a new dishwasher, fridge, etc.
Hire a trailer? That’s what I do here in Australia with my small car. It can tow a trailer with appliances and furniture just fine.
You can also hire small removalist trucks that you can drive with a standard license if you have a lot of stuff.
Lithuanian here. My brother in law brought a refrigerator and a standard size washing machine in his ~2006 Mazda 3.
Seats can be folded or sometimes removed altogether, you can drive with your trunk not fully closed, just make sure everything is secured well and anything protruding from your car is marked with reflectors or bright coloured strips of cloth.
Oh that’s innovative! In the US the police would see this and pull you over.
Basically, yes. Appliances are delivered and installed, usually free of charge (read: the price of delivery and installation is just calculated into the price of the appliance). Same for furniture.
Most home improvement stores either offer a (paid) delivery service or you can rent a small van/truck to get your larger purchases home.
Trailer hitches are quite common too, allowing you to tow a simple trailer (which you can either buy or rent):
You know. I was asking a perfectly normal question. No disrespect. And you decided to make it disrespectful. Of course trailers are an option, but most passenger cars don’t have hitches. At least in the US.
…how much house work do you ACTUALLY do? You can’t pay an extra $50 for delivery for that new washing machine you buy once a decade? I owned a house for fifteen years before downsizing and moving into condo life, and never once thought to myself gosh I wish I had a 6 ton gigantic truck to get stuff for my house around.
In Sweden many lumberyards, furniturestores and shops for appliances got trailers you can borrow for free. For people living more remote it’s amazing what you can pack into a Volvo. That and you likely have a neighbour with a trailer.
Yes amazing what one can fit in a Volvo! Groceries, 65" TV and 2 children in car seats and 2 adults! Love our Volvo.
I wish it was free. It’s a few hundred on top of the price depending on what you buy.
Actually, we do have trucks and SUVs and pickups, too. Though they are usually a bit smaller than an F150 or RAM 3500, so we often use trailers if we need to transport larger items.
Folks living in the center of big cities (which I personally believe are a bit overrepresented in this sub) often live in flats where stuff like dishwashers and washing machines are already provided, so they don’t need to transport that, or even don’t need/have a car at all. For those, there are delivery services and light trucks that can be rented.
Wagons can hold a huge amount of stuff. For everything else there’s trailers available at most manned fuel stations and also loaner trailers available for chains selling large items.
If we do want a transport vehicle it will almost certainly be a van. Trucks are very rare where I am in Sweden.
Interesting! Vans are almost non existent here. Except for Amazon. They own a lot.
Most household appliances I have ever bought fit in a Polo or similar sized cars, if you wrap the back seat bench.
For > 1.8 m and < 50 kg stuff I use a rack.
To be fair – the older generations of Polo were on the smaller side of compact cars. I’ve used VW Polo Variant, Mitsubishi Wagon R, Mercedes A, Hyundai I 10 and modern Polo myself.
If my car is too small, I ask family/friends/neighbors or rent a van.
Most shops that sell big appliances offer a delivery service as well.
Yea. Appliances were part of my question. Lumber is a bigger issue. Or house goods. Construction needs a bed or a van. Which some do use.
I think they are called hatchbacks in english(Kombi meine ich). You can fit most appliances into there when you fold the seats. That’s how my parents always transported large things. For even larger things we just got a trailer.
Since I don’t have a car I usually just get things delivered. And the guys who deliver it just drive vans.
We get large appliances delivered. Stuff like washing machines or smaller refrigerators easily fit in medium or large hatchbacks. I’ve comfortably transported a washing machine, crapload of fruits and veggies from the countryside, and my 20 kg dog in my Renault Laguna hatchback once.
New appliances are usually delivered, yes. Big stores have their own delivery service, others use the national postal service or one of the many private ones.
For moving old furniture, there are specialized companies (mostly small sole proprietorships) that come to your house with a van, load your stuff, and drive it to a new location. Or you can rent a van or a truck (I mean an actual cargo vehicle, not what you see in the picture).
Polo is not the only car in Europe. Europeans use cars that i believe Americans would call station wagon. Those cars used to be used widely in US as well AFAIK until car producers figured out they can sell you more expensive cars by making it bigger.
I own “station wagon” car, it’s dwarf compared to these monster trucks but i can make 6.6 ft long double bed in the back where two people can sleep comfortably. I transported single bed sized furniture with that car and it uses approx 1 gallon of gasoline per 62 miles.
Don’t let me start on trailers. Every European car even smallest ones can tow reasonable sized trailer with “dirty” or too bug cargo to fit inside a car. All you need is hook installed once in car life time.
Also if you buy new anything in Europe, most shops will make sure you get it delivered at your doorstep and won’t trow it at your front yard when you are not there. It has to be given “from hand to hand” often even requires verification of receiver.
how often do you move your appliances around?
but yeah most often they deliver it
Not often. But I do buy some here and there. Fences. I have a dog and a little boy. We build stuff.
The golf will also get farther with the same amount of fuel. Way farther.
In the States, the same choads that drive tankmobiles tend to complain about fuel prices and how it’s all big gubmint’s fault for stealing their fun (fun being defined as the ability to do 95 mph on the interstate and still pay under $50 for a tank of gas).
Just yesterday I got gas for our car at a convenient price of 8.2$/gal (1.98€/l). E95, no idea how that compares to whatever the hell they sell on across the pond.
I’d wager a sizeable number of half-ton pickup trucks are used solely as people movers, i.e. the bed and towing capabilities aren’t utilized. In many countries, trade workers more than manage with light vehicles, like kei trucks in Japan, so I think they’d work for the average weekend warrior too.
A percussionist I know has a double cab van, I think it’s a Ford transit. It can haul 3 timpani, a drum, tubular bells, a bass drum and other smaller stuff all in one trip. And then it still has space for 5 people. Try doing that with a pick-up.
Those are roughly the same size as a 150 though, aren’t they?
Why is a behemoth of a van OK, but an equal sized pickup isn’t?
Can you forklift a pallet from the side? Nope the tub design doesn’t allow it unless you have a tray design.
Can you load a large ladder on it? No ladder/timber rack.
Is it good off-road? Perhaps, but the tub design over the rear tyres and back bumper make the departure angle poor, you’ll need rock sliders or a lift.
I think I’ll stick to wagons and vans.
Show me how you transport a ton of gravel in your car please (and remember, a ton is more than the towing capacity of the vast majority of cars, so no cheating!)
The places around me will deliver it for quite cheap so the uh, 2 times in my life I need that I’ll just do that?
How often does the average person haul tons of earthen materials around?
I have a small trailer. Towing capacity of my 2003 Subaru WRX is 1500 lbs. So I guess two trips? Truth be told, that’s why I have the trailer. For when I need to move a decent volume of random crap for work.
I don’t think the people here are complaining about pickups when used for work, but they are shit vehicles for daily driving. And, this is my personal opinion, crew cabs are usually not utilized to transport workers. More than not, I expect they are because they think they’ll take the family or kids in it. Even then they usually drive without any passengers.
I get that a lot of workers don’t want to have two vehicles, but pickups are not good daily drivers.
Can’t fit an ATV in a van, and no I won’t use a trailer because I’m already using one. Trucks have their uses because vans don’t have an open top.
Seriously discussion here always feels impossible. They’re sitting shit taking the truck while in a Euro city with great public transit. BOTH are unnecessary with the right context.
There are many things you can’t fit in a van. There are many things that fit in a van, but don’t fit in a pickup truck.
Generally, a van fits more things, takes up less spacs, has a better visibility, are more efficient and don’t look ridiculous.
And yes, believe it or not, there are vans that fit ATVs.
I also started to see more of these in urban areas of europe. Not a huge amount but still recognizable. I dont get why one would buy something like this. You wont even be able to find a proper parking spot for these.
100% they are buying these to “protest” the “green agenda” or some bullshit like that.
That’s not very strong in EU, it’s mostly for ego, people buy cars that they think look like the image they want to display.
No, it tows and fits a rear facing seat comfortably. Not sure what’s so complicated here.
![[image] Both cars fit the same amount of people(feddit.de)](https://feddit.de/pictrs/image/e42dc262-7043-4d72-b919-e2e83f8729d9.jpeg){kind=link}