Truck Madness
Inside the Mind of the Pickup Truck Owner:
CityNerd Responds to Truck-splainers
This is suicidal, financially, for the region. New construction generates significant tax revenue, and maintenance costs are acceptable. But as time goes by, the taxes drop and the maintenance costs rise. The villain, here, is the standard North American housing code, which forbids mixed use.
So... I've gotten interested in urbanism, with sites like "Not Just Bikes" and "CityNerd".
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There are perfectly valid use-cases for pickups. Kavika used one to tow a 5th-wheeler, for example.
But hey! I live in a town where pickups are the most common vehicle. Typically, these are gargantuan, with oversize chrome wheels, pristine load-beds, sky-high jacked suspensions, and leather interiors. I kinda doubt they're hauling plywood every day.
Legislation favors BIG pickups: they don't have to follow the same Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) mileage standards as cars, and the fossil fuels that most of them burn are heavily subsidized.
This is... stupid. Suicidal.
I'll be interested to see if the comments here are like those CityNerd got.
Now on my second Toyota Tacoma regular cab, 4x4, 4 cylinder.
Light weight, fuel efficient, versatile. Best vehicle ever made.
I like older trucks and have several. My daily driver is a Dodge Dakota 4wd 5speed, I have a back up one like it
I still have my 1978 Dodge Little Red Express Truck I bought new for me as college graduation present
My 1975 Dodge Powerwagon, I used for a snowplow truck, but is almost done being restored
And because I got it cheap and to have a big truck, I have an Arny surplus Duce and Half
And for 20+ years I have been driving a Jeep Cherokee with now over 320,000 miles and my old 1968 Charger with a 440 6pack motor.
Yeah, I like cars and trucks. I don't want an electric car. A HEMI Challenger hybrid with AC traction motors might be interesting
I never owned a truck, never needed one and never wanted one, and never could understand why people who don't need one own one. One or two times in my life I actually drove one is because I needed it to transport too much to load into a car so I rented one. Is it some kind of cult thing?
Hauling firewood for my cast iron stove. Truck bed tent for camping. Hauling trash to the dump. Hauling band equipment. Pulling the mower trailer. Helping friends move. Powering through snow drifts and high water. Etc....
Living way out in the sticks, I'd be lost without my 4x4 truck.
Sure. There are indeed genuine use-cases.
And a lot of look-at-me.
I see many highly polished ones without dents or scratches and wonder what they get used for.
It's at least twenty miles of gravel/dirt/mud for me anytime I pull out of my driveway. Why bother washing it? It'll just get dirty again on the way home.
Keep it clean on the inside and keep the windshield washer reservoir full but it always looks like a dirty farm truck (except after a hard rain).
Living on a farm probably requires a truck. That's something less than 10% of Americans. I live in an urban / suburban context like the large majority of Americans. Trucks are the norm. Most are used as cars almost exclusively. Over the last decade, I have needed a truck... never.
Kinda, I think. Today there's also a political / social aspect. You aren't going to impress anyone by rollin' coal in a Prius.
As mentioned by Outis I had a truck and pulled a 5th around most of the west coast, PNW and Western Canada.
Currently no truck and no need for one. I live in a retirement community and some of the old farts have big fancy trucks, it's kind of funny since they car barely get into them..
My town is a retirement community. Lots of nice old ladies peeking over the dashboard of their gigantic pickup.
My regular cab Tacoma with nerf bars is still pretty easy to climb into.
The day I can't climb into the Tacoma anymore is the day I stop driving it and buy a low-to-the-ground 4x4 Subaru.
I use my truck to haul things several times a week. A truck is more useful than a car.
I do the same. Mine is 20 years old. Has needed some minor repairs (20 year old parts do wear out eventually). Have hauled things across the country, off road and around my area.
And at times, safer.
Mr G has a Dodge Ram 1500 so we can pull a camper. AND...he can got to Lowe's and get all the mulch and dirt he wants and not overload my Escape (which is what he used to do...I don;t have the Escape any more)
I drove a truck from '72 to '02. my first truck was a '59 ford f100 with a camper shell. I went to pick up a high school date with it one time and her dad insisted that I take his sedan instead. like that made a difference...
LOL!
Grew up on a farm/ranch so learned to drive and work on pickups, tractors, combines and 2 ton grain trucks.
Wasn't until much later that I evolved into building small block Chevy engines to put out 500HP. Flogged a few hot rod Vettes, a Camaro, a Nova, a 4x4 Blazer and a few pickups over the years.
Got to where I could rebuild a small block Chevy in my sleep.
As an American citizen I can choose what vehicle i want to buy. I very strongly resent government inference with this.
In what way is the government interfering with your choice?
The government gives CAFE advantages to big pickups and big SUVs. The government subsidizes Big Oil.
So... if you want to buy an EV, I can understand that you're frustrated by the government's favoring ICE vehicles....