I can't believe that pickups are the three most sold models in the US. That's really insane. https://www.businessinsider.com/best-selling-cars-and-trucks...
Its not insane when you consider any number of factors, starting with the fact that Americans are BIG. As a large person myself (although not overweight), I'm here to tell you that what a 120 pound 5'6" person finds comfortable frequently is painful for me.
Second, I spend upwards of 2+ hours a day sitting my my car, spending a couple grand extra a year for a seat that is 6" wider, doesn't require me to have the flexibility of a 15 year old doing a deep knee bend every-time I get in/out of my car, and allows me to sit upright rather than tilting the seat back into the second row is well worth it.
Third, while there are some SUV's and maybe minivans that qualify on the comfort front, they either tend to be less efficient, cost more, or have social stigma associated with them.
Sure if I had two vehicles, I might be able to get away with driving the truck on the weekend or when I actually need it, but the convenience of being able to throw a bike, kayak, lawn mower, TV, piece of plywood/drywall/2x4/etc in the back when I need to is worth it. Plus, I tow something maybe once a year, but again, if you only have 1 vehicle.. The two vehicle argument might make more sense, if there was space and insurance/taxes/etc were per person rather than per vehicle.
Finally, part of the problem is the American car market. Sedan seems to frequently translate to econobox. In Europe a basic car is smaller, but somehow frequently seems to have far more leg and headroom than a similar American car. This space problem seems to extend from the econoboxes in the US to the luxury car market as well. Apparently in the US, taking an econobox, putting leather and a bigger engine in while leaving the chassis/etc the same (or streamlining it and making it even smaller as honda/acura seems to do) is common. The result is that if your bigger than average, you likely don't fit in something that isn't a SUV/Truck.
My supposition is that electric vehicles are just a lot more efficient on space. The leaf isn't a huge car externally (although it's not exactly small either), but it's the biggest interior I've ridden in for a long time (probably not since my Grandfather's Buick).
As for the 2 car issue, I actually don't use a car much at all. The only reason we have one is because my wife insists that she needs it. Getting things delivered is both more convenient and cheaper from my perspective. The trade off is that I need to plan ahead a day or so, but I don't actually have to lift big heavy stuff. If I need to haul something bigger, I just rent the appropriate vehicle. I usually end up renting once or twice a year. It saves massive amounts of money. It is a lifestyle change, but it's got upsides as well as downsides.
How about sporting activities? Own a boat? A snowmobile? A few kayaks maybe? Dirt bike?
I assume you have a trash pickup at your place. You know a lot of towns don’t, and you have to haul your own trash to the town dump?
Perhaps there are a million reasons why it’s great in your life to not own or even feel like you need a car. Perhaps there are a million other reasons people want and need a truck to drive.
Personally, once I started maintaining a house and an acre of land, the way I wanted to maintain it, it gets very difficult having to wait hours for someone to return with the Home Depot truck because I need to get xyz thing home. I mooch off my brother a lot to move heavier equipment around, because he has a truck and a trailer, but there are a lot of projects I can’t get done for lack of a proper work vehicle.
I order a lot of stuff off Amazon. But every time I’ve tried ordering groceries I’ve regretted it. Mostly because they insist on delivering from a store 13 miles away when there’s a perfectly good Whole Foods 3.5 miles down the road, and it just seems so asinine.
Anyway, I looked it up, and for comparison a tundra:
headroom: 39.4 vs 39.7
legroom: 42.3 vs 42.5
(so fairly similar on the head/leg, what about big in the other direction)
shoulder: 55.0 vs 65.7
hip: 53.4 vs 62.6
Hmmm not so similar. Also, the tundra has the least headroom of any full size pickup. The GM/chevy's have 4" more, which for tall people is literally a life/death choice if they get into certain accidents where their head impacts the ceiling.
I can also put the seat all the way back and still fit someone behind me.
It has much more passenger room than my Toyota truck. Very happy with it.
Similarly my 2002 Tahoe (same vehicle as Silverado, Yukon, suburban etc in most aspects) has a ton of room for repositioning myself in the drivers seat, I can and have driven it 8+ hours in a day with no discomfort whatsoever. However my father in law has a suburban of a generation after mine, and while I still could drive it comfortably, there is only one available position for me, even with the addition of a telescoping wheel in the later year models. I would be exhausted after two hours from the inability to reposition myself.
I suspect at least part of it has to do with fuel economy standards which are partially being met by reducing the frontal area of the car. The easiest way to do that is to take a couple inches off the height of the vehicle.
Safety standards similarly are affecting the driver position and the crash test dummies aren't 7' tall. I noticed this a few years ago when the headrest standards changed and I now have a piece of headrest that doesn't raise high enough but sticks forward 8" pressing into the middle of my back in cars that would otherwise be ok to sit in. (I have the same problem on airplanes).
As my height is mostly in my legs, I don't notice the head room issues as much, but I notice across all three vehicles I've mentioned, they all have very minimalist dashboards, basically a flat slab sloped away from the cabin as you descend with some knobs on it. I could hang my right knee out in that space in front of the controls and over the gear shift if I wanted to stretch or twist, and all that is taken up by super tall consoles, or climate control panels that jut out and tilt toward the driver now.
Since you mentioned Mustangs though, I had this same issue in the '96-'04 generation of Mustangs, but on the driver side. The way the door handle assembly curved inward toward the driver to meet the dash made actually quite a small space between the door and the steering wheel. If I put my left hand at 9 o'clock on the wheel, it was physically impossible for me to raise my left leg high enough to work the clutch, as the combo of wheel/hand/door blocked my knee from coming up as high as it needed.
I wonder if this is some sort of "perception of safety" design, as all these spaces I'm talking about would normally be empty and useless with an average driver, and so these big interior panels are growing into those spaces, perhaps to enhance the feeling of being cocooned and secured by the vehicle? Similarly center consoles keep getting taller as well. Just a thought.
As you mentioned telescoping steering, I have to point out the toyota FJ, which I would have purchased because sitting it in was incredible... OTOH, the steering wheel didn't telescope, and the pedals weren't positioned particularly deeply, so while the seat slid backwards with incredible range, to drive it without leaning forward to hold the steering wheel required having the seat so far forward as to cramp my legs.. Just a couple inches of telescope would have made all the difference.
There are far more compact cars sold than pickup trucks, it's just that most manufacturers only offer one model of pickup truck, and often offer several similar models of compact cars, hatchbacks, sedans, and SUVs.
In NZ, Ford offers 3 different small passenger cars and 4 different SUVs, but only one pickup [1]. Toyota is much the same.
'You do you', I guess.