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Comment by mnd999 | Hacker News Reader

Also, they probably care less about failing European safety standards since pickups aren’t a big market in Europe.

sadly I've seen an increasing amount of American-style SUV and pickup trucks in France since the start of covid.

There already were a few before, but now Dodge must have done something "right" because there really are many RAMs around. Those things are so ridiculous for Paris, that I'm pretty sure they don't even fit through some streets.

Hell, my father used to have a fairly common French sedan that would sometimes need a lot of maneuvering through the public garage ramps, and would barely fit in the parking slots.

Same thing happened to SUVs. It's mostly "i want a bigger car than my neighbour" kind of thing , and now there are many more SUVs, driving in a sedan around them feels a bit intimidating, as you are worried they may not see you well enough on the road. It's a downward spiral. Now people want something even bigger on the outside and they go with pickup trucks.

In NL, a RAM can be bought as a company car, effectively dodging road tax. (50 euro vs 200 euro per month). For comparison, you pay 100 euro per month for a tiny car if it runs on diesel (these were 'green' and exempt from road tax 10 years ago). Or between 30 and 70 per month for gasoline cars.

Every landscaper seems to have at least one of them.

And this is a problem because why? It's pretty perfect for the role of "something a little lesser than a small dump truck but that still does the same jobs".

I didn't say it was a problem. Please don't strawman.

More expensive than a small dump truck, bigger and less useful... Therefore the status symbol is the point.

There's 200 euros road tax PER MONTH in NL? OMG and TIL.

We have the best or second best roads in the world (which is very noticeable when you drive into neighboring countries). Additionally we have extremely low congestion even at rush hour.

Road tax depends heavily on the vehicle. I think we pay ~€1000 a year, ~€83 a month, for our Hyundai ix35.

US "road tax" is in the gasoline tax. (Plus a nominal fee for electric cars in some places) Does NL have gas tax? What's that used for?

NL has both.

* Electric Cars are exempt from both IIRC.

* Diesel is mostly front loaded in the yearly road tax. With a very low tax on fuel. So if you drive a lot it is worth getting a Diesel for this reason alone.

* Petrol has a lighter yearly tax. There is a formula someplace and it has to do with engine size, weight, age and some other things assuming I understood correctly. The yearly tax is cheaper on average than the diesel. Then there is a large tax on petrol. About €0.17 a liter or €0.642 a gallon.

Sometimes over 200.. And then we pay super high excise (lowered until the end of the year) and tax over fuel. Basically we pay about half on taxes over fuel. To finance that, you pay with money your earned and payed 50% income tax. So basically the gov takes 75ct out of your euro, and we still can't manage treasury

Also worth mentioning that many of them are running on LPG to keep the costs down

Do company cars not use roads?

A "company car", usually means a van. Something with no passengers except the front row, and it needs to have certain dimensions. The RAM is therefore classified as one of those. And because vans are meant for business, you pay less.

They're showing up more in Czech Republic too. It's hard to describe quite how ridiculous they look here, they dwarf all cars around them and stick out like a sore thumb. I imagine actually using them is a pain given how scarce parking can be in the city, where I often see them.

I was in Paris, Normandy, and all over the south of France for two weeks and didn’t see a single pickup. I swear every car there is like a variation of the Ford Fiesta.

I only saw a Nissan Quasquai in Paris when I was there. That was the biggest passenger car that I've seen.

I think lots of people assume that the Toyota Hilux / Ford Ranger type pickups are as big as American pickups. In reality the pickups sold for the UK/EU are modest compared to the US. Even an F150 is quite a bit bigger, nevermind when you get into the F350 etc.

Are you claiming they're failing European safety standards? American pickups are sold in "Europe". Or does "fail" mean low rating here?

While the vehicles sold under same brands and names, the outside configuration is different.

For example, you can't attach animal guards here to pickup trucks, and you need extra reflectors and different lighting configuration in US for all cars.

While not directly related to safety standards, intelligent active matrix LED lighting systems are illegal in US, too.

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