Pickup Trucks: From Workhorse to Joyride
axios.com
axios.com
It's crazy to see how much trucks have blown up in the last few years. They clog up parking lots, barely fit in parking garages (let alone personal garages), blind me at night with their too-high too-bright headlights, and completely block cross-street vision for anything except other trucks when they park on the street.
A complete failure of US govt regulation. At this point I hope gas prices go through the roof and punish these truck owners for their selfish decisionmaking.
They have been this way for a generation.
This guy makes some good points, but jeez he is so condescending and pretentious. It's really easy for a guy who makes YouTube videos and lives in a crowded European city to pass judgement on people who live lives completely different than his.
I am literally going to take my F150 and haul some lumber after work today, and the economic opportunities that having that ability affords me are so valuable to me as someone trying to build a home for myself and my family.
It just smacks of condescension to me when this guy writing this script sitting in a European cafe pretends that he understands all the possible uses that normal hard-working people use these cars for.
I'm not even disagreeing with him on a lot of his points, there are plenty of people who don't truly need one of these big cars, but there are also TONS of people who have uses for them.
He has lived in those "completely different" places. He grew up in one of those areas: he moved to a crowded European city. He grew up in London, Ontario ("fake London")—which has typical post-WW2 car-centric layouts which he features regularly in his vides—, lived in Toronto, lived all over the world. He used to consult all over the world and has visited many cities around the world: see his video "Why City Design is Important (and Why I Hate Houston)" for some of the backstory:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxykI30fS54
After seeing all the different options, and initially trying to settle in Toronto—see his video "Suburbs that don't Suck - Streetcar Suburbs (Riverdale, Toronto)":
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWsGBRdK2N0
he and his wife decided to move to Amsterdam to raise their kids.
It wasn't random chance that he ended in Europe, but a conscious choice. He looked at the options and chose the one that he though was best.
And he has been asked about the 'tone' of this videos: his answer was/is: he doesn't care about how he comes off because (in his opinion) trying to be "nice" to the dumbasses that try to justify the stupidity of car-centric society that is destroying our planet is pointless. Either you have a brain and can see how bad this way of thinking/designing is, or you don't have a brain. He's tired of pussy footing around the (in his view) stupidity: there is no reason to bankrupt cities/society and destroy the planet for this lifestyle when you can (and people do) have high quality of life without car-centric living (in his view).
Your description has further solidified OP's claim that this person is condescending and pretentious. This kind of thinking is extremely narrow and doesn't take any other factors into account (like having the means and lack of family responsibility to move wherever you want). It also implies that believing a dumb idea means you are a dumb person, which also isn't necessarily true and lacks any real insight.
It's not the GP's claim that "this person", Jason Slaughter, "is condescending and pretentious." Jason Slaughter has (IIRC) himself said that he makes videos with the tone of condescension on purpose.
Slaughter is tired of (in his view) the bullshit of trying to justify lifestyles and urban design choices that are killing people, bankrupting communities, and damaging the the planet. The specific tone is on purpose and a conscious choice in the scripting and creation of his videos. He wants change, and he seems to be (AFAICT) tired of 'being nice' and reasonable while policy barely moves forward.
(Whether the narration in the videos is a bit of 'character' he plays on Youtube to get his view/frustration across, or his actual personality, is something I do not know. I'll have to find the interview where he talks about this 'style'.)
In general most people making a certain point will not disagree that there are exceptions to it. Just assuming that they are not aware of those exceptions is dishonest or at the very least not very perceptive.
Also, quote directly from the video (14:25): “And if you do live in a rural area you might need to drive a light truck and obviously that’s fine and I don’t care. But we are talking about suburbia here …”
He explicitly excluded you.
Really about all I need is a 1980s sized Toyota Pickup/Hilux with a long bed would be great, updated for modern standards.
The idiotic way that trucks are turning into massive 4-door tanks with tiny 4.5 foot beds is not what I want as a consumer who wants to own a truck.
The market seems to very much be driven by people who aren't hauling lumber based on the bedsize. There's more and more pics showing up on social media now of idiots with 2x4s sticking out of the passenger compartments of new trucks because the bed size is so shit small.
I'm a big fan of all the derision that he pours on the trucks that are being sold right now.
Aside from Japanese kei trucks (which are basically golf carts and rightly fail safety requirements), what kind of small trucks can't Americans buy?
Chevy's small truck doesn't come with a regular cab either. I expect you can probably get a chevy commercial truck with a single cab, but those are big trucks.
EDIT: I looked on a bigger screen, and Chevy does sell the Silverado with a regular cab; but that's a full size pickup. You used to be able to get an actual small truck in America. And you can still get one in Australia.
The only ‘saviour’ from the environmental perspective is the introduction of electric platforms like Rivian. The thought of the battery market being further constrained by mall creepers terrifies me.
Here's another way to frame it: If weight is not waste, would you volunteer to manually pedal a 2000-kg quadricycle to drive yourself to work? Do you not appreciate the vast increase in energy to move a heavier vehicle?
Finally, look at the GMC Hummer EV versus their e-bike: https://www.gmc.com/electric/hummer-ev/insider/awd-ebike . The car weighs 4100 kg and has a 213 kWh battery. The bike weighs 43 kg and has a 48 V × 17.5 Ah = 0.84 kWh battery. In this case, one car battery has as much capacity as 250 bike batteries. Every electric car manufactured takes away natural resources that could transport many more people on lighter vehicles.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_power_law
And repairing/maintaining those things more often does require natural resources and creates emissions (and waste). It also takes money, which could be used towards other things like education, healthcare, or simply lower taxes if we didn't have to fix things as much.
/me waves in the general direction of 40,000 traffic and pedestrian fatalities a year...
I live in a dense residential area with bays that either fit 3 or 4 cars. If there's a truck, those numbers go down to 2 and 3.
It's not wrong to like trucks.
If we could just agree on that, the discourse wouldn't be so ridiculous.
I personally don't have a truck, I don't like driving trucks, and I don't feel the need to own one. But I can also recognize that other reasonable people need or want trucks and that's fine. Sometimes I need to move a couch or a stack of drywall and I'm glad someone has a truck.
The majority of pickups being sold are still ICE, so gas mileage and emissions are definitely still relevant.
Also, electricity needs to come from somewhere, and for now it still comes mainly from burning fossil fuels. So miles per kWh and their associated emissions are still relevant when it comes to EVs.
> But I can also recognize that other reasonable people need or want trucks and that's fine.
I agree it's not for me to decide what kind of car or truck other people should drive. But I do think the government should at least structure taxes and laws to incentivize people to drive cars with fewer social costs (emissions, safety of others in a collision, road wear, parking space, etc). Currently the US government is doing the opposite, by offering a larger tax credit for EV Trucks and SUVs, for example.
Better find someone with an old truck since those won't fit in the bed of a new one.
You can easily buy new long bed trucks today.
I guess you're referring to how so many people are buying short bed trucks. Which I agree doesn't make sense. If you're going to get a truck, might as well maximize it's usefulness as a truck which is the whole point.
I'd like to see you walk in there and try to buy a regular cab long bed F150.
In other words, they do exist.
I was able to configure a long (8ft) bed pickup at the Ford, Chevy and Ram websites, so all of them appear to sell them. Not every model/package combination exists, but it did appear easy to build a 8ft bed model if that's what I wanted.
The fact that the website lets you configure it doesn't indicate that you can actually get it delivered--which is why I used dealer stock instead.
I saw that; it doesn't specifically say that long beds are not available though and I was able to configure many long bed configurations so I'd guess they are available. There were some configurations the tool says not available, but didn't see that for long beds. Inventory is fickle, but you could always order one.
That all said, even if it's true that Ford has stopped building long beds (I have not ordered from Ford, I have a long bed Ram), there are other brands which also show long bed options available.
That warning is explicitly stating that you may be able to configure something that is not available.
Yes, trucks can be absolutely the right thing for hauling or towing (or both), or for moving specific types of material that either due to size or consistency can't really be moved in a typical car. They can be great for the great family camping trip with all that gear in the back and everyone else up front. And so on and so forth.
The problem is that those things happen (for most people) in the low-single digit numbers of times per year. Nevertheless the culture provides many suggestions that you're better off owning a vehicle that can do all this, all year, despite the extra cost of fuel, extra threat to pedestrians and cyclists, extra up front cost and higher insurance.
You don't have to be anti-car to see that owning a vehicle designed to cover all possible needs when most of the time you just commute in it doesn't make much sense.
I'd like to own a box truck with a liftgate too, because those are really tough to track down on short notice, but they aren't very practical for day to day driving, and a vehicle that sits waiting for the day its useful is likely to develop problems.
I live 25 miles from Santa Fe, a city of 80k people (county is around 120k). I've rented pickups and box trucks twice a year +/- for the last 4 years. Each time, I drive (or cycle) into Santa Fe to one of two UHaul dealers with whom I've already booked the vehicle online. I spent less than 10 mins with the dealer, drive off in the truck for the 1/2 day or day, come back and head home. The rentals typically cost me about $60-80, and in almost every case, the rental place is closer to my reason for needing the vehicle than my home.
Renting a truck might be a pain for you. It's not a pain for everyone.
[ EDIT: The rest of the time I drive a Honda Fit which is flexible enough to let me do 75% of our recycling and garbage hauling, as well as move many, many other things around, and still get 36-38 mpg ]
What are you renting it for?
Renting a truck to tow car trailers or RV travel trailers tends to be a pain. In all cases where I've needed or know someone who has needed that, we/they end up going with a friend who can lend them one. Many rental places either don't allow towing or don't have the right equipment.
So for many use cases, if you're only going to own one thing, it's more practical to own the truck and rent small cars when needed since a small car is easy to rent unlike the truck.
(I say that as someone with a ~5,300 pound Land Cruiser)
The upcoming electric Hummer will weigh 9,640 pounds and do 0-60 in 3.3 seconds. Hopefully the high price will keep them rare.
Going on long-distance road trips in something like a 2022 model year pickup truck is pretty close to the most comfortable setup available for < $100k. I don't know of any "luxury" cars that ride better today, even for multiples of the 100k limit.
That said, everything else about them is pretty awful. I own one and I mostly hate it until I find myself halfway between Houston and Austin. If I have to drive downtown all day I would much prefer an older, smaller sports car or sedan.
That said, I can’t imagine using a truck as a daily driver if I lived in a city. The turning radius on my truck is terrible, for example, making tight turns impossible.
The demand for older compact S-10 and the old compact rangers is sky high. Make them legal again.
Wouldn't the Ford Maverick be the modern version of these? It comes in two different forms as far as I can tell - the "truck shaped car" (FWD, hybrid powertrain), and the "small truck" form (4WD, no hybrid, rather lower fuel economy), depending on what you need it to do. And in a small truck, I think FWD vs the 2WD/RWD Rangers is probably the right option - some of those were pretty tail happy in the slick.
I've been keeping my eye out for a Ridgeline also, something in that "I do enough on my land to need a hauler but I'm more ex-urban than rural, and don't load the whole bed with projects but once a year"
I was pointed to the article from the just-posted Not Just Bikes video "These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us", which does go over those things:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN7mSXMruEo
The point of the Axios article, which comes up at the 25m25s point in the NJB video, goes towards the point that the pickup truck has actually become less practical over the decades. And to the idea that most folks would be better served with a station wagon or perhaps a minivan.
Trucks have gone from the cargo bed being >60% of the usable length (ignoring the engine), to the (crew) cab being >60% of the useable length. Pickup trucks gone from thing-haulers to people-haulers, in which case, why bother with that form factor?
The bed was always a mixed-use people hauler. Then they made that illegal. Go to Mexico, Iraq, Philippines and other places where it's still tolerated or legal in most places and the bed continues to be a people hauler. It's in part the cab got bigger because you couldn't put the people in the bed anymore, not because more people started riding in the trucks.
If you want more bed and less cab again, make it legal for the passengers, kids, etc to ride in the bed again. Like we did when I was a kid. If not, don't be surprised when you make something illegal people adapt the vehicle to deal with it.
Ah yes: let's drive down the interstate at ≥60 mph (100kph) to grandma's house with all the kids in the bed. Great idea. Would you like to also bring back leaded gasoline?
Or perhaps non-farmers / non-construction workers can stop pretending they regularly need a cargo bed and get a station wagon or minivan.
The top-selling car in 2022 was the Ford F-150, the top selling car in 1982 was Ford Escort: I'm having a hard time believing that people's hauling needs have changed in the intervening decades to rationally justify the sales figures.
1) You're in favor of better safety for passengers, which would mean better to put them in cab than bed.
2) You're against "pretending" need for carge bed, which would mean reducing or eliminating bed as fraction of full size of vehicle.
Put the two together and we see increasing fractional (%) cab sizes and decreasing fractional (%) bed size. which means we're getting exactly what you asked for. And you act surprised that when people get what they ask for, sales are better?
If you actually read the article, you'll see that—going by usable length—pickup trucks are generally no longer thing-haulers but people-haulers, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of their form factor.
If you want general hauling space/volume, your best best seems to be a (mini)van.
I've helped friends haul some of those things as well since they knew my dad had a minivan (Caravan, later Sienna), and would ask if I could (in my late-teens, early-20s) help them out.
Making the cab longer isn't to ruin people's nostalgia. It's to deal with the legal requirements for transporting passengers. You're illustrating my point. We shouldn't be outraged when you make something illegal and the vehicle is adapted to deal with that.
Why would we be upset about fewer people getting dead, shouldn't we be happy about bigger cabs if that's the case?
In 1982 the top selling vehicle in the US was the Ford Escort. In 2022 it was the Ford F-150.
People were hauled in the Escort just fine (and probably more comfortably in the rain and winter). The F-150 wasn't adapted to better haul people because changes to safety laws: it was adapted do help profit margins.
Nothing made them illegal. The Tacoma got quite a lot bigger, and the S-10 was replaced by the Colorado, because consumers wanted larger trucks.
I think there is some demand for small trucks, but not enough to get the automakers to manufacture them again. The Ford Courier seems to be doing alright, but I'm not seeing any of the other automakers copying it.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/01/general-motors-is-inves...
The number of farmers I know who are running 20+ year old pickups because they can't find any suitable replacement at all is too darn high
I kind of think it has to do with many white collar workers wanting to look tough and maybe wanting to look like they do real work.
But, I hate the "drive like a car" trend for Trucks. I drove a Jeep CJ-7 for almost 20 years, but when it failed catastrophically, I went to an econ-car because all the new jeeps were really just cars.
That means, no manual locking hubs, automatic transmission, no manual steering and no plugs in the floor to let out water. It is impossible to get a Real Jeep now. And I believe the same is for pickups. The CJ nad no radio, driving faster then 50-60 mph (80-100 kph) was not recommended.
Nevermind the how expensive Jeeps and Pickups are these days. In the 70s/80s, these were cheap compared to Luxury Autos.
Pet-peeve time: Why do people in pickups slow down to 1 m/kph on speed bumps ? If driving a truck, no need for that when my car has no issues (for 10 years+) going faster than that.
I always have a little giggle when I see a ten ton Escalade swerve to miss a pothole.
Almost everywhere in the world, cars are a means to get around and occasionally carry things. But in the US, cars are status symbols first and transportation second. We're conditioned to buy as much car as we can afford via advertising, cultural pressure, and low-interest loans. Or even to buy cars when we don't actually need them. (If you live in a city with a subway, you don't actually need a car, you just want one. Your family probably does not need a car for every member of the household. Etc.)
Our mass transit is in a shambles because of the insanity of car culture. Except for a few HCOL cities, mass transit is essentially considered to be a service for the poor.
Gas prices in the US are embarrassingly low. They are subsidized by the government in various often invisible forms, at the behest of the oil and auto industries. The auto industries have an interest in keeping gas prices low because it means they can convince buys to pony up for ever-increasing vehicle sizes. The "true" price of gas nowadays is somewhere north of $7-8 a gallon and that's not including the inevitable cost of cleaning up the atmosphere, whenever we decide to get serious about that.
Where I grew up in the 80's and 90's, you were either a Chevy or a Ford person. Weirdest form of brand loyalty ever. I didn't even know foreign brands sold cars here until after I graduated high school and started seeing more of the country. I never moved back but I visit every few years and there are still no foreign dealerships outside of the major cities.
I really want to like electric cars (and trucks, sure) but I don't like that you don't really "own" them. I don't know of any that you can buy that don't require signing up with the manufacturer and having to install an app on your phone, or have the car permanently connected to the cloud via mobile network, just to drive and charge the damn thing.
This is as incorrect as it gets. Cars are considered status symbol almost universally. Look at Bentleys, high tier BMWs, Mercedes, Lexuses etc etc etc of the world.
Occasionally you may see funny things, like France's disregard for car paint and bumpers, but almost everywhere sports car, large premium suv or luxury sedan are very often status symbols.
> I never moved back but I visit every few years and there are still no foreign dealerships outside of the major cities.
Of the 10 most popular cars in the US, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 are foreign brands:
That's not an electric car problem. All cars are going to end up that way.
I really don’t believe this is true for the majority of buyers. I think most people are primarily buying based on the features they want: performance, comfort, space, technology, etc. Status is inextricably linked to what kind of car you drive, and it matters for some people more than others, but I don’t think it’s the foremost concern for most. At least not for myself and most of my friends and family.
Yes, people often buy more car than they actually need, but that is because they spend a lot of time driving and it makes them happy.
The full-size category has really become about excess, which I think this article is getting at.
When the pandemic began and I started working from home, I gave up my car because it just didn't make sense to have two and I've continued to work from home and we've continued with only one car. I've decided that I want my next vehicle to be a pickup truck because, as a home owner, I often need to do minor hauling. The truck I have in mind is something like a late 90s Ranger or Tacoma; but, I don't want to buy a 25 year-old vehicle. Unfortunately, the modern alternatives are all so huge (and expensive) that it puts me off the idea almost entirely.
Even in TX, the parking lots are filled with tacos that have pristine, empty beds and off-road tires that have never seen a gravel/dirt road or back-country.
Farm kids would have beaten me up if I'd showed up to school with a shiny taco like that and a big belt buckle.
1. Hoisted onto a roof rack (I do not recommend this but I've seen people do it)
2. Lays flat with the tail gate open and overhangs the bed. Secured by ratchet straps.
3. Lays on top of the tail gate and overhangs it a bit. Also secured by ratchet straps.
I guess my point is that plywood isn't an issue for mid-size trucks anymore than it is for full size trucks.
Heck, one of the selling points of the cybertruck is that you will be able to lay a full sheet of plywood with the tailgate up. It's only a selling point because it's an uncommon feature: https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/e60oxq/tesla_c...
Reminds me to note that the Honda Civic hatchback from the late 1980s could in fact fit 4'x8' sheet goods in the back quite easily (it also got > 40mpg)
I would believe you could get a 4-foot-wide item in a Civic.
There is no way on earth you could get a 4x8 sheet inside one of those cars.
Also, if you got t-boned by a Tahoe they would need to identify your body with dental records. Those things were basically street-legal go karts.
Today, this is no longer true of any "small car".
(The Tacoma and Ranger will get new designs for 2024, and likely catch up on size!)
I drive a Silverado Truck, 4-door. Why? Because when I go places, if someone else is with me, they are an adult, and so I got a vehicle that is comfortable for adults to ride in, whether they are in the front or back. Also, I don't have anyone else to rely on when I need to pick up furniture, or mulch, or wood, or anything else.
I'm also a decently-sized guy. When I have to take a long trip, I want to be comfortable. I don't want to feel like I'm riding in a go-cart for hours. I appreciate the safety of having a larger vehicle when traffic is tight.
I like having a larger vehicle. I have driven smaller sports cars, too, but they are never as comfortable as my truck.
I've only been in one accident with it. I was parked, legally, in front of my house and a woman, driving the opposite direction in a SUV, hit the curb on her right, came across the road, and ran into my truck. That's why you get insurance!
I still love driving my truck!
When I need to buy furniture, we get a u-haul box truck which is really the best for moving that type of stuff. You can do it anytime of year, in any weather, it’s huge, and everything is easily secured.
House? How excessive. Just rent a small apartment instead. You don't need a yard, multiple bedrooms. You can go to a park instead and put multiple sleeping bags on the floor.
People are free to buy whatever they feel is appropriate for them.
But I'm sure the vast majority of Americans fall into the same category as I do.
I drive more than 5000 miles a year, therefore buying a car is cheaper than Uber'ing everywhere.
I need a truck less than once a week, so renting from U-Haul and Home Depot both saves me money and gets me a more appropriate vehicle when I need it.
This world does not have the resources for everyone to live like we now do. We have to downsize. And most of what you mention is perfectly reasonable and not even much of a problem.
There are compact cars that have loads of room for the passengers.
I have driven smaller sports cars, too
Yeah, they're not sports cars. What a ridiculous comparison.
The windshield meets the roof directly in the middle of my line of sight if I'm sitting up straight / not slouching or have the chair reclined to an absurd degree.
Some cars don't even allow the steering wheel and seat to be adjusted high enough for me to see the top portion of the speedometer without slouching, either.
The last time I owned a car (before my current truck) I think I tried something like 20 models, and there were only two that had a decent profile for me to sit in. Now, I do some light forestry work (hauling wood, removing diseased trees) and other things that make owning a truck useful, so I don't bother with a car anymore, and I don't really think I'd be too interested in one again unless I absolutely had to (keeping my fingers crossed my current beater truck lives long enough for me to afford a decent electric pickup).
I've driven my VW Golf over 1000 km non-stop (on one tank of gas, since it's a TDI) and it was quite comfortable. I've often had 1-2 passengers in it during this as well (once helping some move), and they were okay as well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯