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Comment by kube-system | Hacker News Reader

The claim is not that they do, it is that they should. The high hood trend post-2009 has provides no functional utility.

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I'd go a step further and say the high hoods reduce utility by making the vehicles harder to work on. I'm 6' and needed a step-stool to change the battery on my uncle's Silverado. The truck manufacturers leave that inconvenient detail out of their macho ads on TV.

I remember when changing spark plugs meant flipping down the front-plate bumper step, taking one step to hop up on the fender, and putting your legs inside of the engine bay while you wrench.

No-one works on junky new cars; people who work on their cars have a 90's model etc.

SOP now is to pull the whole cab off to work on the engine.

Good luck future used truck buyers of 2036.

I guess I'm old fashioned but I just can't imagine removing the cab to change my uncle's battery.

That's the point. You are a person who can work on a car/truck. Your uncle is a consumer.

Well, in his case he has full technical competency but he's missing a leg, but I agree with the point you're making.

> no functional utility

Air cooling while towing (allegedly), but it must be a tiny percentage of owners that tow at all.

There were adequate engineering solutions for towing even as far back as 2008. The high-hood trend on US passenger trucks is unique to US market vehicles and is factually cosmetic.

You mean cooling a 700lb-ft engine. Which is totally unnecessary. You don't need to do 80mph up the steepest hill in the world while towing 20,000lbs.

Not only do they not need to, they need to actively stop doing that. These are the folks who light brakes & tires on fire, which then spreads to the mountains. There are dozens of spot, brush, and outright wildfires every year from these people.

Oh look, since I posted, another one.

https://www.azfamily.com/2026/06/24/watch-vehicle-fire-spark...

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