Comparison left vs right for a craftsman who doesnt know which one he should buy:
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l/r same bed size
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r lower bed for way easier loading/unloading
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r less likely to crash
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r less fuel consumption and costs
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r less expensive to repair
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r easy to park
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r easy to get around in narrow places like crowded construction sites or towns
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r not participating in road arms race
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l You get taken serious by your fellow carbrained americans because ““trucks”” are normalized and small handy cars are ridiculed.
So unless you are a fragile piece of human, choose the right one.
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Lovely in theory until:
Only 2 v 5 people meaning more round trips Significantly less load meaning more round trips Much nicer to drive Poor crash rating, less safe.
It’s almost as if the industry has been formed by the popular choice among the people. Isn’t that quaint.
Fragile? But those American truck owners always try to look so tough and mean…
Here is the answer to your question. You can skip to the EPA graph at about 4:55, but may want to watch the whole vid if you actually care to learn about the problem. https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM
I fvcking love kei trucks but one counter point - a lot of US is shitty rural roads at 50-60 mph (80-95kmh) plus freeways at even higher speeds. Kei trucks are more of a city thing and just wouldn’t fare well here. They are however very popular on university campuses.
Well, if you don’t care about comfort or safety go with the one on the right. I’d be curious to see how that KEI Truck holds up in a major collision with the average American SUV.
While true, that’s not a point for the American car. That one won’t stand a chance against a train, but nobody would come to the conclusion that everybody should buy a personal train to haul their lawnmower.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-the-most-car-accidents
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24499113/
Long story short, you’re completely incorrect. Driving Japan is scientifically proven to be significantly safer than the US, and one of the reasons for that is the smaller size of car. To quote one of those articles:
For those who do drive, Japan offers vehicles appropriately scaled to urban life: the kei car, a class of vehicle considerably smaller and lighter than a US subcompact. Regulations restrict the size, power and speed of these microcars; typical modern versions might weigh around 2,400 pounds and have length of about 130 inches — some 4,000 lbs less and 100 inches shorter than a Ford F-150 truck, the best-selling American passenger vehicle.
From a safety perspective, kei cars have a lot going for them when compared with American-style SUVs and trucks. Their light weight generates less force in a collision, and their stubby front ends reduce driver blind spots. Research suggests that their occupants are equally safe as those inside full-sized vehicles.
Americans need to stop with the arms race of “bigger is safer”, it’s all bullshit.
So you agree that American cars are built with only the passengers safety in mind and people don’t give a shit what happens to the other party?
That’s the arms race
I was thinking the opposite. I met with the business end of one of those little trucks while riding a tiny 50cc Honda scooter back in the nineties. We both walked away unscathed. When all the vehicles are small, catastrophic results seem to decline.
This is so TRUE! My next car is gonna be a M4 Sherman, I’m afraid of how my average American SUV holds up to the Silverado 2500 HD on the left.
I’m more of a Leopard 2 guy, but get whatever keeps you safe out there.
In normal countries being able to crush smaller cars during a collision isnt usually a selling point :/
In the US that’s actually a sport!
Since Americans are obese, it makes sense that their cars are too.
I was looking for the “America bad” comment, was not disappointed. At least that carried over from reddit.
That obesity is quite common in the U.S. is true. Source.
Obesity rates in the UK are not far behind the US. 32% vs 38% according to WHO. Unfortunately most western developed counties are well on the path to where America is regarding obesity. The key difference in terms of car sizes is size of roads, civil planning, gas prices, and marketing. Not obesity.
I was looking for the “America bad” comment comment, was not disappointed. At least our fragile egos carried over from Reddit.
Jesus, you people can’t stop yourselves lol. I love it.
They are absolutely the driver in this market, like it or not.
American cars were big way before they became obese. Americans have been more suburban and roads were developed before a lot of towns were, so roads are wide and big.
I love small cars. I’m happy to live somewhere with small roads. And I care deeply about living in a walkable city, but obesity is not the reason the US has big cars and the UK has small cars. Similar obesity rate. Different roads. Different fuel costs.
Hey! I live in Korea. These things are ubiquitous. They are colloquially called “Bongos” as that was the name of an older, popular model. There are more and more electric ones on the road these days, too.
Unfortunately, you can find a few of the monstrosities on the left here these days, too, but at least very few. They’ve got nowhere to park them here. Haha!
When you can’t even make reasonable arguments and have to blatantly lie or twist reality to fit your narrative, it’s called propaganda.
The amount of completely bullshit or cherry picking of specs or facts in this post is ridiculous. This community has turned into PETA-levels of obnoxiousness where even people who might otherwise agree with some of your ideas are just turned off by the stupid tactics. Like yeah, we get it, everyone would like more green and more walkable communities, but holy fuck the amount of bullshit some of you folks will go to to fit that narrative is nauseating.
What’s bullshit is calling something bullshit for reasons you ether don’t know or aren’t willing to share with others!
If you are comparing the two trucks as work trucks, then the tiny one just cannot compete. It has a much lower bed weight capacity, has almost no towing capacity, and cannot fit more than two people.
As an actual work truck, it kind of sucks. It might be able to putter around on a job site, but that’s about it.
The big truck can haul pallets of water in the back, can tow trailers full of plywood and sheet rock, and can actually fit most of a small work crew.
If you compare them as work trucks, the small one loses every time. And OP looks stupid for even making the comparison.
The vast majority of those big trucks sold are not work trucks. That’s what the criticisms should focus on.
Your argument: “It’s bullshit! You’re annoying too!”
Kei trucks due have the issue of not being great to actual haul things in the mountainous areas (a tradeoff of the small engine). They make a non-kei version that has a bigger engine for situations like that.
That being said, I think if roads and such were bigger here (Japan), we’d definitely seem more American-style vehicles. Miyazaki (Ghibli) had lots of environmental themes in his works and it wasn’t because people were doing a great job of taking care of the environment. I have seen American trucks driving around Tokyo (which is silly because they can’t even fit down some streets) as well as sports cars and even hummers. Yeah, some are driven by foreigners, but there are still plenty of Japanese who import and drive US vehicles. The second biggest thing stopping that is the cost of getting it over here, inspected, registered, etc. Some humans just want those and want to show off their status and Japanese people are just people, after all (as much as the internet loves to pretend otherwise).
I do woodworking and have gotten by with my Subaru but occasionally need to pick up 4x8 sheets of plywood, OSB, or even drywall for the house. An electric kei truck would be perfect. I’m rooting for something like the Canoo or Telo EV truck to make it to market
Have you tried using a roof rack to strap the plywood down?
Most roof racks are not rated for much weight. A few sheets would be fine
This is what I do but not when it’s raining. Same with drywall.
The Japanese one would be fun for use in New York City. LOL. Easy parking, easy to navigate double-parked clowns. It just needs a bed cover to lock down anything purchased.
To anyone claiming that the bigger one is the safer one …
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24499113/
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-the-most-car-accidents
From the Bloomberg & NLM articles
From a safety perspective, kei cars have a lot going for them when compared with American-style SUVs and trucks. Their light weight generates less force in a collision, and their stubby front ends reduce driver blind spots. Research suggests that their occupants are equally safe as those inside full-sized vehicles.
At first, I was going to criticize the collision speed of the example study, but found ( ok, I say found, I mean I googled for 15 seconds ) that the average American collision is occurring at less than 40mph, so good to go there.
Second, I was going to comment on the relative safety of being in the Kei truck and being struck by the 2500HD… but that just goes back to the ‘participating in the arms race’, so feels… stupid.
So, overall: Thanks for providing this. It directly answers the primary concern of ‘what if I hit something tho’. There are some other angles I could nitpick on maybe, but they all feel like a kind of ‘consolation prize’ to the argument.
One thing you also need to remember, is that the smaller car has a far smaller braking distance and is more maneuverable, so is less likely to get in a crash. The lower centre of gravity also decreases the likelihood of a roll-over.
Reminds me of a friend some years back. She was 4’ nothing but insisted on driving a large SUV as it was “safer” in a accident. I’m taller than most but I prefer smaller vehicles like older Cherokees and Volvos so it’s quite the odd difference.
Anything American should be avoided. Their food is full of sugar, cars are big and useless and internet companies always try to screw their users.
One of these are not for work. You don’t risk a dent on a $60,000 show piece.
I saw a dude on YouTube complaining that his fairly new $85k Dodge Ram work truck was breaking down. I don’t think he expected people to call him an idiot for spending that much on a work truck. I’m sure he did actually use it to haul shit around since he is a farmer but probably $35k of that is comfort stuff.
My wife’s family runs their farms with motorcycles and tractors. They seem to be doing fine. Agreed he is a not wise.
If you are buying brand new, $60K is fairly base model now (for a pickup truck at least).
Why are you saying it like it’s something normal you fat burger.
But L makes owning libs so easy with the ‘rolling coal’ feature
\s
I can confirm, living in SEA, that the right can also roll coal.
