Transcription
A picture of a hand holding remote car keys pointed at a white pickup truck. Below that is the text:
In the US, 75% of truck owners tow only once a year or less. Nearly 70% of them go off-road once a year or less. Additionally, 35% of truck owners haul something in their truck beds once a year or less
Find Sources @ unbelievablefactsblog.com
All while the US actively outlaws small cars.
I would say more like actively discourages small cars by encouraging large vehicles and allowing them lower standards (emissions etc)
But they don’t
But they do, a lot of Kei trucks and cars are banned because they can’t stand up to an accident with a 10,000lb (not an exaggeration) hummer.
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Kei cars have been banned in Massachusetts, Georgia, Maine and New York with restrictions in Alabama and Arkansas.
Not to mention the 25 year delay on new Kei cars
Ah! Well I stand corrected.
Edit: looks like they’ve rescinded the ban, at least in MA.
It compensates for penis size 100% of the time though.
I haul, tow, go off road more frequently in my Yaris.
Yeah, but that’s a quality car, that doesn’t count.
Just an example of when folks think they need a truck, most often what they really need/want is a fucking trailer hitch.
Excluding childish hotwheel fantasies, of course.
I have a work truck that I beat the hell out of. Go off road and hit 4 wheel drive 3-4 times per week. I haul 1000-1,500 lbs of gear everywhere for around 4 months of the year. I tow daily for 2-3 months of the year and up 1-2 times per month the rest of the time. My cab is full of gear (it’s basically my mobile office).
Guess what I hop into and drive every chance I get? The small SUV I own. It is much easier to drive, park, go shopping in etc. It takes a lot more more effort to drive the larger vehicles.
If I could swing it I would turn my 1/2 ton work truck in for one of those new small trucks. Unfortunately the weight that I am moving is too much for them. So I am stuck with the large truck.
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The estate car is the ideal car for 80% of all drivers, a hatchback is ideal for 15% of all drivers.
I own a station wagon, a suburban, and previously a truck. When I owned the truck it was full of shit or hauling stuff constantly. I sold it the moment I didn’t need it. The suburban replaced it because I refuse to put my dogs in the bed while towing the boat to go camping. The wagon is a people hauler because it’s payload is too low most of the time.
There are quite a few people in this world who actually use their trucks. I also completely hate seeing people who own trucks but don’t use them.
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Or if they’re a tradesman of some kind, a van
Would have loved one of those sprinter vans when I did field work, used our utility trailer a lot, but something with a small workbench, lighting and conveniently located inverters would have been amazing.
That does sound like an incredible alternative to drying herbarium vouchers in a hotel with a hair drier (my field work)
I used to have a Chevy Sonic and I hauled so much stuff in that car, full size fridges, front load washing machines, lumber, 14" canoe. Summer and winter offroading at a solar farm jobsite for the province of Ontario, prolly 2-4km deep
Emotional Support Cowboy Outfit.
For when you are too fierce for the chaps there is the F-150.
Replace the bluejeans with a codpiece, and you’re going somewhere.
I imagine it’s pretty much the same in UK - a lot of the people using them for work might be better off with a small van.
But then, they don’t look ‘manly’ do they?
What does a van offer that a small truck wouldn’t? Other than opportunity for passengers. Since its a work vehicle passengers isn’t generally a concern since basically anything you can buy can handle atleast 2 people. Covered space? Get a cap. Need more Clearance for a fridge you intend on plugging in right away? take the cap off. Over sized item in more ways than one like a couch or bed? you can drop and remove the tailgate. I have yet to see a small van that can be all that customizable?
Edit:
You can down vote but you should add to the discussion. Can we get the numbers on people that have vans and aren’t using them to capacity or carrying anything. How about the amount that drive passenger cars that are driving 2+ occupant but serves no more utility than a bicycle that’s faster.
To add to the numbers my house hold has a 4 door sedan and a pickup. But we are dual income with no kids. What should I drive instead? so I live 30 miles from work because who is so lucky to work next door and wife is 20 miles fron work. I also do things like move fire wood and mow lawns and… Really do you want a list of all the things I would have to rent a truck for? I have a cap for my bed and have pulled it to move larger stuff. Just because you dont have to do a thing or have a thing or what ever… Doesn’t mean there is t a use case which doesn’t involve using someone else’s and just using your own.
What does a van offer that a small truck wouldn’t?
A much, much higher degree of safety. Because vans don’t typically have those absurdly high and long bonets that make it so you could run over multiple children without even seeing them there.
My 98 ranger is lower than all of those…
saw a rivian on my way home from work this morning. poor guy tried to keep up but my old 4banger was just too light on her feet
While I don’t tow more than 2 or 3 times per year, I like to daydream about owning a boat. I need to be able to tow one to imagine I could own one some day.
Nice!
Why not just keep it in a marina where you want to use the boat? Not snarky, genuine question since I don’t know much about boat ownership.
Generally pretty damn expensive, as with pretty much everything related to boats
Here’s a video of a Miata launching a boat at a ramp.
https://youtu.be/JvA0ctoUD4A
Why don’t you post the original source for this data.
You won’t because it’s shitty data.
I’m going to get responses, if any, to a 2013 phone survey for 1000 people that splits users with shitty questions or a REFERENCE 2018 to a 2018 axios study but not the data because it’s only sold and under copyright. Even looking at the questions I’m nearly certain OP is talking about the first.
I tow 12 times a year. But I don’t go off road. Ohhhh and look now I’m contributing to your shitty mutually exclusive population splits.
You are parroting rage engagement bait and being manipulated.
Prove me wrong .
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Mate, you’re the arsehole who started out blasting someone for a source (which was provided, btw) for a meme sharing some generally well-known stats (in the sense that it’s generally well-known that most drivers of yank tanks rarely use them for serious work that requires such a large vehicle, even if the specific numbers aren’t known). If you don’t want people like @[email protected] to use weak emotional flame towards you, maybe don’t start with the same.
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The source was provided over 2 weeks ago now. If you don’t want to read it that’s fine, but don’t go whinging about a lack of sources.
This is rude to everyone, not just the person you have a bug up your ass about.
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Why do I keep getting recommended this sub. Wtf is this place even for?? Is it hating on cars or hating on car owners??
WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS PLACE TO BEGIN WITH???
It’s actually mainly about hating car-dependent infrastructure. The stuff that makes cities impossible to conveniently get around unless you’re in a car, because cycling distances are too far and force you to mix with fast-moving cars due to lack of separated paths. And public transport is expensive and slow, if it exists at all, because cities choose not to invest in it and even if they wanted to it’d be more expensive for them than if cities were planned better.
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let’s explore the bad world of Cars!
From the sidebar. If you don’t like it, block the community instead of complaining and typing in full caps with excessive punctuation like some boomer on Facebook.
Jesus fuck, you didn’t have to go and insult me. The sidebar was enough but even then I still don’t understand wtf the point of the sub at all or why it’s constantly recommended to me. :/
I use a buncha caps and punctuation all the time cus im autistic, it’s in all my comments and posts; for me it’s like I’m putting my thoughts as they are on the screen. So if I wanna scream or emphasize somethin then I put it in all caps.
I don’t really like having to block whole ass communities like that, cus what if there IS an interesting post I see from there?? I like just being able to tell Lemmy “Hey, stop showing me this” instead of blocking.
And im not even complaining really I just:
A. dont understand what this post is trying to tell me.
B. what this has to do about cars being bad.
C. Why fuckcars is the only one shown to me and not something else like Anti-child or Anti-work or anti-anything else.
And the sidebars are often useless compared to the actual behavior of the community. Scrolling the comments, it’s just a lotta people going “Yea I know a guy who ALWAYS drives his truck with stuff in it, fukin chump.” and some (Seemingly) sour attitudes towards truck drivers for carrying a buncha stuff in their trucks.
tldr
The TLDR: “I don’t understand the point of this place and since I can’t read, this place sucks.”
Every comment here is “Why do you wanna do that?!” And then it’d explained and they double down or ignore it.
I never said this place fucking sucked. thanks for putting words in my mouth.
And I did read it. But your stupid ass doesn’t wanna read what I HAVE to say! And you have the balls to call me ignorant? Fuck off. Blocked.
But your stupid ass doesn’t wanna read what I HAVE to say! And you have the balls to call me ignorant? Fuck off. Blocked.
Bye, I don’t wanna deal with someone who barges into a conversation, questions everything and nothing at the same time, and then says people talking about it are too confusing until people take hours explaining it.
I actually had someone else explain it better to me. Cheers.
Thanks for the concise translation.
I was made fun of/mocked. When asking FURTHER QUESTIONS you continue to be a dick and insult me. I never fucking doubled down on anything aside from the fact that this some parts community just feels judgmental asf to outsiders.
I wanted to learn MORE about the community, to understand it. The side bar didn’t answer all the questions I had. I didnt come here to fucking attack you or anyone else here. I don’t hate this place either, but it is a fact that some people here, LIKE YOU just aren’t tolerant of others. I came to lemmy to get away from that typa shit.
Also you can’t get miffed at me for supposedly “Complaining” about the point of the community
Deadass the title is fuckcars. 90% of everyone here is complaining about something jerkass
Its always Anti-“Insert topic” subs that, when I ask why they exist and what’s the point, people immediately insult me instead of either going “Myeh we don’t all just hate on cars here, just specific things like ‘Insert specific things’” or just answering the question. Its always “WELL IF YA DON’T LIKE IT GET OUT!”
Maybe it is the caps, but I never badmouth anyone or anything when I ask, Im just super confused and wanna understand. But I get told to fuck off.
All you’re doing by commenting here is telling the algorithm you like to engage with this community, therefore you will keep seeing it more, and complaining more, thus telling the algorithm you like engaging with the community etc.
I told you to block the community because you don’t enjoy it, that’s all.
You insulted me while saying that. thats why I keep commenting. Not to mention the other assholes that keep doing the same!
You cant give someone decent advice and then straight up mock/insult me and just expect people to be chill with that type of shit. I even said “What if there’s something here I DO actually find interesting” I still got made fun of for it. Regardless the “Algorithm”, it doesn’t do shit ti cater to my interest anyways! I’ve been here for months! And I KEEP getting recommended Linux and programming memes. I dont even program! Thats just all this place keeps offering me!
Again, you keep commenting on these things so you keep getting offered them and you seem to think blocking communities to curate your experience is in some way an insult to you?
I likened you to a group of people on a social media platform doing exactly what you do. You are straight up using verbally offensive insults against me.
I’ve been patient enough with you as it is. I will use the block feature to curate my experience now and rid myself of your nonsense.
This dude is weird.
> Barges into public conversation
> Refuses to read the room
> Asks why would anyone be against this
> Elaborates by insulting people who are just living their lives
> Refuses to leave, says they won.
You have issues man. You really do. Never did I say I won. You gotta hop off the fuckin internet my guy.
I’m now imagining someone doing this same thing at a funeral and honestly it’s pretty amusing.
When the fuck did I ever say I won??
I even explained I have fucking autism you dipstick?? Read the rest of the replies here, plenty of other people kindly explained it to me better than you did cus you were just generally being a dick.
It’s to promote and advocate for alternatives to car dependence.
What alternatives?? Every post here is either complaining about roads, traffic, or specific cars?? I have yet to see someone go “Ah, just finished a bike run! Feeling real good!”
Because car infrastructure is totally dominant. There are some posts about advocating for busses, trains, or bike lanes. Most users are in the US though where car dependence is strongly built into the system.
You can only make so many posts saying how much better trains or busses are at moving people though. It gets old fast. There’s a lot more ways to joke about how much it sucks that we are required to use cars, and how shitty certain large vehicles in particular are.
Oh…
Well what about the post above?? I don’t understand what these statistics even are or why they’re even important? Who made the image and what for?
sorry if im asking a buncha questions, im just confused is all :<
Basically, trucks take up a disproportionate amount of our infrastructure budget and provide disproportionately little. If the same money was spent on infrastructure for car alternatives everyone would be better off. It sucks that society has prioritized them over everyone else.
Thank you
And it is because of these people that I have to custom order a poverty spec work truck, because manufacturers will only send dealers 100k “family trucks” with fancy nonsense
Horse shit, you want a base Colorado? I’ll get you one 8% off MSRP. I’ll only charge $1000.
man I miss the s-10 form factor. now everything is absurdly huge.
Used to drive a five speed Ranger for work. I loved it.
The old Rangers were the epitome of trucks that get shit done.
I have a 3rd gen Tacoma and it is HUGE for a “small” truck. I miss actual small trucks (I also miss hoods that were lower and slanted forward in a way that you could actually kind of see over).
But you get to own the libs every day so it evens out.
Saw a truck the other day with Harris and Coexist stickers and was so confused.
Feeling good about my mid sized truck in the mountain west. Haul weekly, trailer monthly, off road monthly, at least (remote trailhead access)
I don’t know what I couldn’t do which would necessitate one of the huge new full sized trucks, aside from towing construction equipment or line a shit ton of welding gear or live stock. The number of people who do THAT must be microscopic
Towing really. Have more than one quad to transport? Full pickup, one quad in the box and the other in a trailer, or one bike and a camper etc…
Meanwhile europe where you see people with renault twingos do more with their cars.
I get timber/PIR/plasterboard from the builders merchant, and also take that plus garden waste to the tip, 10+ times per year, in a 4 seat car that weighs under 1 tonne.
Anything truly massive, they just deliver it to me.
The day I discovered that a 2.4m 6*2 would fit inside was a very good day.
As was the one I bought roof bars.Heck people carry more on their bicycles that many ever carry on their trucks.
I regurarly carry some tools and some small boxes strapped to the panier rack of my ebike. Lol.
Actually true lol. I see people here with trailer thingies for their bicycles and they carry stuff with it. It probably has the same bed size as the newest “ford f-550 ultra extreme plus carbon dioxide poisoning engine from cruise ship edition”
Imagine riding your bike every day with the trailer attached just for the odd day every other month when you need to carry something. That’s truck brain logic.
okay but I actually do this with my panniers and those suckers add a lot of drag
Taking your golf bag to the course counts as hauling now?
Smart car will do the same and it doubles as a golf cart, why don’t we have more smart cars? Oh wait, lots of micro dicks…
My Mazda 3 is better built with lower maintenance and repair cost (and frequency) with similar mpg on cheaper fuel (if we’re talking similar year models and not electric). The smart cars aren’t smart for anyone that’s considering anything other than size.
Sorry ya missed the joke there…
I was about to say: if a trunk would fulfill the same purpose, the bed is not useful: then it’s just a less protected trunk.
So I assume correcting for that, this stat would also be >70%
Everytime someone tells me they need a pick up truck for work purposes, I always think no, 95% of the time you are far better of getting a van. Who wants their tools and materials getting rained on the back of a bed? Vans are also usually lower and easier to load. The fact you can’t see into the back of the van can also prevent theives.
In the rurals, we had need of a truck. Of course, it was an old beat up GM, and as a boy I got in trouble when I tossed a log of firewood into the bed of a shiny new ES truck (bigger than the GM) and missed, damaging its otherwise pristine body finish, which I’d later learn was costly to repair.
It informed how I would eventually compute I, a suburban kid, was too unfamiliar with strange rural conventions for heavy labor.
“No, not the nice pick 'em up truck! That’s the one I use to go line dancing and pick up cousin dates, dammit!”
Yet that one time that you need it, it’s quite nice to have.
You know what you can do if you need to haul something and don’t have a truck?
Rent a trailer!
Over time that’s as expensive or more as getting a vehicle with more storage lol
Given the cost of a truck vs hiring a trailer, I have no idea how that can possibly be true.
How many rentals to hit 2-5k.
I doubt many people are driving around a $5k 2024 truck, but let’s say it’s reasonable or say that this is the difference between what you could otherwise have and what the truck costs. Let’s also say you own the truck 10 years.
I don’t know what your average trailer hire costs in the US. Maybe $20 for a few hours? Let’s assume $50. So you need to hire a trailer 100 times in those 10 years, or 10 times a year.
Though as someone who doesn’t own a truck but who hires a trailer once a year or so, if I have multiple things I save them up and do them together in one trailer hire, so a bit of planning makes it even less worth having a truck.
This doesn’t even include the extra gas a truck guzzles, the cost of bigger tires, the cost of maintaince (bigger parts are usually more expensive, bigger engine holds more fluids).
I went from driving a 4x4 jeep to driving a small hatchback and the amount of money I’m saving is astronomical.
Over time
Hey I think I found the issue, you rent a trailer when you need it, you don’t just rent it long term.
Also, even if you own a trailer, you don’t have to tow it all the time.
I like to think that people own trucks because they don’t know how to back a trailer. Or more humourously, because they don’t know trailers exist.
Rental.
Also your comment remind me of people having spare car.
A spare vehicle is legitimately useful if you have an actual use case and are fortunate enough to have the space for it. My winter car allows me to do all of my own maintenance without having to worry about stranding myself at home.
True, but most case i see is people spend more than necessary maintaining a vehicle they don’t have a place to store for an emergency that only came once every few years, which will end up selling it anyway. Just like truck, it only works for a minority of people.
I suspect for many it is just a convenient excuse to buy a new vehicle because they’re tired of their current one and need a way to justify the cost to themselves.
Really that summarizes this whole debate. There are absolutely people that don’t need it but buy one for a litany of bad reasons. Then, there are entire swaths of territory where having a pickup is just plain necessary. Live up north in a rural area? You probably have both a trailer and a PU to tow it because you need to be self sufficient, and have a lot of long distance hauling jobs.
I’d suggest though that the trend of absurdly high hood lines and everything being a monster truck aren’t helping those populations either.
International Harvester made some great trucks. Fuck, chevy s-10s were handy and capable when I was a kid. Now everything is ginormous and crew cabbed so one person can drive around in a combine level shitwagon
The clearance is a very important consideration though. Where I am the bush is life so you NEED clearance just to drive on many ‘roads’ to get over huge ruts, small fallen trees, or just general bushwacking. Trucks like these are more akin to work trucks and not everyday unless driven by owner necessity (can’t afford a 2nd car atm). Funny you should mention it, but my buddy is a mechanic and has a lifted S-10 that he’s used more than once to get us out of a jam. That is often the case: the one with lowest clearance needs the most help.
and yet the overwhelming majority of them are pavement princesses who never see work, much less work in the dirt.
yeah, i’ve seen lifted s10s, they’re still smaller than today’s jacked up shithaulers lol
It’s even nicer to have that big item delivered and still come out on top in gas savings.
Idk your life but I’ve yet to be in a situation where a minivan wasn’t good enough.
The other 99.9% of the time you get better efficiency, space for 8 people and a smaller car
Here are a few options to remedy this rare problem.
- Uhaul truck rental.
- Ask a friend. family member or neighbor to help you out with their truck or ask to borrow their truck for the task at hand. (Fill the gas tank before returning it to ensure they’ll be willing to let you borrow their truck again, when you need it.)
The first option doesn’t act as a continued mode of transportation, and the second option still requires someone owning a truck lmao.
Those are both of the reasons why it works.
Yes, but it doesn’t require everyone owning a truck.
I didn’t say it did. I’m saying that when you need it, and you’re the guy that owns the truck, it’s nice. I’m not talking some lifted thing, but a midsize pickup is nice to have when you need it.
I think in his scenario, the friend who owns the truck is in the 15% who use the bed regularly
Yeah, my friends who still lend us their trucks are literally farmers, lol.
That’s a massive assumption and completely ignore that said family member may only use that bed once or twice a month to help others. And they would still be ridiculed by these people.
No I think you’re misunderstanding me. When he said “you should just borrow a truck from a friend”, he was describing what should be happening in an ideal situation. The ideal situation being that the only truck owners be people who legitimately need and use the truck for regular truck-related work. Thus whomever you borrow the truck from would be a person who actually uses the truck.
The whole purpose of this thread is calling out the problem of people who own a truck simply because “muh truck”. Even smaller ones have a different gear ratio than cars to favor torque instead of gas mileage, so I believe it is a fair complaint within the context of this community.
Everyone owns a truck? Where’s mine?
