5 ms·

Your straw man is not relevant. You are asking people to purchase two vehicles for themselves: one high efficiency commuter and one utility vehicle. Why do pe

Your straw man is not relevant. You are asking people to purchase two vehicles for themselves: one high efficiency commuter and one utility vehicle. Why do people in Texas commute with a pickup? Because they don't want to buy a sedan in addition, and I don't blame them. If you look at liberal California, you'll see tons of Subaru AWD light SUV/crossovers. Why don't Californians just bike everywhere to save on gas? Are you going to spite them because they want a vehicle that does everything they need?

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
This. Think of it as a three axis space with people capacity, indoor cargo space and outdoor cargo space on all three axis (I'm approximating here, there's more things than that people consider in a vehicle purchase but those are the big ones that determine which models you're considering). Crew cab and extended cab trucks have a lot of all three of those things (even more if you toss on a cap) making them capable of checking all the "must have" boxes of many potential buyers. The people that don't need the outdoor space get crossovers. The people that need more indoor space or seating get three row SUVs and minivans. The people that need the same blend of indoor/outdoor/seating but less of it get midsize trucks. The husband wants a driver's car with a manual and the wife wants a convertible with AWD and two rows of seating so they get a 4dr Jeep Wrangler (facepalm implied). Of course most vehicles are at least partially a luxury purchase so people higher on the economic spectrum will purchase more capacity than they "need" (three row SUV for two kids, 3/4-ton truck to tow a pop up camper).
jiveturkey 8y ago
great point. thanks, assblaster.
ensiferum 8y ago
And these people really need big ass trucks.. to haul exactly what? I bet the great majority of people really don't need it for work or anything.
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  People don't "need" it in the sense that they need food or water but they "need" it to conform to social norms. It's a class/status thing. How hard you work your vehicles is inversely correlated with income (generally speaking, exceptions are in abundance when you speak in generalizations like this). If you hang out with the HN type crowd then you'll rarely if ever see someone fill every seat in a car or use a pickup to its full capacity. We're generally rich enough to afford more vehicle than we "need" in every regard (pickup trucks to haul light loads, three rows of seating for families with <4 kids, high performance German driving machines for a commute that's mostly sitting in traffic, etc, etc). At the other end of the economic spectrum people shoehorn whatever vehicle is available to them into every role it needs to fill. Every time I'm strapping material to the roof of one of my beater cars at home depot I'm immediately self aware that I am not acting the way people of my income level are expected to by other people of the same income level. Depending your income level pressing a less than ideal vehicle into service to fit all your needs is just not an option you let yourself seriously consider. So yeah, the people driving newish vehicles are mostly rich enough to not "need" all the capability they have and it's generally not socially acceptable for these people to go all out using their vehicles. Edit: You can see this playing out in the comments. Someone says they "need" a pickup to do something and gets responses like "No you don't, people in India haul lumber on motorcycles" or "But people in France can tow their their boat with a subcompact car" While that might be true the social norms of the US do not permit middle class and upper middle class people to use the piss out of their vehicles.
  - pascalxus 8y ago
    is this a texas thing? here in CA, i get the impression it's perfectly okay to load your car up quite fully. We put 5 people in an SUV without 3rd row seating on a regular basis without any kind of shame.
adrianN 8y ago
You don't have to buy a utility vehicle if you only use it once a month. Renting is both cheaper and better for the environment. Where I live many people don't own a car at all and rent one when they need it. For example I needed a car twice in the last three years.
- abakker 8y ago
  My experience has been that even all in, renting a truck once a month is not really that much cheaper, since buying a truck vs a car is not really a huge cost difference. Practically, getting to a place to rent a truck still sucks, and the whole process is still fairly inconvenient. It's nice that you don't need a car, that works with your lifestyle. OTOH, I don't commute, but my only vehicles is a large pickup truck because it is much more convenient for the things I do. One size does not fit all, especially with expensive and utilitarian items like cars and trucks.
- wafflesraccoon 8y ago
  Not owning a car is unfortunately not a realistic reality living in all but a few US cities. Most American cities were built with the car in mind, without massive public infrastructure overall owing a car is basically a requirement.
  - adrianN 8y ago
    That's unfortunately true, but not owning a big car certainly is possible.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

This. Think of it as a three axis space with people capacity, indoor cargo space and outdoor cargo space on all three axis (I'm approximating here, there's more things than that people consider in a vehicle purchase but those are the big ones that determine which models you're considering). Crew cab and extended cab trucks have a lot of all three of those things (even more if you toss on a cap) making them capable of checking all the "must have" boxes of many potential buyers. The people that don't need the outdoor space get crossovers. The people that need more indoor space or seating get three row SUVs and minivans. The people that need the same blend of indoor/outdoor/seating but less of it get midsize trucks. The husband wants a driver's car with a manual and the wife wants a convertible with AWD and two rows of seating so they get a 4dr Jeep Wrangler (facepalm implied). Of course most vehicles are at least partially a luxury purchase so people higher on the economic spectrum will purchase more capacity than they "need" (three row SUV for two kids, 3/4-ton truck to tow a pop up camper).

jiveturkey 8y ago

great point. thanks, assblaster.

ensiferum 8y ago

And these people really need big ass trucks.. to haul exactly what? I bet the great majority of people really don't need it for work or anything.

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
People don't "need" it in the sense that they need food or water but they "need" it to conform to social norms. It's a class/status thing. How hard you work your vehicles is inversely correlated with income (generally speaking, exceptions are in abundance when you speak in generalizations like this). If you hang out with the HN type crowd then you'll rarely if ever see someone fill every seat in a car or use a pickup to its full capacity. We're generally rich enough to afford more vehicle than we "need" in every regard (pickup trucks to haul light loads, three rows of seating for families with <4 kids, high performance German driving machines for a commute that's mostly sitting in traffic, etc, etc). At the other end of the economic spectrum people shoehorn whatever vehicle is available to them into every role it needs to fill. Every time I'm strapping material to the roof of one of my beater cars at home depot I'm immediately self aware that I am not acting the way people of my income level are expected to by other people of the same income level. Depending your income level pressing a less than ideal vehicle into service to fit all your needs is just not an option you let yourself seriously consider. So yeah, the people driving newish vehicles are mostly rich enough to not "need" all the capability they have and it's generally not socially acceptable for these people to go all out using their vehicles. Edit: You can see this playing out in the comments. Someone says they "need" a pickup to do something and gets responses like "No you don't, people in India haul lumber on motorcycles" or "But people in France can tow their their boat with a subcompact car" While that might be true the social norms of the US do not permit middle class and upper middle class people to use the piss out of their vehicles.
- pascalxus 8y ago
  is this a texas thing? here in CA, i get the impression it's perfectly okay to load your car up quite fully. We put 5 people in an SUV without 3rd row seating on a regular basis without any kind of shame.

adrianN 8y ago

You don't have to buy a utility vehicle if you only use it once a month. Renting is both cheaper and better for the environment. Where I live many people don't own a car at all and rent one when they need it. For example I needed a car twice in the last three years.

abakker 8y ago
My experience has been that even all in, renting a truck once a month is not really that much cheaper, since buying a truck vs a car is not really a huge cost difference. Practically, getting to a place to rent a truck still sucks, and the whole process is still fairly inconvenient. It's nice that you don't need a car, that works with your lifestyle. OTOH, I don't commute, but my only vehicles is a large pickup truck because it is much more convenient for the things I do. One size does not fit all, especially with expensive and utilitarian items like cars and trucks.
wafflesraccoon 8y ago
Not owning a car is unfortunately not a realistic reality living in all but a few US cities. Most American cities were built with the car in mind, without massive public infrastructure overall owing a car is basically a requirement.
- adrianN 8y ago
  That's unfortunately true, but not owning a big car certainly is possible.