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Forget the headlines, it's a pickup truck that doesn't list bed length in the marketing materials. The pickup truck is the new SUV, but come on. At least let m

Forget the headlines, it's a pickup truck that doesn't list bed length in the marketing materials. The pickup truck is the new SUV, but come on. At least let me pretend to consider if I can fit a sheet of drywall in there. Also, I hate,hate,hate the trend of putting the spare under the bed floor, instead of under the frame. Clearly a design decision by someone that doesn't use their pickup bed for picking things up...

dzonga 7y ago
CAD design vs reality. A lot of fuxked up things today are a result of too much CAD design, thin laptops with no repair utility. Difficult to repair cars etc.
village-idiot 7y ago
> Clearly a design decision by someone that doesn't use their pickup bed for picking things up... To be fair, this is the vast majority of truck drivers. Exceedingly few trucks sold today will ever be asked to do something that requires a truck, most are commuter vehicles driver for social status reasons. A few occasionally might tow a boat.
- bdavisx 7y ago
  >Exceedingly few trucks sold today will ever be asked to do something that requires a truck Kind of like all of the "never been off-road" "off-road vehicles"?
  - village-idiot 7y ago
    Yes, ditto with garage queen race cars.
- sorenjan 7y ago
  All while our only planet is going to shit because of fossil fuel usage. American fuel is too cheap, making this kind of excessive fuel burning possible without paying the external cost.
  - village-idiot 7y ago
    It’s also an unwise business plan. Ford cancelled all of their sedans in the US except the mustang, which is clearly a cheap fuel bet. I personally call this plan “bonuses today, bankruptcy tomorrow”. In a sign that the universe has a sense of irony, the F-150 factory promptly caught on fire when they announced this.
- lawnchair_larry 7y ago
  Just because they aren’t construction workers does not mean it’s for social status. I’d estimate that roughly nobody buys them for status reasons.
  - village-idiot 7y ago
    You must live in a high density urban area. In suburban Ohio where I’m from people can and do buy pickup trucks for status reasons. Those bigger trucks can cost up to $70,000. A F-150 was sold in 2018 every 35 seconds. They sold 450,000 of the things in 2018, and that’s not even counting any other truck made by Ford or anyone else. I guarantee you a huge percentage of those do nothing but commute.
    - lawnchair_larry 7y ago
      None of them do nothing but commute. Many may commute a lot, but that’s irrelevant. Truck owners like to have trucks because of how useful they are when you do need them. It doesn’t really matter how often that is. They see no downside to having it for those times you need it, unlike a Prius, where your vehicle does one thing well (commute) but optimizing for that limits what you can do with it. They feel that they have a commuter, a hauler, an off-road vehicle, a winter snow vehicle, and something that can tow. They can be self-sufficient under a wide range of circumstances. The Prius owner has to ask that friend with a truck if he can help them, pay someone else to do it, or just stay home. And that’s not how status symbols work. It would be more accurate to say that luxury trucks are status symbols, not trucks. Nobody buys a truck as a status symbol, but maybe they buy a nice truck as one. The same statement applies to cars.
      - village-idiot 7y ago
        The idea that someone “needs” a truck because once a quarter a friend moves is just something I do not agree with. It would be far far cheaper and more practical to rent the few times that you need a truck. Truck owners are buying trucks largely for the feeling of self sufficiency, a fake one given the sheer amount of resources required to operate a modern vehicle, which is what makes it a status symbol. Its exactly the same as someone who “needs” a Jeep because it occasionally snows, even though their neighbor’s Honda Civic is doing just fine in the same conditions. Also, the idea that a truck is a good snow vehicle makes me giggle. My Subaru always outperformed them in snowy conditions.
sangnoir 7y ago
> Clearly a design decision by someone that doesn't use their pickup bed for picking things up. Seems like a reasonable engineering trade-off for an EV to me; unless you can figure out an equally aerodynamic solution with the spare under the frame. You want to maximize range all the time (by reducing drag), but you only rarely need to access the spare. If you badly need access to spare all the time and you're willing to sacrifice range 24/7 for it, I'm sure there will be after-market solutions, similar to bike-racks.

dzonga 7y ago

CAD design vs reality. A lot of fuxked up things today are a result of too much CAD design, thin laptops with no repair utility. Difficult to repair cars etc.

village-idiot 7y ago

> Clearly a design decision by someone that doesn't use their pickup bed for picking things up... To be fair, this is the vast majority of truck drivers. Exceedingly few trucks sold today will ever be asked to do something that requires a truck, most are commuter vehicles driver for social status reasons. A few occasionally might tow a boat.

bdavisx 7y ago
>Exceedingly few trucks sold today will ever be asked to do something that requires a truck Kind of like all of the "never been off-road" "off-road vehicles"?
- village-idiot 7y ago
  Yes, ditto with garage queen race cars.
sorenjan 7y ago
All while our only planet is going to shit because of fossil fuel usage. American fuel is too cheap, making this kind of excessive fuel burning possible without paying the external cost.
- village-idiot 7y ago
  It’s also an unwise business plan. Ford cancelled all of their sedans in the US except the mustang, which is clearly a cheap fuel bet. I personally call this plan “bonuses today, bankruptcy tomorrow”. In a sign that the universe has a sense of irony, the F-150 factory promptly caught on fire when they announced this.
lawnchair_larry 7y ago
Just because they aren’t construction workers does not mean it’s for social status. I’d estimate that roughly nobody buys them for status reasons.
- village-idiot 7y ago
  You must live in a high density urban area. In suburban Ohio where I’m from people can and do buy pickup trucks for status reasons. Those bigger trucks can cost up to $70,000. A F-150 was sold in 2018 every 35 seconds. They sold 450,000 of the things in 2018, and that’s not even counting any other truck made by Ford or anyone else. I guarantee you a huge percentage of those do nothing but commute.
  - lawnchair_larry 7y ago
    None of them do nothing but commute. Many may commute a lot, but that’s irrelevant. Truck owners like to have trucks because of how useful they are when you do need them. It doesn’t really matter how often that is. They see no downside to having it for those times you need it, unlike a Prius, where your vehicle does one thing well (commute) but optimizing for that limits what you can do with it. They feel that they have a commuter, a hauler, an off-road vehicle, a winter snow vehicle, and something that can tow. They can be self-sufficient under a wide range of circumstances. The Prius owner has to ask that friend with a truck if he can help them, pay someone else to do it, or just stay home. And that’s not how status symbols work. It would be more accurate to say that luxury trucks are status symbols, not trucks. Nobody buys a truck as a status symbol, but maybe they buy a nice truck as one. The same statement applies to cars.
    - village-idiot 7y ago
      The idea that someone “needs” a truck because once a quarter a friend moves is just something I do not agree with. It would be far far cheaper and more practical to rent the few times that you need a truck. Truck owners are buying trucks largely for the feeling of self sufficiency, a fake one given the sheer amount of resources required to operate a modern vehicle, which is what makes it a status symbol. Its exactly the same as someone who “needs” a Jeep because it occasionally snows, even though their neighbor’s Honda Civic is doing just fine in the same conditions. Also, the idea that a truck is a good snow vehicle makes me giggle. My Subaru always outperformed them in snowy conditions.

sangnoir 7y ago

> Clearly a design decision by someone that doesn't use their pickup bed for picking things up. Seems like a reasonable engineering trade-off for an EV to me; unless you can figure out an equally aerodynamic solution with the spare under the frame. You want to maximize range all the time (by reducing drag), but you only rarely need to access the spare. If you badly need access to spare all the time and you're willing to sacrifice range 24/7 for it, I'm sure there will be after-market solutions, similar to bike-racks.