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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

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.
  - lawnchair_larry 7y ago
    They need a truck like you need a Subaru, which is just as much of a status symbol. Also, many trucks get better MPGs than Subarus.
    - village-idiot 7y ago
      At what point did I say that other cars aren’t status symbols? I also singled out garage queen race cars in another thread. But if you want to attack my vehicle choices; I ditched the Subaru when I left Colorado, a location where it was useful, and switched to a small sedan when I moved to LA. More reasonable, more efficient, and cheaper to operate.

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.
- lawnchair_larry 7y ago
  They need a truck like you need a Subaru, which is just as much of a status symbol. Also, many trucks get better MPGs than Subarus.
  - village-idiot 7y ago
    At what point did I say that other cars aren’t status symbols? I also singled out garage queen race cars in another thread. But if you want to attack my vehicle choices; I ditched the Subaru when I left Colorado, a location where it was useful, and switched to a small sedan when I moved to LA. More reasonable, more efficient, and cheaper to operate.