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One nitpick on the article is comparing a passenger sedan or passenger SUV to a light truck like the F150 when you're discussing depreciation is a bad compariso
by throwway120385 1y ago
One nitpick on the article is comparing a passenger sedan or passenger SUV to a light truck like the F150 when you're discussing depreciation is a bad comparison. Light trucks hold their value better generally for a variety of reasons including because the parts that get used are heavier and are more designed to be maintained with lubrication schedules and such. SUVs are not light trucks and have more in common with a minivan or a sedan. A better comparison would be to compare the depreciation of say a Tesla SUV to like a Ford Escape.
- gtowey 1y agoI don't disagree with you, but man is it crazy to hear that a "light" truck these days includes a 5 liter V8 that gets 16 mpg.
- mrits 1y agoThat is city mpg for the less common V8. What is crazy is that is that is what the Toyota 4Runner has gotten for over a decade.
- jaggederest 1y agoWait until you find out about the proper trucks that use a 7 to 15 liter turbocharged i6 and get 5-8 mpg.
- gtowey 1y agoNah, for me it's about utility. Big trucks are tools, and they spend much more of their lifetime putting that engine to use where nothing else will do. The shocking thing about light trucks with fuel economy in the teens is that most of the time they never haul anything. They're driven to the grocery store and to soccer practice where they have little value.
- usefulcat 1y agoAgreed. If the F150 is Ford's "light" truck, what does that make the significantly smaller Maverick?
- engineer_22 1y agoMaverick is styled like a truck, but unibody design is more like a ute. Same way the Subaru Outback is not a truck
- Marsymars 1y agoI've always found that to be a silly distinction, like it's a thing that matters to use cases in the same way that axle type matters, but it's not the sole distinguishing marker of whether something is a "truck". There are various non-trucks that are body-on-frame - BMW i3, Ford Crown Vic, Suzuki Jimny, etc. (The highest-spec Jimny tows less than the lowest-spec Honda Ridgeline.)
- engineer_22 1y agoOk if it looks like a truck it's a truck
- Aloisius 1y agoIt is a truck. Unibody might not be commonly used by truck makers, but using it doesn't mean it's not a truck. A Tread Unibody bulk truck can haul 50K pounds and no one would call it a ute.
- engineer_22 1y agoThe Tread Unibody is describing a piece of equipment mounted to a regular truck chassis. Their product advertisement show they're mounted to conventional Westernstar, Mack...
- engineer_22 1y agoHeavy trucks are industrial/commecial. In comparison to those vehicles, a 5 liter v8 is indeed "light".
- bityard 1y ago"Light truck" is slightly more formal way of saying "pickup truck." And is meant to differentiate the class from commercial trucks like moving vans, dump trucks, and semis. Smaller pickups like the Ford Ranger and Chevy S-10 are in the "compact pickup" class. (And unfortunately these are not sold in the US anymore. For those with genuine need, we either have to resurrect some old heap headed for the scrapyard or import them on the gray market from Asian countries.)
- davey48016 1y agoThe Ford Ranger is still (or once again?) sold in the US.
- jaggederest 1y agoBut it's basically the same size as the F-150 from the 80s, and double the size of the Ford Ranger from that era. By no means is it a compact truck any more.
- sureshv 1y agoThe Maverick fills that space but has limitations (less towing capacity than a 90's Ranger). I've seen it used by a ton of service folks that need a pickup but not for towing (1500 payload).
- jaggederest 1y agoEven the Maverick is GVWR 5100. The original Ranger was around 3200 GVWR, which these days almost makes it a kei truck.
- bob1029 1y agoThe F150 achieves its maximum available payload capacity (over a ton) in the trim level with a 3.5L turbocharged V6.
- rootusrootus 1y agoI'm a little surprised it isn't a regular cab with the 2.7L V6 that gets the highest payload. But they manipulate the suspension components a fair bit between different models so it's not just going to come down to the weight of the engine. The Lightning weighs as much as a gasser F250 but still has a payload in the 1650 pound range; my guess (without doing any research to prove it, mind you) is that the Lightning has the highest GVWR of any F150. I think even the HDPP only gets an ICE F150 up to 7850 GVWR. On a related note, we have some real candidates on the Lightning forums for being the modern "Danger Ranger" trucks -- turns out you can load a Lightning with well north of 2000 pounds and it still isn't squatting anywhere near the bump stops. Stiff suspension.
- o10449366 1y agoThat's not true from a mechanical perspective. Most SUVs use the same frame and parts as trucks by the same manufacturer (which is why they handle so poorly compared to sedans - it isn't just center of gravity)
- potato3732842 1y agoBy weight (gotta over-count those chevy suburbans, lol) that could be possible. By number the median SUV is some sort of crossover or compact SUV built on a platform the OEM also builds sedans on.
- neogodless 1y agoIf you define SUV as body-on-frame, sure. But most people think of crossovers as SUVs, and most are unibody. It's a big umbrella and how it's made isn't how mainstream thinks about buying.
- xeromal 1y agoYou're confusing SUVs with Crossovers. Most sales are crossovers and they are a taller sedan or minivan but SUVs like the land cruiser, 4runner, escalade, or armada are body on frame and built like a truck including being able to tow several tons.