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> A pickup truck should just be max utility A working truck should be max utility. Around the core market of "working trucks," there are various wannabe truck
by a4isms 9mo ago
> A pickup truck should just be max utility
A working truck should be max utility. Around the core market of "working trucks," there are various wannabe truck products that do not have to be max utility. For example, a Subaru Brat or a Hyundai Santa Fe. Niche products compared to an F-150, but they had/have their fans.
I personally can't stand the design, but the idea of an impractical "halo vehicle" that appeals to a niche audience but burnishes the brand as "forward-looking" is not a bad one. It's just the execution of this particular halo vehicle that I would have a problem with were I in the market for a lifestyle look-at-me vehicle.
- b40d-48b2-979e 9mo agoA *working* truck should be max utility. All trucks should be working trucks. There is no reason to drive something that large and heavy that isn't better served by smaller vehicles that don't damage our shared infrastructure while being safer to drive.
- barbazoo 9mo agoTragedy of the commons.
- miltonlost 9mo agoTragedy of not having better regulations. The commons don't have anything to do with it.
- Dylan16807 9mo agoSome of the motivations to get vehicles like that, like being up higher than everyone and having more mass in a collision, are solidly tragedy of the commons.
- allarm 9mo agoThis is a tragedy of an awful taste.
- brokensegue 9mo agoThe reason is personal preference. Same reason people buy sports cars. I also wish their preferences were different
- alistairSH 9mo agoSports cars largely don't have any of the negative externalities of trucks.
- groundzeros2015 9mo agoNo, you just don’t dislike them enough to find them.
- scottyah 9mo agoTheir fuel consumption is about the same, what externalities are you referring to?
- alistairSH 9mo agoSure, if you're talking about high-power cars (M2, Corvette, etc). A Miata or Civic Type R will get far better fuel consumption. And there's also wear on the road, noise, and damage to property and people when accidents happen (physics is a bitch).
- scottyah 9mo agoSure, if you’re talking about high-power trucks (F350, Ram 3500). A Ford Maverick hybrid will get far better fuel consumption. I think more sports cars are burning out, revving loudly (or getting modified to take out their mufflers), and the damage from going a lot faster creates more damage.
- antiframe 9mo agoIt might depend on where you live. Nine times out of then when a vehicle with an obnoxiously loud and high revved gear vehicle drives by it's a truck. Probably more like 95% of the time.
- switchbak 9mo agoOh sure, but look at the vast popularity of these monstrosities that never even see gravel. I get how you (and I) find that abhorrent, but there's clearly LOTS of folks that find a blinged out useless luxury pretend truck to be very attractive. I was in the market for a pickup recently. I had wanted to like the Cybertruck, but ... too damn ugly, too version 0.3, too many dweebs driving them, too many teething issues even for a first cut. Plus it's as heavy as an F-250. There's almost no actual reason to grab one besides it being electric. Since I drive so little, I'd never pay back the embedded energy it takes to make the thing - so even that isn't a selling point. So instead I got a used Tacoma, and disappeared into the ocean of Tacomas that exist here in the PNW. It could be worse :)
- nospice 9mo ago> Oh sure, but look at the vast popularity of these monstrosities that never even see gravel. Normal-sized pickups aren't meant for offroading.
- switchbak 9mo agoSay what? A decent SUV can get you by in a pinch. A “normal sized” truck, is exactly what you take off road - yes you might have to do some modding, upgrades, but I don’t understand this take. And I’ve been around many a truck at the top of a gnarly mountain. I must be misunderstanding what you’re saying here. Even rock crawlers aren’t typically using F250 and larger truck sizes.
- pixl97 9mo agoI hope someone fully capitalizes on what Edison is trying to do up in Canada. That is a fully electric drive train hybrid. That way you can charge it at home and charge it with a generator under use. Problem is our current laws are making certifications a mess.
- bluGill 9mo agoTrucks don't have to see gravel to be working trucks. If you use a truck for work purposes once a year it is likely cheaper to just drive a truck for everything than have a second car. Don't say rent a truck is an option - you probably can't rent a truck for most work purposes - most rentals have fine print against that, even if you can find a place to rent a truck the cost quickly gets to more than just owning your own truck.
- rjrjrjrj 9mo agoThe Santa Cruz is about the same size as a Santa Fe and weighs less. The Ford Maverick is a smaller vehicle but also a truck. It is a working truck for some, and a rec/handyman vehicle for others.
- zdragnar 9mo agoA Maverick is hardly a working truck. It's got the same towing capacity of an older Kia Sportage. It's got front wheel drive (or awd). It's a car with a bed, not a truck.
- b40d-48b2-979e 9mo agoIt's a car with a bed, not a truck. Also called a Ute, which is fine! It avoids the weight and height that makes trucks dangerous vehicles to operate in a society.
- ErroneousBosh 9mo ago> It's got the same towing capacity of an older Kia Sportage. How often do you need to pull 2000kg?
- cindyllm 9mo ago[dead]
- zdragnar 9mo agoSeveral times a year at a minimum, and not always with good notice. Towing weight is also a good proxy for frame strength. I do some light forestry work moving and bucking logs, freeing stuck cars, plowing snow in addition to towing trailers and equipment.
- ErroneousBosh 9mo agoOkay, so a Kia Sportage ought to do then, I guess?
- palmotea 9mo agohttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/opinion/marie-gluesenkamp-perez.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/opinion/marie-gluesenkamp...: > It’s all but impossible to go into any rural bar in America today, ask for thoughts on pickup trucks and not hear complaints about the size of trucks these days, about touch-screens and silly gimmicks manufacturers use to justify their ballooning prices. Our economy, awash in cheap capital, has turned quality used trucks into something like a luxury asset class. > It’s often more affordable in the near-term to buy a new truck than a reliable used one. Manufacturers are incentivized by federal regulations, and by the basic imperatives of the thing economy, to produce ever-bigger trucks for ever-higher prices to lock people into a cycle of consumption and debt that often lasts a lifetime. > This looks like progress, in G.D.P. figures, but we are rapidly grinding away the freedom and agency once afforded by the ability to buy a good, reasonable-size truck that you could work on yourself and own fully. You can learn a lot about why people feel so alienated in our economy if you ask around about the pickup truck market. > Instead, the authors of “White Rural Rage” consulted data and an expert to argue that driving a pickup reflects a desire to “stay atop society’s hierarchy,” but they do not actually try to reckon much with the problem that passage raises — that consumer choices, such as buying trucks, have become a way for many Americans to express the deep attachment they have to a life rooted in the physical world. A reader might conclude that people who want a vehicle to pull a boat or haul mulch are misguided, or even dangerous. And a party led by people who believe that is doomed among rural voters, the Midwestern working class and probably American men in general. > This approach to politics governed by data and experts is what we mean when we talk about technocracy. It’s a system that no longer really functions today because the broad societal trust that once allowed data and experts to guide political choices has broken down. Democrats, increasingly, live in a world where data and researchers convincingly show that low-wage immigration raises the economy and our gun laws are reckless and misguided.
- PaulDavisThe1st 9mo ago> A reader might conclude that people who want a vehicle to pull a boat or haul mulch are misguided, or even dangerous. How about I just conclude that while pulling a boat or hauling mulch are completely OK things to want a vehicle for (*), one does not need a F150 with a front end that reaches my chest and has gas mileage to prove it. As many have noted, pickups like the 90s Toyotas did these things just fine for almost everyone, but most US based manufacturers have stopped making them. Me noting that doesn't make me part of the doom of the political party I always vote for. (*) to the extent that we live in a society where private ownership of vehicles is completely unremarkable, that is. And we do, for the foreseeable future.
- scottyah 9mo agoThere are different sized trucks for different purposes. A Maverick or Kei truck is lighter and safer than a lot of cars on the road while being way more useful.
- __turbobrew__ 9mo agoMaverick has a tiny bed (4.5 foot) whereas kei trucks can have up to 7 foot beds. I really wish we did small trucks with bigger beds here in North America. Really all I want is a hilux champ.
- trimethylpurine 9mo agoIn the same line of thinking we wouldn't be able to do anything for fun at all, since our very presence increases the living cost for everyone else. When we stand in the same line for ice cream, you're making it take longer to get mine, especially if you also have kids. Should kids be allowed in line for ice cream? They've made our shared line take longer and our shared source of ice cream more expensive. This is a modern society in which we must live and let live. That core value of tolerance, which preserves our personal freedoms, deserves to be weighed as much and more than our shared infrastructure, imo.
- a4isms 9mo agoThe Subaru Brat was not a large and heavy vehicle, and the Santa Cruz is basically an SUV with a bed instead of a third row. Niche vehicles do not have to be Hummers.
- remove-resolve 9mo agoI can't speak for the Santa Fe, but most Brat owners admit they have no intention of using it as a utility vehicle. The same cannot be said for most F-150 owners I know.
- stickfigure 9mo agoThese days Brat owners are classic car collectors...
- SPICLK2 9mo agoA modern F150 doesn't have "max utility". It's for site foremen and driving to Walmart.