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It is just a chest pounding kind of thing that marketing created. You know the commercials with some guy with a deep manly voice telling how all "big hero" men drive pickups. It is kind of comical really. What is more interesting is only in America will you see tons and tons of people driving pickups because Americans in general aren't real drivers. You hardly ever see drivers cars like Porsche, Audi and others. Mostly Pickups and SUVs because people just want to get from A to B in something huge. On top of all this, there are one heck of a lot of fat people in the US, so large pickups are usually pretty comfortable for fat folks.
I remember driving someone from Germany from the Airport and he commented, why are there so many people driving empty pickups around? Hilarious. I just had to try and explain to him that it was a status symbol due to mass marketing. You should have saw the look on his face. Total disbelief.
How have you come to the conclusion that it's all marketing?
This idea that a pickup truck needs to be full to be considered used is silly. If someone uses the truck bed 8 hours a week, the truck will be empty more than 95% of the time (8/168 hours).
I don't understand people who jump out of planes, or who climb mountains. Nor do I understand people who like sushi, or who like to live in Alaska. But what does that matter ? It only has to make sense to the person who likes those things, or who like pickups. It would be a pretty boring world if everyone liked the same things and drove the same kind of vehicle.
I saw a spare tire cover on a Jeep that said "If I have to explain it you wouldn't understand anyway." That about sums it up.
An adjustable lift you could reduce when back on the roads would be more responsible.
Bumper height is limited by law for on road vehicles.
The lift is determined by tires so your idea wouldn't work! And yes, I am responsible and have had trucks my whole driving life including bone stock 2WD as well as 4WD, a current pick up with 3" lift and 35 inch tires (no higher then a stock 3/4 or 1 ton), and a couple broncos with up to 40" tires and every one has been legally under the maximum bumper height allowed in MD. Therefore perfectly legal for driving on any street in any state I intend to drive in!
Yes, me, me, me as I buy and drive the vehicles I like and I like vehicles with wide and oversize tires. I can go out on the beach any time I want and not worry about getting eaten up by mosquitoes while airing down as the larger tires float over the sand with the air that gives the best ride on the street. I can go out into a muddy cornfield and not get buried up to my axle/diff as the tires boost that low hanging part of the undercarriage up a bit!
Nobody is going to chose a vehicle for me. I can do well enough on my own and I will always drive the kinds of vehicles I like and I will always keep them legal as well. That is being as responsible as I can be. Sorry if it doesn't meet your idea of a perfect world!
Yeah, funny how pickups are rarely seen in Europe and wagons are still the practical utilitarian vehicle.
National Lampoon's Vacation making fun of the wagon queen family truckster must not have been as popular over there heh.
That may have more to do with the very high price of gas, high taxes on large displacement engines, and ancient roads in some communities built in times of horse drawn carriages.
I don't understand the affinity of males in the US for pick up trucks. They are great if you live in rural areas, need to tow, or are in a construction type business, but it seems like a significant number of middle-class suburban American men have this dream of owning one, which I don't get. They're not all that fuel efficient, the ride isnt nearly as comfortable as a sedan or SUV, and they aren't fun to drive.
I've driven my father's F350 a few times which he uses to tow a 5th wheel travel trailer, and I just feel like I'm driving a boat. Feel totally disconnected from the road and have to be more careful maneuvering in parking lots.
My roommate is getting a 2017 Honda Ridgeline -- We live in the suburbs, he works 15 miles away, also in the suburbs, and the largest thing he's put in his CUV is his bike. I just totally don't get it.
Sports cars, I get. They're fast and fun to drive, even if not practical. But trucks? I can't see any advantage for a normal suburbanite to owning one outside of the random isolated time you need to pick up that oversized Ikea dresser or something.
For those who don't have the needs that you mention above, its a substitute for a small brain pan or similarly small penis.
In our part of the country, large SUVs and Pickups are king. Go to any parking lot and you will find that the majority of vehicles in the parking lot are SUVs and Pickups. In the winter, nearly all will be large SUV or pickup, and they will be 4X4s.
I can't drive small and mid size cars for one big reason. They are made for little people, and midgets. They are not made for men over 6 ft tall with a long body. I have always found that I cannot sit up in one. As I said, they are made for little people and midgets, not for a real man sized man.
Also they are dangerous. Run one of them into a pickup, and see who walks away without a scratch. In the winter, I always carry a long tow strap when traveling in 2 lane highway areas. Out where there is no cell phone service to call for help when you slide off the road. I have pulled many a small car and mid size car back in the road rather than let people sit there and die.
Our cars are a fully loaded Ford Explorer which is just barely large enough for me to fit in the drivers seat, and a F-150 pickup the biggest selling vehicle there is. We live 50 miles from any real shopping, and when we go to the city to shop, we take the pickup (has a shell on the back), to bring things home. We use the pickup to go to the dump (even though we live across the street from the best part of the city, no garbage service), as we don't want to stink up a $40,000 SUV with garbage smells. The pickup is always hauling something.
Yeah, funny how pickups are rarely seen in Europe and wagons are still the practical utilitarian vehicle.
National Lampoon's Vacation making fun of the wagon queen family truckster must not have been as popular over there heh.
Yeah, funny how some of us don't live in Europe and never intend to visit as well.
Over here, SUV's are the modern wagon. Funny how a wagon can be accepted in your mind but an SUV (I am considering the pick up based SUV's) can't. A suburban survived but the full sized station wagon didn't. One was a car and one was/is a truck. Both sat 9 or had room for 4x8 sheets laid flat. Those were wagon's. These compact things they call wagons now are nothing more then stretched hatchbacks!
Big trucks are like country music. I'll never get it but no problem if you do.
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