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I often consider getting a beater pickup for hauling home improvement stuff. But renting one of the occasional need is much more financially sound for our use case anyway.
Lets look at reasons people buy pickups and SUVs. In our area, go to any parking lot, and 75% of all vehicle are Pickups and SUVs, about equal amounts of each.
1: People buy them because in the winter, they will go when other vehicles don't move. They will all be 4X4 or AWD, and in the winter will have studded snow tires because they can move in snow and icy conditions.
2: People buy them, because they meet their needs. They are big enough to carry a family, and have the capacity to carry a large load of groceries, and other purchases. At the same time, they have enough room to be comfortable. Especially the small back seats without leg room eliminate current sedans from consideration. Like in our case it is 50 miles one way and a lot further the other way to a city to go shopping as an example. Cramped up for a trip to the city, is not acceptable to us.
3: They have the ground clearance to get around when the snow flies. A lot better than getting stuck on a little snow drift.
4: Safety. The chances if get in a wreck with a small car, the mid size and up SUV, and pickup, will be driven away, when the small car will be crushed. As they have found from statistics, the SUV and pickups are twice as likely to still be wheels on the ground, than the small cars that are twice as likely to roll over.
5: Viability factor. We like to see ahead and behind us.
3: People buy them, because sedans have gotten so small a lot of us cannot sit up any current models. And crawling in and out of the small sedans they make today is much more difficult. At only 6'2" tall with a long body, I cannot even sit up in them to drive the small cars.
So many people are dissatisfied with the regular cars they make today, and are switching to the larger SUVs and Pickups, Ford has already announced they are no longer going to be spending money to develop new regular car models, and going to quit building cars. They are converting their manufacturing capacity to build what people want today, SUVs and Pickups. Even the wealthy are switching to Pick Ups for the same reasons the average people are.
As a kid, my Dad always had a pickup for his job (pipeline welder). So, have always had a truck around, I have his old '65 GMC, and I have a '75 F-350 as well.
Like the ability to weld, braze, and solder, which I had in Dad and now in me, (not as good as he was, it ain't my day job, OK?) and having a fair sized air compressor around the house (that's just me, Dad never had one but would at times would "cheat" using compressed oxygen from the welding tanks to inflate tires and such), having a pickup available as part of my "kit" is just something I have been used to since I was a kid, and wonder how people get by without one?
I highly recommend at least an older pickup in good shape to one and all who have a place to park it. Can be your "spare" car in most cases when for whatever reason you can't or don't want to take your car wherever, and can haul all sorts of bulky appliances, hay bales, etc. This assuming you don't have a desire or need to have one of the more modern big haulers, Diesels mostly, that will haul your 5th wheel trailer or whatever you want to haul.
Lets look at reasons people buy pickups and SUVs. In our area, go to any parking lot, and 75% of all vehicle are Pickups and SUVs, about equal amounts of each.
1: People buy them because in the winter, they will go when other vehicles don't move. They will all be 4X4 or AWD, and in the winter will have studded snow tires because they can move in snow and icy conditions.
2: People buy them, because they meet their needs. They are big enough to carry a family, and have the capacity to carry a large load of groceries, and other purchases. At the same time, they have enough room to be comfortable. Especially the small back seats without leg room eliminate current sedans from consideration. Like in our case it is 50 miles one way and a lot further the other way to a city to go shopping as an example. Cramped up for a trip to the city, is not acceptable to us.
And yet the most popular cars selling in Norway are the Tesla Model X, Model S, and VW Golf. No trucks to speak of and SUVs are largely just the compact car based variety with the RAV4, Tiguan, and Outlander.
For people who have an occasional need to haul more than a car can carry, let me suggest a utility trailer. Most small cars can tow at least 1000 pounds, and a 4'x6' or 4'x8' utility trailer may weight 400-500 pounds, so that means at least 500 pounds of cargo. And when you're not towing, your smaller car can get 30+ MPG -- not many pickups can do that.
And yet the most popular cars selling in Norway are the Tesla Model X, Model S, and VW Golf. No trucks to speak of and SUVs are largely just the compact car based variety with the RAV4, Tiguan, and Outlander.
And Norway is like the US in what way exactly? Wide open spaces? Rural population?
"Why do people buy pickups?"
Quite often, because they want to and are not afraid to.
I have a diesel 3/4 ton because I like that Cummins engine, and because it tows my ATV trailer with no problems.
For people who have an occasional need to haul more than a car can carry, let me suggest a utility trailer. Most small cars can tow at least 1000 pounds, and a 4'x6' or 4'x8' utility trailer may weight 400-500 pounds, so that means at least 500 pounds of cargo. And when you're not towing, your smaller car can get 30+ MPG -- not many pickups can do that.
Forget that why hook up a trailer With a pickup you just go and do what you have to. Also most city people can’t even back up a trailer if their life depended on it. And many HOAs and cities don’t allow storage of any type of trailer on the homeowners property.
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