Both cars fit the same amount of people
Honestly this is absurd. These death machines shouldn't be legal in europe. That thing doesn't even fit in the parking space, even though the parking lot has the biggest spaces in the whole city. The Golf Polo is so small in comparison, it could even hide in front of the engine hood of the truck.
EDIT: It's a Polo and not a Golf, I don't know my cars, sorry for that!
Both of them are used to transport mostly a single person at a time. Even the small one is too big.
Fuck cars, not just big trucks. They all tuck, they all are responsible for the harm done.
But you forgot that the truck can be used to haul 4 pieces of lumber twice a year!
And only costs 1000x more than it would to rent a trailer for a day twice a year.
Exactly!
The Lowes near me you can rent a whole truck for like $20 + gas
How do Europeans get stuff for their house around? Like do appliances just get delivered as part of buying them? Or are there other companies that specialize in that sort of thing? Genuinely curious.
This question baffles me because it seems like a total non-issue to me as a European. How do Americans get stuff for their house around? Do you not have delivery or truck/van/trailer rental services, and are all your appliances (and not just fridges/freezers which are apparently hilariously big in the US) so American-sized that you can't fit them in an average family hatchback/crossover/SUV? Or do you regularly move all of your stuff from one house to another?
Dude, as an American I had all of my appliances delivered. The Home Depot guys showed up with a box truck. It’s free delivery too so why would you even need a truck…. In fact, you can get a lot of stuff delivered for free or very cheaply from Home Depot.
The truck in this picture is so shiny it’s clearly a vanity vehicle. I’m guessing it’s owned by a member of the US armed forces judging by the star on the side? American military personnel are known to bring their vehicles with them from the mainland, to Japan or Europe.
Aside from the free delivery of appliances others mentioned, I believe it is an EU law that a store that delivers whitegoods must also take the old one and properly dispose of it.
I ordered a new fridge lately. The delivery was free (I paid the extra €25 to have them install it and plug it in) and I had to clean the old fridge out before they arrived, but they took the old one down the same 3 flights of stairs they carried the new one up.
UK here. Yes you order an appliance and it gets delivered, and in some cases installed, by the retailer. If you have a plumber or kitchen fitter maybe they will collect it for you in their van. I'm sure you could save a bit of money on shipping if you collected it yourself, but not many people have the means to do so. And this way, if it's damaged in transit, the retailer are liable.
Lithuanian here. My brother in law brought a refrigerator and a standard size washing machine in his ~2006 Mazda 3.
Seats can be folded or sometimes removed altogether, you can drive with your trunk not fully closed, just make sure everything is secured well and anything protruding from your car is marked with reflectors or bright coloured strips of cloth.
Basically, yes. Appliances are delivered and installed, usually free of charge (read: the price of delivery and installation is just calculated into the price of the appliance). Same for furniture.
Most home improvement stores either offer a (paid) delivery service or you can rent a small van/truck to get your larger purchases home.
Trailer hitches are quite common too, allowing you to tow a simple trailer (which you can either buy or rent):
..how much house work do you ACTUALLY do? You can't pay an extra $50 for delivery for that new washing machine you buy once a decade? I owned a house for fifteen years before downsizing and moving into condo life, and never once thought to myself gosh I wish I had a 6 ton gigantic truck to get stuff for my house around.
I am not even european but all of my big appliances (refrigerator, stove, washing machine) were delivered to my home by the store I bought them from, either free of charge or super cheap, I can't remember. I've also bought bricks amd had them delivered to my doorstep.
Most household appliances I have ever bought fit in a Polo or similar sized cars, if you wrap the back seat bench.
For > 1.8 m and < 50 kg stuff I use a rack.
To be fair – the older generations of Polo were on the smaller side of compact cars. I've used VW Polo Variant, Mitsubishi Wagon R, Mercedes A, Hyundai I 10 and modern Polo myself.
If my car is too small, I ask family/friends/neighbors or rent a van.
Most shops that sell big appliances offer a delivery service as well.
Actually, we do have trucks and SUVs and pickups, too. Though they are usually a bit smaller than an F150 or RAM 3500, so we often use trailers if we need to transport larger items.
Folks living in the center of big cities (which I personally believe are a bit overrepresented in this sub) often live in flats where stuff like dishwashers and washing machines are already provided, so they don't need to transport that, or even don't need/have a car at all. For those, there are delivery services and light trucks that can be rented.
I think they are called hatchbacks in english(Kombi meine ich). You can fit most appliances into there when you fold the seats. That's how my parents always transported large things. For even larger things we just got a trailer.
Since I don't have a car I usually just get things delivered. And the guys who deliver it just drive vans.
Yeah, part of the business.
They often charge based on delivery distance or area, but we're not a massive country. Odds are you're within 10 miles of the shop.
New appliances are usually delivered, yes. Big stores have their own delivery service, others use the national postal service or one of the many private ones.
For moving old furniture, there are specialized companies (mostly small sole proprietorships) that come to your house with a van, load your stuff, and drive it to a new location. Or you can rent a van or a truck (I mean an actual cargo vehicle, not what you see in the picture).
Polo is not the only car in Europe. Europeans use cars that i believe Americans would call station wagon. Those cars used to be used widely in US as well AFAIK until car producers figured out they can sell you more expensive cars by making it bigger.
I own "station wagon" car, it's dwarf compared to these monster trucks but i can make 6.6 ft long double bed in the back where two people can sleep comfortably. I transported single bed sized furniture with that car and it uses approx 1 gallon of gasoline per 62 miles.
Don't let me start on trailers. Every European car even smallest ones can tow reasonable sized trailer with "dirty" or too bug cargo to fit inside a car. All you need is hook installed once in car life time.
Also if you buy new anything in Europe, most shops will make sure you get it delivered at your doorstep and won't trow it at your front yard when you are not there. It has to be given "from hand to hand" often even requires verification of receiver.
American here. All of my appliances have been delivered. Sometimes I even pay to have them installed.
You're very generous lol
The golf will also get farther with the same amount of fuel. Way farther.
That's a Polo, the Golf is a tad bigger
In the States, the same choads that drive tankmobiles tend to complain about fuel prices and how it’s all big gubmint’s fault for stealing their fun (fun being defined as the ability to do 95 mph on the interstate and still pay under $50 for a tank of gas).
Not with a flat tyre.
The car doesn't have a flat tyre, it's actually in the parking space unlike the truck..
I'd wager a sizeable number of half-ton pickup trucks are used solely as people movers, i.e. the bed and towing capabilities aren't utilized. In many countries, trade workers more than manage with light vehicles, like kei trucks in Japan, so I think they'd work for the average weekend warrior too.
What always gets me is how shitty pick-ups are at transporting things.
Can you forklift a pallet from the side? Nope the tub design doesn't allow it unless you have a tray design.
Can you load a large ladder on it? No ladder/timber rack.
Is it good off-road? Perhaps, but the tub design over the rear tyres and back bumper make the departure angle poor, you'll need rock sliders or a lift.
I think I'll stick to wagons and vans.
Pickups are just worse vans.
Can't fit an ATV in a van, and no I won't use a trailer because I'm already using one. Trucks have their uses because vans don't have an open top.
Seriously discussion here always feels impossible. They're sitting shit taking the truck while in a Euro city with great public transit. BOTH are unnecessary with the right context.
Do many trades genuinely work out of Kei trucks? I feel a lot of people here don't understand just how tiny they are.
headlights shouldn't be allowed that high on road vehicles, blinding menace on wheels.
Especially when they aren't the normal yellowish ones and they have the strong, eye piercing white-blue ones. Fucking hate xenon headlights.
Theoretically they could angle them down but I'm guessing they don't.
Aren't they obligated to aim headlight at certain angle? I know they check it at periodical technical check of civil vehicles.
I also started to see more of these in urban areas of europe. Not a huge amount but still recognizable. I dont get why one would buy something like this. You wont even be able to find a proper parking spot for these.
Yes. Both cars fit the same amount of people but one driver is carrying a smaller package.
I see you know the driver of the truck. 😈
ayy lmao
I think the most absurd is, that even former basic cars like the Polo get bigger and bigger. Modern Polos seem to take up more space than a gen. 1, 2, or even 3 Golf - but with barely more space inside.
Effects are, they take up more public space when curb parking, perversely hindering their brothers to get through. Some just barely fit single garages built in the 50ies, totally inconveniencing the driver trying to get out. One'd thing people buying these would see these self created problems, but apparently not.
Ok but a lot of that space is taken up by crumple zones and the like, things that make far fewer people die. Euro NCAP legislation drives a lot of the change you are seeing, and a lot of it for the better.
Completely agree, Crumple zones, sound deadening, side impact safety bars, airbags, rollover reinforcement, even just the structure of the seats has changed dramatically over time. Sit in a mk1 golf or polo and marvel at the exterior coloured painted metal on the inside of the car, and now think, how was it ok to make a car with this little safety?
Crumple zones do not reflect the ridiculous proportions of that pickup truck.
The VW has perfectly fine crumple zones for a collision with another car of up to double it's mass and size. They are also designed to give pedestrians a fighting chance of minimal injury in built up areas.
Due to the arrival of these pickups, all cars need to get bigger and more reinforced to deal with a collision.
They don't see their big car being the issue. They complain about parking spaces so small these days that they "have to" use up multiple/park halfway on the curb/block the biking lane.
Yeah basically all modern cars have tiny interior volumes, even tho externally they are huge.
As a comparison, my 2014 Nissan Note can maximally carry 2012 liters. The 2023 Renault Espace - a label whose name literally means spacious - can only carry 1818 liters. And that's while it's 50cm taller, wider and longer than the Nissan while weighing a whopping 50% more.
I don't know about interior volume, but the only modern cars that I've been in that I actually considered spacious on the insides are those newer Civic models. Like from 2015 or so. My friend has one of them, they're decently compact from the outside, but my god the only time I've had that much legspace and headroom in a car was in vans.
Now, admittedly, you're not gonna be hauling sofas and fridges with one, but as a people mover and grocery getter? Really damn good.
Exactly. I honestly think my 2 door saloon has more capacity than all these light SUVs.
I'm seeing these in London now. Why are we importing the absolute worst of US transportation fucks ups?
capitalism is a worldwide system, europeans are no more safe from it than americans or afticans, we need to overthrow it everywhere
fucking leftist
How else are you going to let people know you lost the genetic lottery?
Can you store up to 10 corpses on that Polo?
Seriously this is actually a good point. While most trucks are overkill for daily driving if you do a lot of hunting, fishing etc you have to deal with transporting dead/gross things home surprisingly often. It's nice to have a totally separate compartment that you can simply hose out. Again not for everyone but that's a legit use case a family friend has for their truck.
We all know.
"They have there usage".
Yes, we know. Does a ranger/hunter use this parking lot on their way from home to the woods? Nope.
I'm coming off a bit angry, I don't mean it. But every post about ridiculously huge, gargantuan trucks has a comment about the edge case usage.
But that's not our lived reality. In our lived reality 99% of these trucks don't have any additional usage of that sort. Their owners just want to have them.
If stacked on one another, a van would always hold more luggage than that truck would with even better mobility on major roads. There's no justification for the existence of that monstrosity.
You would be surprised 😂 To be precise, I'm not talking about corpses but I saw smaller car transporting 8-10 living Roma people with no issue.
It seems like a lot of people here don't understand that circumstances might be different in different places. This post itself assumes the only reason is to transport people, but the truck can do more than that.
If I lived in a rural place and needed something that could tow, transport, and go over tougher terrain, I could see the usefulness of having a truck around. Not everything is in a comfy city where everything is within a couple miles.
Now where I currently live, I'd never dream of getting a truck like that. So much hassle and the roads are too small. But I could see it being useful for someone else.
The truck still doesn't need to be that big. Trucks have gotten absolutely massive with no appreciable difference in bed size. Yes yes, of course, bigger truck = more towing and load capacity, but honestly there's got to be a reasonable limit where something becomes a commercial vehicle, and the limit needs to be much lower than the current standard.
Reminds me of the ever growing number of blades on a mach razer.
Yes yes, of course, bigger truck = more towing and load capacity
Bigger, longer trucks are also more stable for towing, which is particularly useful if you're towing livestock. Animals moving in a stock trailer are much less stable than a trailer full of equally heavy equipment.
But that's honestly pretty niche. The average pickup driver doesn't own horses.
Excuse me sir. This is a /c/fuckcars. We are just here to fuckcars because for reasons. We are not here for nuance. If people need big cars because their lives depended on it the they should change their lives /s
We all understand there are actual uses for a large truck. The issue is A) these trucks keep increasing in size well beyond what is practically needed, and B) more and more people who don't have a practical use for these vehicles are commuting to work in them. The average person driving a large truck today does not live on a farm. They live in the suburbs and use it to commute to their office job and occasionally to grab a can of paint from home Depot.
These tanks aren't safe around pedestrians or smaller cars, they take up way too much space and either don't fit in most parking spots or necessitate the building bigger and bigger parking lots, they're fuel inefficient, their headlights are obnoxiously high and blind everyone else at night, etc.
They're obnoxious, dangerous, harmful to the environment, and simply unnecessary for the vast majority of people, so fuck 'em.
You can't possibly know each person's reasoning on why they may need or not need a particular thing. Saying someone cannot get it at all will end up hurting the little guy. The person why can't go through all the hoops to get some random exception for their specific use case.
You talk about it being dangerous, doesn't every driver go through roughly the same certification process for that state? If you're problem is the quality of their driving, you should be pushing for higher standards for getting a license
You say they are wasteful on gas. Wouldn't that mean the owner would need to pay extra money out of pocket to maintain it's use? They are bearing the cost extra cost of ownership, so why not let them use it? For example, you are probably paying for internet. Should I be allowed to stop you from using the internet you paid for because I don't agree with your reasoning? No, and that's completely ridiculous.
People who need trucks hate these things
Get the Ordnungsamt involved, it's illegal to park like that. It's too heavy and big to try to park like a car.
Lol good luck with that. At least where I am the Ordnungsamt is beyond useless.
I see those pick-ups all the time and almost never are they properly parked. Just like in the picture lmao.
In most of the EU, you'll get a hefty fine for parking on the pavement. Take a picture wirh the license number and report anonymously.
In my part of the world cops have written warning to those who report these people because "taking a photo of their license plate is a violation of their privacy".
Remember when I said anonymously?
However, only a single car possesses the ability to signal your fellow drivers about the astonishingly delicate nature of your masculinity.
That's both of them, true chads use eurotrucks
It's about bumper height more than anything else
What do you mean? They've specifically designed it so that when it ruptures all of your internal organs you don't have to suffer through living any longer
And a nice set of airbags for the driver while doing so.
Depens if they are dead or alive. That truck could hold a lot or corpses.
That truck has a shit carrying capacity. Get a van for the job.
While that’s very useful, generally the issue is that the corpses are on the outside of its chassis. I don’t know many pickup owners that take the full time to wrap the victim in a carpet and put it in the back each time they miss a crosswalk from poor hood visibility.
They can both hold the same number of people within their ashtrays.
Well, not the same amount of people. The truck can only carry the same number of people, but only guys with small dicks.
Dick size is not the issue, let's not make a genetically determined physical trait something to shame people over, when people who drive such massive vehicles have actual things we can criticise them for!
I know it's a joke, but idk not an inventive or funny one imo.
OP most-likely meant "Napoleon complex". They overcompensate for their insecurity.
#cocktailweinergang
And realistically, only one of them.
Polo but yeah. The size difference is crazy. Who actually needs such a vehicle?
People that need to haul heavy stuff, wearing dirty boots probably. And I bet some of these are driven by those, but the vast majority is just used to boost the egos of people with some sort of complex.
Anyone who tows. Or does a lot of work on their home. Mine gets used usually once a month during the warm months.
Only one of them fits a man with a small dick
Might just be my experience but in the UK at least, it’s almost exclusively women who drive cars like this. Men more commonly drive vans and super large vehicles to be fair, but specifically larger than necessary, non-tradesman style cars (Land Rovers, very clean, empty pick-ups etc.)
God forbid somebody drives a pickup truck. There's never ever a necessity to haul anything weighing over 500kg or to ever pull a large trailer. It's safe to assume anybody driving one of these big scary machines is a sadist with a micropenis and a threat to society.
Do you realize that whoever grew the food you ate today likely owns and utilizes a pickup truck? Do you realize that your convenient city life would be impossible without rural people transporting goods to your little concrete paradise?
That's funny. This might shock you but I don't actually live in a concrete paradise. I live in a rural area in Europe in a small village with a lot of farms. Take a guess how many pickup trucks there are here? Close to none. That's because nobody actually needs a pick-up truck.
the red one can haul so much more corpse at the back though. yours can't.
Bro what? They had to pull up on the curb to fit in a space. That's ridiculous .
Europe, my dude. An unnecessary choice of vehicle for Europe. At least, for most of Europe. North American spots are much larger.
Totally unnecessary indeed
You might be right about the passengers, but from a relatives point of view, only the pickup works for his line of work. I won't go into details, but it involves transporting machines from site to site and using them there. His pickup is only used for work, he has a Volvo V60 as daily driver.
I see no problem with large cars as long as there is justifications for that specific vehicle.
The F150 is the best selling vehicle in america. The vast majority of those will never pull work machinery.
We understand that some people do, but bringing it up every time we object to these massive death machines does not preclude the sheer wastefulness and carelessness that most of these vehicles embody.
My neighbor has a massive truck and a huge dog. I've observed her running over the curb multiple times and more than once would've run me over if I hadn't been paying attention for both of us. Her dog weighs more than she does and it snaps at me howling every time it gets close. I've told her multiple times she possesses two lethal weapons that she clearly doesn't have control over, and she screams at me. Negligent people piss me off so bad, don't own something if you don't have the training or ability to control it. (Who wants to bet she's carrying too?)
"I see no problem with large cars as long as there is justifications for that specific vehicle."
Agreed. In 99 out of 100 cases there isn't, though.
Seriously! A van has a cover so workmen can leave their tools in it year-round, and it's lower to the ground so it's much easier to load and unload. The Mercedes Sprinter is probably the best work vehicle imo
This seems to be in a European city though
There's a reason why the tradies here mainly use vans instead of big honking trucks like these - something small and covered is much easier and more useful on small streets and is also just much safer
Also I dunno, Australia seems to run just fine on utes
We did run fine on utes, but they're getting hard to find now. You can move anything with an aluminium tray and a bit of imagination.
Now that you mention it, I can't recall seeing a car like in the picture in a city, it's always vans,
I fully agree with you. These kind of vehicles can be quite practical for quite a lot of usecases!
The one in question from the picture however, seems much more like what we germans call "Stadtpanzer" (City Tank) - a utility vehicle made for transporting heavy loads in uneven terrain being used for commuting in a City, whichs is in my point of view very much not justified.
Use cases like, grabbing your Sunday shopping
I'm gobsmacked you haven't been downvoted into the dirt for that remark.
If you chop them into pieces, you can fit more "people" in the back.
What the fuck
Oh, c'mon. We've all done it!
I owned an f150 for 11 years. It's honestly been my favorite vehicle. However, in the time I owned it, I used it to tow my motorcycles and race gear, I renovated almost every room in my house, and I had a seven kilometer drive to work. It was an extremely useful vehicle. Anyone that needs a truck will immediately argue with you that they aren't necessary... For some people. My kids got a little older, and I need to drive them and their friends around, I sold the bikes, and I sold the truck for 50% of what I paid for it. I bought a 6 seater explorer. You may not like trucks, but they have their uses. If they sold UTEs in the USA/Canada I would have bought one in a second. I used to carry a tow strap too to pull civics out of the ditch during snow storms.
You could have done all of that in a small truck like the old ford ranger.
No one thinks that trucks aren’t useful. The problem is the absolutely preposterous size of these trucks.
I think the problem is that a lot of the time (at least I'm America, that's where I live), is that people don't actually utilize their pickup trucks and they just end up being shiny pavement princesses.
Americans don't know about this little secret.
I am sorry to tell you that that person is not a racer. Not even close. They guy does not have a hibachi and food for 3 people in his car. He also doesn't have a dedicated rain bike on top of his primary and secondary (A and B) bike. We towed a 16 foot enclosed trailer with the bed full. But nice try.
I haven't owned a vehicle in five years and I would 100% buy a UTE in less than a heartbeat. That auto manufacturers gave up on them domestically is a huge bummer. Even the new Hyundai Santa Cruz is a bit too big as a vehicle, however the bed is oddly tiny. I want the bed size of Ford Ranger with the cab and ground clearance of a Toyota Corolla.
6 vs. 5. But I get your point.
Really worth that extra person...
Plus luggage for all for a week trip...
Of course it’s a dOdGe rAm 1500 hD that’s parked partially on the side walk
I bet I could get more people and stuff in the truck than the golf... Not comfortably, but still... A lot more.
To be fair, no one is going to be comfortable in the golf either.
Lol... Yea fair enough.
It's a decent car... Also, did you ever watch this? https://youtu.be/WUtE3QlTpKI for the polo.
And here's a golf one: https://youtu.be/qG4IaHgqH00
They might fit the same amount of people, but not the same amount of overblown ego.
It is too big, but the form factor is still important. We upgraded from a Jeep to a Yukon Denali because we are very poor and live in Fuck All, Nowhere and need to haul groceries and furniture from the city.
With that said, none of us three friends and housemates like testosterone, and we are careful about how we drive and where we park. We do our best! <3
No hating on your vehicle choice, but very poor and Denali trim anything doesn't make sense lol
It was the only used vehicle we could afford that wasn't breaking down and could haul furniture.
I just don't understand why we can't have mid engine trucks anymore.
Imagine all that space with a smaller footprint!
Mid engine trucks? What in the librul hell are those? REAL MEN drive trucks with engine bays as long as a sedan, you dirty socialist commie!
/s
I drive a sierra and I try to park as far away from the "Good spaces" as possible.
A) because I know I can't park my fuckheug
And
B) I'm young and healthy. I can walk.
Before I get berated, I use my ebike for most trips that don't involve work, play, or long distances. My average fuel usage is roughly the same as when I had my subaru outback that got 7MPG better ¯(ツ)/¯
That's a polo not a golf, so while it's big it not quiet as big as portrayed
I understand not liking unnecessary large trucks with giant wheels that have never seen dirt in their lives. The same guys that like to rev their engine anytime they leave. But this just looks like a standard work truck. Maybe the back is full of tools? Maybe he's going camping. Camping is dope.
This isn't standard. Nothing about that vehicle is standard.
If it's for lugging tools, get a van. They're safer and better for the job.
If it's for camping, get a van.
These trucks make no sense, other than financially to car companies.
My former boss I knew well owned a truck like this. He was the boss of an electrician company and used his vehicle for a great many roles, towing stuff, bringing electrical and repair equipment that was pretty large, and taking the family for vacation. So the only reason a person should be looking at a vehicle like this is if you have a lot of different things to do with it
In America, many trades do use trucks to transport things. Farmers may use a pick up truck like this to haul hay or feed in the back. Construction companies and contractors will use trucks to move small loads of dirt or gravel. Lumber and plywood. Concrete blocks. Building supplies, scrap metal or machinery.
The open bed does make it easier to load and unload stuff in the back that does not need to be covered, and can allow you to use a forklift. But at a certain point if you’re moving a lot of heavy stuff a flatbed truck is it going to be more effective.
Still, way too many people buy trucks and never use them. They are very expensive and a lot of people go heavily in debt in buying these fancy overpriced vanity trucks. I think they cost between $75,000-$100,000 these days!
But this just looks like a standard work truck. Maybe the back is full of tools? Maybe he’s going camping. Camping is dope.
Sure. Two issues though.
So as a result, there are way more way bigger vehicles on the road endangering all road users and wasting resources for no benefit besides lining the pockets of the manufacturers.
It's in germany and parked at a train station with no company logos on the vehicle. I only see it on workdays so it's sadly most likely a commuter.
Also standard work trucks in Germany are Vans, most people get a Mercedes Sprinter (or similar vans) for that. Plus you can customise your Sprinter to have a truck bed. Neat!
Yeah, my truck is great when I want to buy some furniture at ikea.
It's not about how many people you can fit, it's about how much potatoes you can fit.
It's not a car though, that's the point right?
If it does beep, beep, vroom, vroom, it's a car
I'm bothered when Americans call a truck a car. I'm being picky, but they are not the same thing.
I'm sorry that these are starting to show up outside of North America.
You could fit more people in the truck if you had a decent circular saw.
You mean living people?
I would have guessed a reciprocating saw would be a better tool for the job, but you're the expert I guess
I prefer chainsaws, myself
You joke, but you could fit between 6 to 8 people in the back of the truck just sitting in the bed.
It’s mostly about them being unnecessary. Wasted fuel economy, wasted parking space, safety risks to anyone else on or near the road, etc.
This is the dumbest comment I've seen today. Saying a truck is unnecessary simply because you have no use for one is ridiculous. Are we all really going to ignore the fact that they are incredibly useful? Towing capacity alone. People gotta move big things from one spot to another regularly. As for a waste of parking space, do you normally fit 2 cars in 1 spot? What difference does it make if you're using the whole spot as opposed to half of it? This whole thread doesn't make sense to me. For the record, I don't own one, but would if I could afford one lol.
I sometimes get annoyed by all the large vehicles on the road obstructing my view. For the most part, pickup trucks are never hauling anything, so there is no reason to be driving one. SUVs are used by parents who are too insecure to drive minivans :)
Personally, I have both a small car I use for commuting, and a large pickup I use for hauling.
I'm against draining the tires of cars, but in cases like this I'd consider making an exception... if it's a commercial vehicle, buddy should get it licensed as such.
The problem, at least in the UK is exactly that. As commercial vehicles, they can be more tax efficient than company cars. Lots of builders and mechanics have them as family cars, because this avoids the traditional emissions based personal company car tax system. I appreciate this is more of a problem with the UK commercial taxation system than anything else but still
licensed? Where would be the difference?
Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, that driver of that truck is the one who is doing your bathroom/kitchen/whatever remodel and NEEDS that room to carry the supplies for that work?
The tradies here hate those huge American trucks. It's mostly vans, cabovers and older (smaller) trucks. Weird how these trucks didn't use to exist (no at this scale/popularity) and people's homes still got remodeled, but now they're somehow necessary?
The repair dude at my workplace literally uses a rusty old Dodge Caravan minivan because a pickup truck is not feasible. Everything he could possibly need fits in the back.
A van is far, far better for that. I work with fitters all the time and not one of them has a pickup, it's Transits all the way down
An accountant told me that the only reason people own these tiny-penis trucks in Europe is because they can be classed as a work vehicle, no matter what your business, and written off against tax
A small minority of people need trucks. 90% of people who have them are suburban dads whove never hauled anything but groceries and kids to soccer games
The problem is that when you have a family to protect, you're faced with the choice of going on the road in a tiny car that will not survive a crash with those big vehicles. It's really an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality.
Bigger doesn't mean safer. I used to drive an 06 Corolla. I got rear ended at a stoplight by an SUV going ~40 mph. Their car was totaled. The rear body of my car was kinda mangled, but completely drivable. The driver of the other car broke their wrist and had their airbags deployed. I just got my knuckles a little scraped on my dashboard.
I drive an 08 Corolla these days.
"Fuck everyone else, I got mine." Why do so many people post apologia and the lies they tell themselves to assuage their shitty choices? Wrong fucking community. We do the opposite here.
I'm not apologizing for anything. I live in a world where, like it or not, people are driving around in tanks. Opting out of that means that I've be driving around with little kids on roads where our tiny car would be crushed in an accident.
Not going to let that happen. I'm not buying a tank, but I'm buying a car big enough that it scores high in crash tests against tanks.
I'm all for systematic change, but pretending we don't already live in the environment we live in is simply denial.
The end result of this logic is that everyone drives delivery trucks and busses to get where they want without dying. It doesn't scale. There needs to be a reasonable limit somewhere to prevent that.
Pickup trucks have worse single-vehicle crash safety. Statistically, the danger of injury and death balances out.
That sounds similar to pro gun logic.
Except that this is evidence based and the gun logic is counter to the evidence.
Dont get Europe confused with whatever urbanite area you live in. Europe is diverse and some places benefit from vehicles like this.
It's Europe, It is pain both for driver of that monster truck and others that participate in traffic when these monsters show up.
Europe was "designed" for carriages, then upgraded for normal sized cars.
There are very few places such a truck is not nuisance, in Europe
That's because one is a truck
Who knew
The truck is intended to haul things, they have different use cases.
Also, the truck can carry people in the bed as well (unsafely of course)
Fuck both of them though, they're still cars.
Trucks like that are primarily designed to tow a lot of weight. But not too much, that’s what the actual big trucks are for…. 🙄
One of them can haul 4 of the other ones.
SUVs and pulling shit is kinda funny you see: Automatic transmissions have shit torque out of the box, they'd overheat pulling simple trailers so they need additional cooling so they need additional space so Yanks buy oversized cars (whether or not they actually pull anything).
Anyhow if America learned to drive manual transmission like the rest of the world they could pull trailers with Golfs, like the rest of the world.
Heck that SUV there looks larger than a Unimog and I can guarantee you it is nowhere even close to Unimog capabilities. Those things are honorary tractors.
My SUV's towing capacity: 3500lbs
The car version of my SUV (built on the same platform, with the same engine and transmission and actually 4" longer), towing capacity: 2000lbs
Why? Suspension, not transmission.
The Golf you're talking about has no official towing capacity in North America because North America is actually more strict about towing safety than Europe. I've towed with my Jetta though and anything past 1k lbs was a stretch.
A Unimog doesn't hit highway speeds, they're road legal farm vehicles.
Transmission oil coolers don't require much space either and they're required if you're towing heavy loads with a manual transmission too, so packaging doesn't change.
Before sharing your opinion as if it were a fact you should make sure you actually know what you're talking about.
Automatic transmissions have shit torque out of the box
Absolute nonsense, the torque converter multiplies torque at low speed, so an automatic with the same gear ratios as a manual will have far more pulling power than a manual.
And a trans cooler is standard on pretty much any automatic vehicle.
That's not a SUV my man, that's a full size pickup truck with a bed topper. And automatic transmissions can absolutely pull a heavy load without a problem if they are designed for it. Plenty of Americans own manuals, I've had many over the years and enjoy them both, but just having a manual transmission is not what makes a car capable of pulling a load. Your never going to pull a serious load in a golf, regardless of the transmission; maybe a little yard trailer or haul a motorcycle, but not a horse, a car, or anything actually considerable for that matter, you would fold the frame up and would never be able to stop it. That's a ram 2500 btw, it will haul 10,000-15,000 lbs depending on how it's configured. A unimog is more like a street legal tractor, love em, but it's in a whole other class than this. Completely different use case, not really comparable. A new unimog probably cost 3x this truck as well.
In surveys, only a third of pickup drivers haul more than once a year.
Most pickup owners would be better off renting or borrowing a pickup when they actually need one. There's definitely some people that need them, but even some who actually use full sized pickups would be better off with a smaller version like an ute, kei truck or smaller pickup.
Given that that picture is from somewhere in Europe, I'd guess that a full sized American pickup isn't a terribly practical vehicle for them. And is quite bad for the safety of people around them - pedestrians are far more likely to die after being hit by a pickup, and small cars will be worse off in an accident than against something their own size.
The problem is the number of people who "need" a truck, but then refuse to use it to haul anything because it will decrease the value. what most people don't understand is that all vehicles depreciate in value, there is no increase until they become a classic, and that still doesn't increase it to the price you paid for it until it becomes an antique. The average new car/truck loses 12% of it's value the moment it drives off the lot..
The things you learn as a car salesperson. If you get a loan (should be a mortgage on new trucks) you are immediately upsidedown on it as soon as you sign the loan paperwork.
Which one would most likely kill you if the driver ran a red light and hit you in the crosswalk??? Which one? Also they’re not in use and taking up valuable real estate in a crowded urban area. Both vehicles are not contributing much value are they? Car-brained jackass
Edit: a word
To be fair, the van can fit waaaayyy more stuff in the back. Good luck getting your big work machinery in that normal car. They're made for different tasks entirely.
That said, the van doesn't need to be anywhere near that ridiculously large whatsoever and could still store the same amount of tools and people, it's incredibly dumb design for people with deep inadequacies.
Cool, how much can the Polo fit in the back? How much can it tow? What's it's off road capabilities?
Whether people actually use those capabilities is a different question, but these vehicles are in no way equal.
Most SUVs are useless off road and even the good ones aren't always necessary. Peugeot has proven it back in the late 60s and early 70s with its 504. It wasn't an SUV, it was an estate, and the only car that could drive in the Sahara.
Most modern SUVs would break off their axles during off roading, because they're cheaply made pieces of shit made for people who know nothing about driving. And then there's bullshit cross-overs like Toyota C-HR that are front wheel drive. That's right, they're making rugged-looking tiny 'off-roaders' that are as good off road as your front wheel drive VW Polo. Possibly even worse due to shit build quality.
K
now do 2x4s or couches
I just hire a flat bed ute when I need to move a couch. It does the job better, costs peanuts by comparison, and still takes up less space.
Not saying some people don't need to move big things regularly, but too many use this justification when it doesn't actually stack up.
This post is my exact mentality. Rent a trailer or truck when you need it. A sedan even a bit bigger than a polo is reasonable(Jetta/Passat) but trucks and SUVs are excessive for daily use unless you have a six person family you always need to transport at once.
We bought a cheap trailer ($500) from harbor freight for those times we need to transport something.
For me and my life having both is essentially (but not quite) what a good setup would look like. An inexpensive daily driver for going to/from work, small daily errands etc. Aside from being a backup when the daily driver is down for maintenance a larger vehicle is handy for hauling people and things over long distances, with light offroad capability for getting to/from outdoor activities and through snowy conditions a little safer.
Yes they both can technically hold the same number but if you've ever sat in the back seat for 4+ hours you know that some extra room for all of you and your stuff is very nice.
Trucks are probably overkill for most people though, including me. Vans can be just as good but are overlooked because looking cool is a factor for most. Even cars can tow a small trailer which could serve people well for light hauling but that isn't well known in the US.
You do that often enough for it not to be more appropriate to either have the seller deliver them or hire yourself a small van for the day?
