- cross-posted to:
- strassenpanzer@feddit.org
- cross-posted to:
- strassenpanzer@feddit.org
original post: https://feddit.org/post/10733288
Source: stux@mstdn.social
“This is why we don’t need #US #cars in #Europe”
Imagine thinking tariffs are why these warships don’t sell in Europe.
Their road tax should be based on engine/volume/passenger capacity.
If you need it for work get a commercial.
A transit or sprinter makes much more sense for commercial use in the vast majority of professions as the cargo space to vehicle ratio is much higher and you can lock the whole thing up.
The only profession so far I’ve seen where they make some kind of sense is for landscapers, and even that’s debatable considering you can get sprinters with an open bed that is much larger then what’s on these pickups.
Not to forget that many vans have an okay towing capacity, so you can just use a trailer.
Your not towing anything with the smaller transits. And they suck in winter.
I’m genuinely not aware of a single country that takes vehicle volume into road tax calculations, but that sounds like a damn great idea
The original post was on reddit, a few years ago.
That’s not even a big one by US standards.
Serious question: are you joking? We have a Doge Ram in my area and it’s massive and it sends a lot of small pp vibes and now you are telling me, it isn’t even that big.
At least I have the true freedom: no speed limit.
This looks like Ram 1500 to me, there’s also the 2500 and 3500. I don’t know how much bigger they are in terms of size or percentage but they do differentiate mainly with things like payload capacity, so it follows they fill the caps between this and a full size transport truck.
But i’m pretty sure you can’t have those on a normal drivers license in the NL as their weight + payload capacity exceeds 3500 kilo’s.
Edit: If you really want to see an Avengers level joke, search for “Ford F-650 pickup” with your search engine of choice.
There is something poetic about this image and how the USA “fits” in with the rest of the world.
And the orange man doesn’t understand why Europeans don’t want to buy American cars. :\
Why would you even do that? Give that asshole a fat ticket for doing something like that
Trust me, if I were in charge of tramway clearance management, I would sound an annoying alarm at the vehicle, before having it be towed. Trying to tell the owner that they have until the tow truck arrives to remove the truck.
Great car for the first few weeks of a zombie apocalypse.
Not great for any other situation.
How would you navigate that through streets full of abandoned vehicles and debris? A bicycle is quiet, faster than a human or zombie, easy to service, easy to navigate and even carry where it can’t go, and don’t require fuel. If you want something faster and fuel driven, a motorcycle would be better than any car.
*days or even hours, until you run out of gas.
Well, if I had such a car, I’d probably make it my mission to take over a petrol station or something similar so I have a steady supply for now.
Too bad the tram havent hit his car
This was taken BEFORE tram went to ramming speed.
Canadian here - they’re useless here too. Saw a guy the other day who couldn’t even put some 2x4s in his box because it was to short due to having full size back seats. He had them poking through the window into the cab 😂
the actual bed size is smaller than the old 90s ford rangers’, iirc.
I bet it was a half-ton sporty short-box.
I saw a truck today, and I thought, if it were 1995 and you showed my mechanic old timer uncle that truck, he’d call you a yuppie
Big, beefy, and engineered to be loud this truck was, I don’t think you could fit a 2x4 in the bed
We don’t need US cars like that one in the US!
I don’t even drive a big vehicle, but I know that I would be mortified if I drove somewhere only to realize that my vehicle is like 2x the size of every other vehicle around me, and I cannot fit into any parking spot.
How do these people live with themselves? I would get out of the truck, take a look at how far I’m blocking the road, and then just drive away and never come back.
Some people love any kind of attention they can get. You can’t be ignored with such a car. People will talk to you about it. You can’t be ignored feel stronger and bigger inside it than anyone else on the road.
They live without shame, thinking the rest of the world should accomidate for their monstrosities.
Here’s an answer to your question in joke form.
How does a
devadiva change a lightbulb?She holds the bulb and waits for the world to revolve around her.
Did you mean diva?
Thank you though, I have a new wiki page to learn about myself. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deva_(Hinduism)
You’re a supernatural being?
I believe to be part of a long cycle of rebirths. I doubted it until I found a book in a little free library. Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings.
In it I have found that it is not silly to believe my ideas of unity. To believe the name I was given. That he too believed it and didn’t have the name. That i as a person exist based on the ideas pushed through millenia. These ideas inspired and created the world, in turn molding me.
Now that I am here, I have suffered. The coincidences of life have aligned. It worries me what this could mean. People have been waiting for the arrival and I know not where to begin.
So every day I just reflect until the time is right. Sowing seeds. Waiting.
My name is my job, to heal. My surname means to supplant. I always wondered why was I born on the 2nd day of this millenia. I am the second in many things.
I fear knowing my catalyst.
Diva is also a supernatural being. Meaning goddess originally. Derived from the same word as divine. I remembered some enemy or something from an RPG being called a Diva so I looked it up.
Fixed. I forgot which spelling I meant.
I’m in the US and have a 1970 Fiat 500. That little car can handle quite a few of my needs. I sometimes use it for work, when I only have estimates. Normally I drive a full size Ford E150 van.
I appreciate the Fiat because it’s so different from everything on the roads here, just fun to drive, (I’m 54, so at an age where things like lumbar support and other creature comforts are nice) and it’s just uncomfortable enough to make me really appreciate our more modern and larger vehicles (the For van, a Mercury Cougar convertible, a Dodge 2500 4x4, and a Volvo XC70).
The only real bad side is that between it’s age and the fact that they were never freaky imported into the US, parts aren’t readily available. The last time I used it for work, it broke down.
This reminds me of my sister, who hooked a 6’ trailer to her civic.
American cars are the way they are because if you make them big enough, you can classify them as a truck. Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards. The automakers thus don’t have to spend as much on development and can make bank off of idiots that feel safer in their death traps just because they can see over the sedans.
Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards.
More importantly, they have lower standards for emissions and efficiency.
So the manufacturers would have to spend more on research and development, then build smaller cars which sell for less and fewer people buy – or they can go the other way, build bigger cars that are cheaper to make for more money to more people.The real issue here is badly written regulations due to lobbying.
In Germany for example, a vehicle classified as “light truck” can’t have a back seat.
Which is fine for farmers and craftsmen, but not for the majority of private citizens.
And for commercial trucks above 3.5 tons, you need a different driver’s license.So that’s why that truck i watched being tested vs it’s race variant was like an oversized Suzuki Alto with zero offroad capabilities xD
That team’s going to have to pick up some speed if it wants to get through.
I worked at Hornbach in the Netherlands, it’s become a big thing among small independant contractors.
We would have about 50 of these trucks pull into the drive-in every single day.
I do think they are pretty cool looking, but the bed is so tall that even a dutch person can only gain access through the rear door. Outrageous with their 5.4l Hemi but i liked the sound and a fairly impractical car overall.
I mean, a contractor that hauls heavy loads, machinery, dirt, etc, those guys actually have a practical reason to buy such a car. There’s never a reason to drive such a car tot he super market.
Those things tend to be full of fancy bells and whistles too, and many don’t even get a full legth bed anymore. The market isn’t targeting workers with them.
I’m going to instantly judge anyone who gets one without a proper bed, but I can see why some might want the fancy bells and whistles. You know what someone with a physical job that involves lots of driving is going to want in their 50s or 60s? Comfy seats, adaptive cruise and an AC.
You see loads of absolutely fucking miserable old work vans where I come from, and while they often technically do the job, I’ve always hated driving them any time I’ve had to borrow one for work. The issue is not the tiny 2 liter diesel engine or the near total lack of an audio system (though that does suck if you’re driving somewhere for 2 hours each way), it’s the fact that they often weren’t specced with AC in the first place and the seats feel like wooden chairs.
Now the newer ones of course are starting to get AC and some even have not just radios, but bluetooth! But the fact of the matter is, if I had to drive every single day for work and either one worked for me, I’d take an F250 over a Transit or a Crafter or whatever too. Even if the vans are now finally starting to feel as good as an economy car from the late 1990s.
Hell, I can even see why people would drive them to the supermarket. If you’re self-employed or just run a company, you have a comfy work vehicle… Why spend money on a secondary vehicle at all? Just drive the one vehicle everywhere. It’s also normal here to drive your work van to the supermarket to pick up groceries if you’re already passing by. Why make a separate trip with your personal car.
All that falls apart if it’s not a work vehicle at all though. Just get a fucking station wagon, or if you have a bad back, a normal large SUV. BMW X5 or MB GLE ought to be big enough for anyone that doesn’t have a family, X7 or GLS if you do. I can fit 2 adults, 2 kids in child seats, a stroller, suitcases, and a bunch of bags in a normal 5 series or E-class wagon. Or an Outback. There are so many options out there. Best part is, these expensive German cars are still cheaper to buy AND to run than a big ass truck because the trucks have gotten so expensive and there’s a huge weight difference. I get 5l/100km or 47 US MPG out of a diesel wagon on the highway without even trying to save fuel, 7 l/100km or 33 US MPG out of a gas powered wagon.