Jen Sorensen for December 07, 2022

If they offered me a smaller pickup (hybrid or EV) at a decent price, I’d be all over it. But only Ford has one available… for a very VERY strange meaning of “available”. I do have one on order… which may or may arrive within 9 to 15 months of when I ordered it.

Big Business excels at hitting the bullseye on the wrong target.

Part of the problem is people not stopping behind the line at intersections. Often stopping in the crosswalk.

Of course, it is good for a laugh when the fool doesn’t realize stopping their car past the line in the road puts them ahead of the sensor that would give them the left on green arrow only. Which leaves them not triggering the green arrow and having to wait through another light cycle until someone comes up behind them to trigger the green arrow.

One other aspect of these ever-bigger trucks is that their headlights blind other drivers more because they shine right in our eyes. Of course, I also think more and more people are driving with hi beams on regardless of proximity to other traffic.

Doing the right thing is always resisted by automakers.

They’ve gotta compensate for their “shortcomings” in any way they can!

My favorite was a pickup I saw when I was living in Texas. So high, the driver had rope ladders for himself and the passenger to get in and out.

What really gets me.. is when you see one of those trucks with a handicap sticker parked in a handicapped parking spot. I know we should not judge.. but still!

Never seen anything in the beds of those behemoths.

“It’s not my fault. That car is too short.” Good thing it wasn’t one of her kids.

A couple of years ago I had to replace my 16 year old Tacoma with a new one. The new one, although a much more comfortable and advanced pickup, has the same carrying and towing capacity as the old one. It has the same bed size. Yet it is considerably “bigger”. The hood is higher, the bed sides are higher, the window sills are higher and the glass area smaller. It gets the same gas milage the 16 year old one did at the end of its life. Without the backup camera, which I never thought I needed with the old one, I would be blind to anything behind me. So, why does a truck that does the same thing need to be “bigger”. And this was the best option I could find in a “small” pickup.

yes, and while I completely understand that some folks need pick up trucks and other large vehicles (that we can and should make affordable in a more efficient way) It’s the suburban moms and their gigantic truck/car/crossover stuff that scares me most. Please don’t tell me you need it for soccer practice. Been there, done that, along with camping and cross country trips without the SUV. It’s all marketing, if the big auto companies really wanted to transition they would need to take some of that enormous marketing budget of theirs and spend it on making fuel efficient cool and desirable.

Don’t you just hate First World problems? Now, stick a short driver in that dump truck sized beast…

“Shortwalking.” Riot.

I think that there is some requirement for additional front end design modification for such trucks — to protect pedestrians, bike riders, and those in smaller cars — afoot. It would be analogous to the eponymous “Mansfield Bar” which has been required on large commercial trucks since the ’60’s (after the fatal accident involving Jayne Mansfield).

As they blame Biden for gas prices….

Cameras or sensors connected to a warning system. Not that some drivers would pay attention. Forking humans.

The manufacturers are considering forward cameras for those vehicles, but you know how they fight every safety measure untill it’s a law.

We can all thank Ford and Firestone for the behemoths roaming our streets and highways. The tire tread separation scandal led to laws dictating vehicle “safety” but the engineers seem determined to protect the vehicles from each other, instead of protecting the people from the vehicles.

The guy wouldn’t say it’s “ridiculous”. He would say it’s "government intervention on the (not so) free market.

My first new vehicle was a ‘75 Datsun Pickup. Nice size that you haven’t seen for years. Carburetor from Hell. You could hear me coming by the backfiring.

My first new vehicle after I got commissioned was a ‘74 Gremlin which I drove to my USAF base in Michigan. As I drove across the Mackinac Bridge on May4th the winds were blowing hard as they ushered in a spring snowstorm that started that night.

It was a fight to keep that little car in the lane as it wanted to go toward the guardrail when we got to the midway point. I never realized how dangerous it could be until some years later a young woman took flight in her car and went into the Straits below. I think it might have been a Yugo.

Now I feel a little guilty. I just placed an order for a 5 ton, 6×6, army surplus truck.

At least the kids will hear me coming and take cover.

Love my ’02 Ranger and I hope to keep driving it for a while yet. -32°C this morning and it started like a dream, not plugged in.

My wife’s Maverick rolled in 3 months ago. My RAM stays in the garage pretty much full-time, nowadays.

Nicest discovery BTW…she ordered the hybrid and unlike most I’ve read about, she can climb up to 45-50mph before the Infernal Combustion Engine has to kick on.

As someone who lives in Texas, I ask why on Earth someone thought “let’s have kids sit in front of a truck!” was a good idea.

Even the cars have to be rugged and have good suspensions to deal with the roads and the weather conditions, and having a truck – even a smaller, lighter one like a Toyota Tacoma – can be a straight-up advantage in emergency situations.

Regulating, by what authority?

I’m a member of one of the unions under the UAW umbrella, and have learned a lot from SOLIDARITY the union magazine.

One of the reasons it takes forever to get an ordered vehicle is that, to save labor costs, Detroit shuts down lines that don’t have an orders backog, and it takes forever to re-hire the people and get the lines rolling again. They do everything as small-batch jobs except for the “standard” models.

More nonsense. That “blind zone” requires your eyes to be at the level of the hood. That means you need a booster seat.