Agreed. My argument is not that pickups are also owned and not used to their full potential.
My argument is that pickup trucks are the affordable workhorse of America. You can pickup a cheap second hand truck and beat the shit out of it while getting the job done.
Need to demolish a concrete structure at a customers house and dispose of it cheaply? Have you workers toss the rubble into the bed of your $5000 f150 to dispose of yourself. You wouldn’t want to do the same into a vans cargo space with all your tools.
Most work trucks in America tow a trailer full of tools and other materials that can’t get messed up, that’s why it’s really handy to have a bed attached to the truck for waste or extra tools.
We have a 3/4 ton Ram 2500 with the diesel for the aforementioned towing and hauling, and there’s no question it’s a luxury vehicle. I recognize that. I also don’t daily drive it - it’s 9 years old and still has less than 60k miles on it and my plan is to keep it as close to forever as possible.
If we weren’t towing the trailer and hauling those pellets with it, an old beater half ton would still be a pretty handy vehicle to have around. I occasionally need lumber for various projects around the house; I have to run things to the dump sometimes; I sometimes need to get propane (which shouldn’t be carried in an enclosed vehicle for obvious reasons, though I did it many times before we had a pickup); sometimes I’m working on a car and need to carry a greasy or oily part; sometimes I move heavy arcade games; and so on.
Maybe a kei truck would work for those latter tasks, I don’t know…since they aren’t available here, the whole argument is kind of moot. If the manufacturers thought there was a reasonable market and profit for them, they’d be doing it. My understanding (which may be incorrect) is that the kei trucks do not meet US crash standards, and modifying them to meet that standard would kill the utility they have now.
Agreed. My argument is not that pickups are also owned and not used to their full potential.
My argument is that pickup trucks are the affordable workhorse of America. You can pickup a cheap second hand truck and beat the shit out of it while getting the job done.
Need to demolish a concrete structure at a customers house and dispose of it cheaply? Have you workers toss the rubble into the bed of your $5000 f150 to dispose of yourself. You wouldn’t want to do the same into a vans cargo space with all your tools.
Most work trucks in America tow a trailer full of tools and other materials that can’t get messed up, that’s why it’s really handy to have a bed attached to the truck for waste or extra tools.
I agree.
We have a 3/4 ton Ram 2500 with the diesel for the aforementioned towing and hauling, and there’s no question it’s a luxury vehicle. I recognize that. I also don’t daily drive it - it’s 9 years old and still has less than 60k miles on it and my plan is to keep it as close to forever as possible.
If we weren’t towing the trailer and hauling those pellets with it, an old beater half ton would still be a pretty handy vehicle to have around. I occasionally need lumber for various projects around the house; I have to run things to the dump sometimes; I sometimes need to get propane (which shouldn’t be carried in an enclosed vehicle for obvious reasons, though I did it many times before we had a pickup); sometimes I’m working on a car and need to carry a greasy or oily part; sometimes I move heavy arcade games; and so on.
Maybe a kei truck would work for those latter tasks, I don’t know…since they aren’t available here, the whole argument is kind of moot. If the manufacturers thought there was a reasonable market and profit for them, they’d be doing it. My understanding (which may be incorrect) is that the kei trucks do not meet US crash standards, and modifying them to meet that standard would kill the utility they have now.