Mildly Infuriating

Hello fellow PNW person. I am likely one of those people. I try to represent the good side of this example whenever possible.

Also have a tiny ev that is my daily driver, especially in the city where parking a full size pickup is just not worth it. That said, on the days when my partner needs the car for longer trips and I have to take my truck around for chores, I’m constantly on alert to not be a dick.

I think this is honestly how a lot of folks are around here. It’s a little different when you head out east but near civilization, I am generally given hope.

We as an American people have been conditioned for decades that we need larger and bigger vehicles when we absolutely don't. This is because smaller cars have stricter regulations thanks to the "light truck" loophole in the CAFE standards. It's literally less regulated, and thus highly profitable to get people to buy trucks instead of cars. The masculine thing, the "It's safer because it's bigger", the "I need space for my family" - it's all generated by marketing teams for car companies to convince each of us that we need a bigger (and less regulated) car.

When really... we don't. We don't at all, and it choosing a truck whether it's intentional or not, is a selfish move. It's large, it's unnecessary, wasteful, it's proven extremely deadly to pedestrians, bicyclists, and children. Choosing a vehicle like that is inherently accepting that you are risking other people's lives, and that's why I'm so against them.

Ignorance is excusable, but once informed then it's no longer ignorance.

Why didn't you buy one with a lower height but the same load capacity? Safer and makes loading stuff easier.

Us Australians look at weird American raised utes and scratch our heads in puzzlement. You've got a higher driver position, granted, but it's also a higher centre of gravity, it's harder to park in garages and underground car parks, it's harder to see pedestrians, it's harder to load stuff into the tray, etc.

You clearly aren't just driving it to look pretty, like many people that we both probably get annoyed by. What's the story?

If you do it about once a week or more, then you do need it. If you need it any less than once a week, congrats it's a status symbol. How do I know? Because the numbers don't lie, and if you only actually haul monthly - or even every 2 weeks, it's actually phenomenally cheaper to rent a truck from either a rental shop or something Home Depot. Trucks are crazy expensive, their fuel already was astronomical before, and now it's even worse. It's much much cheaper to have a modest sedan/van than it is to own a truck.

Speaking of vans, it's actually more spacious and more carrying capacity to own a decent van than it is to own a truck. Go ahead, test out my knowledge. Vans have more carrying capacity, better fuel mileage, they're closer to the ground so they're easier to load, and they're even covered so you don't need a topper or tool box that takes up even more space.

So in short, if you haul less than once a week, you should have rented and saved a few dozen thousand dollars. If you haul more frequently than weekly, you probably should have bought a van.

They even put the ram logo on it.

All of europe gets on fine without comfort pickups. They're just a stupid, impractical design.

Even if you did need a bed, look at this sucker, dual cab and a decent bed that tips!

And both of these are friend-shaped so they don't absolutely annihilate the people they hit.