Comment on Your Truck is Stupid Big
melsaskca@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
I blame the truck manufacturers more than the poor, deluded shlubs who buy them. There used to be standards in the industry but “big” costs more so they make more money (initially…while pricing a whole class of citizens out of the market).
A truck is only slightly more expensive to produce than a sedan when all costs are taken into account, but can be sold at a higher price.
The main difference between a truck and a sedan is a few hundred pounds of metal. Both have the same cost in labour to manufacture, as well as equivalent R&D cost. In some cases, trucks have lower R&D because they aren’t expected to change as much from year to year, so the engineering cost of re-designing parts/panels/etc. just isn’t there.
In 2012 the federal fuel economy standards were changed to no longer consider the classification of vehicle, but just its footprint. So suddenly a Corolla had less-strict fuel economy requirements than a small truck.
So the Ranger, Dakota, S-10, etc were all discontinued, and manufacturers learned that the easiest way to meet fuel economy standards was to make the vehicles bigger every time the requirements increase.
It’s also why around 2022, every small cargo van (NV200, Transit Express, ProMaster City) stopped being produced. It’s also why the Maverick has the “standard” model as the hybrid while the one you can actually find at the dealers is the “upgrade” traditional engine.
Point of order, the S10 was discontinued in 2003 and 2004.
Correct. I meant the Colorado, which they took off the market for the 2013 and 2014 models to redesign as a larger truck. Ford did the same thing.
That was a particularly dumb error on my part, BTW. I owned a 2001 S10 and 2012 Colorado. Now I own a 2020 NV200.
If I buy a car, it apparently gets discontinued soon afterwards.
I still have my 2003 S10. I got one of the last few thousand extended cab S10s made. I haven’t ever driven a Colorado, but…I don’t think there’s a pickup that will do the job of an S10 better than my truck, they’ve all mutated into 6 ton penis enhancement sedans wearing ceremonial miniature cargo boxes.
I blame both considering how often I see people brag about how big their trucks are. Motherfucker you’ve got a short bed and extended cabin, and you’re out here talking about an engine like you need to be able to go 90 while hauling an oversized trailer.
Sure you can’t buy a small truck anymore, and it’s getting harder to buy compact cars, subcompacts, and even full sized sedans, but it’s not like all trucks sold today are that big.
“wHy MuH gAs So ExPeNsIvE?”
Dawg, you’re driving around a tank, that’s why. And you’re not impressing anyone else except other chuds.
I am right there with you. I’m not super big on blaming individuals for stuff like this. I saw an old Tacoma parked next to one of these monsters the other day and I was like, holy smokes, the size is just out of control.
There’s someone with a new Tacoma on my campus and even that fucking thing has a front hood higher than my sedan’s roof.
They would stop making it if people didn’t buy it.
Every single person that has one of these should be shamed to hell and back for it.
I don’t know of a single justification, either. At all.
Forget cat narc, we need truck narc who just chips the fronts of all these monsters off.
Well not only “big = more expensive” the larger engines also have lower efficiency requirements. It’s much easier to make cars bigger and more “chugging” because they don’t have to meet the efficiency standards and because it’s bigger they can charge more.
The manufacturers definitely have a large share of the blame, but people still have the agency to make better choices.
0x0@lemmy.zip 6 days ago
I blame lack of regulation.
Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Regulation (in a way) is exactly how we got into this situation. CAFE was meant to enforce emissions standards, but the way it was written meant that making a bigger vehicle resulted in a lower fuel economy requirement. The Chicken Tax essentially stopped foreign trucks from being able to compete in the US market, which meant that Ford/GM/Dodge got to create an oligopoly.
grepe@lemmy.world 6 days ago
regulation only works if the laws are not written by the companies that are being regulated
the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
They fought it. I’m sure they’d prefer if there were no environmental or has efficiency regulations at all. And when the laws passed anyway they found loopholes. The laws were written by well meaning but naive politicians, none of whom really understood the problems they were trying to address.