“car”
And the following question is “Why?”.
Originally the F-150 was a perfect vehicle for most of non-urban America. It was very inexpensive (not a joke), simple to fix (also not a joke), dependable (I swear I’m not trolling), and very utilitarian. Eventually it became an icon and the default purchase for many, even though the more popular models have lost all of the features that made it attractive to begin with.
It also used to be a reasonable size. Larger than sedans, bit not by nearly as much.
Oh yeah, and not five foot tall at the hood by default.
I saw an OG F-100 truck the other day. The roof of its cab is about the same height as the hood of these new monsters.
Standard issue in the toxic masculinity starter pack.
I don’t think the article specifically addresses it, but I’d guess that their numbers account for fleet purchases, which are always going to skew the numbers a bit
There are many lists of “most popular vehicles” out there. The F-150 tops some of those lists and doesn’t even appear on others. There are a lot of games one can play with specificity to make something more prominent (“Ford F-series”) or less prominent (“Ram 1500 Rumble Bee”) in a list like that.
But the point – that we have more pickup trucks than can reasonably be justified – stands.
Small peepee
US auto makers failed at making 4 cylinder engines compared to Japan. So they consolidated around the v8 which they did really well. Everything else is a result of marketing and affordability over the years.
I don’t agree they failed - there are plenty 4 cylinder and hybrid cars available.
The thing is- people want trucks, and either they can afford them, or dealers and banks gaslight them to believe they can afford them. So that’s what people buy. I always find it funny when people explain the American auto market’s characteristics by shitting on how stupid American auto industry can’t even make cars. That is irrelevant, a bunch of people drive japanese or european cars if that’s what they want, it’s not like there aren’t imports available. People buy big ass trucks (including Toyota btw) because that’s what they want to drive. It’s that simple.
Manufacturers make what people want, for the most part.Not quite. There has been a systemic push to grow the size of US vehicles. Why can you not find ANY small trucks? It’s NOT because every American that wants a truck wants a big one.
This isn’t a conspiracy in the loonie sense. It’s completely true, though it was a conspiracy to manipulate the market, which succeeded. It started with the Chicken Tax.
Poorly executed vehicle efficiency requirements based on vehicle footprint ended up as a pressure for larger vehicles as well, which led to the rise in SUVs and oversized puckups.
cause they don’t allow cooler cars in the US anymore
Can confirm. The idiots in my state don’t even allow kei trucks on the road. Farmers still import them for getting actual work done on their own land, though.
And the dingleberry on top of the shit sundae is that Ford also killed off the EV version. Sure, the F-150 has a lot of problems simply based on its size. But, it is the most popular vehicle in the US and no amount of whining about it is going to change that fact. So, instead of pissing in the wind, the EV F-150 at least tried to meet people where they are. Unfortunately, sales weren’t great and Ford gave up on the project. The only upshot is that the venn diagram of diesel F-150 owners whining about gas prices and Trump voters is a small circle fully inside a larger circle. So, the right people are feeling pain.
This really shows you the state of the average person in the US.
Part of it is the sheer diversity of options and trim levels that are all under the same make and model of the Ford F-150. Taking a look at the Ford F-150 trim levels, there are basically 4 gasoline engines, 2 flex fuel engines, 1 hybrid drivetrain, 1 diesel engine, and a now discontinued EV powertrain. There are about 5 body/cab options, and several suspension options.
In contrast, take, for example, the GM BEV3 platform. It’s the Chevy Equinox, Chevy Blazer, Cadillac Lyriq, Cadillac Optiq, Honda Prologue, and Acura ZDX. I’ve driven several of these and they’re all basically the same with different options. There’s less diversity in those models than there is for the Ford F-150.
It is interesting seeing Americans always complaining about gas prices(especially now) whilst also owning vehicles that use up fuel by just looking at them.
It’s not a car, the things are the size of a semi cab. I needed an electric truck and mine is huge too. It’s annoying, it doesn’t fit anywhere and it’s fucking dangerous to pedestrians. Make Trucks Small Again.
Piggybacking off the point some people made about fleet purchases of trucks boosting sales, even with that in mind, out of the top ten vehicles sold its split down the middle with 5 being trucks and only 1 that isnt a fleet targeted truck (the Tacoma being the one truck you dont see many fleets of in the US) and the other 5 are all gas saving sedans, wagon/mini suv like rav4, and 2 electric vehicles. You knock out fleet sales of trucks and id b3 willing to bet that top 10 list jumps to 8 gas conserving whips to 1 maybe 2 pickup trucks.
RAV4 would be considered on the bigger side here and i wouldn’t be surprised if the US model is bigger.
The two things you need to understand about America(ns)…. American is spread out. Like seriously large and open. This has lead to a lot of “super-sizing” in general. Not just their guts. Houses, cars, etc.
The second aspect is people buy for the “5% chance”, not their 95% daily habits. What I mean by this is they might have to haul something once a year, or they might end up having to take a long road trip. Rather than renting for that one day, for that one specific purpose they want something that can do it all (incidentally this is also why EVs have had a tough time catching on).
Those two points make the F150 perfectly slotted to be the most popular “car”.
I don’t buy the America-big explanation. For that matter, so is Russia. The original colonies weren’t that big, just the Western states with hardly anybody in them. And this culture is on display even in geographically-constrained areas, like Manhattan, Los Angeles, Hawaii, and the like.
The classics of racism and toxic individualism provide better explanations.
I second toxic individualism.
It remains me of Rome just before collapse.
I see it this way: Yes, a lot of our local rural and suburban infrastructure is spread-out and car-centric, but that was a result of our choices and policies. (Which does indeed include a big helping of cloaked racial segregation.) It’s not the case that we were forced by geography to do this to ourselves.
“America is just so spread out” can be read as “We just didn’t plan this too well.”
wtf does racism have to do with car buying?
the russian auto industry is tiny compared to the major automotive market players.
The US Supreme Court ruled racial discrimination in zoning to be un-Constitutional in 1917, and barred racially-restrictive covenants in 1948, so local governments and planners had to use various proxies for race to keep Black people out of new neighborhoods post-WWII. Since Black people tended to be economically disadvantaged, wealth was a very useful proxy. They made housing expensive using zoning and building codes to ensure that it was low-density, and required the purchase of a car to access. I keep pushing the book The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, because he laid out in it exactly how deliberate this was.
Later, the physical isolation of an automobile provided a measure of protection for Black families to exist in public spaces, and publications like the Green Book allowed them some of the same freedoms as white people, through the use of their cars. So, in at least two ways, racism pushed people into cars.
you’re talking about housing, not cars.
buying a f 150 vs a honda civic is the issue. not the existence of suburbs.
and please, i live in a city that needs no cars, and people here are still racist as fuck. often the non-car owners are the most virulent racist because they are the most self righteous and get angry at the immigrants who need a car to drive to clean their $5 million dollar home… and the irony is tops with those folks.
The second aspect is people buy for the “5% chance”, not their 95% daily habits.
me with my roofbox I’ve used once. tho it’s nice that it’s an optional attachment to my wagon that I don’t need installed 24/7, and thank fuck for that cuz the wagon it gets attached to is an EV where the aero drag does matter a bit more than in an ICE powered vehicle
Rather than renting for that one day, for that one specific purpose they want something that can do it all (incidentally this is also why EVs have had a tough time catching on).
Taycan wagon does it all for me! Highly recommend anyone who’s curious about one and can afford a certified used one to definitely consider it! Take advantage of their crazy depreciation!
Tons of space, enough battery capacity given the excellent DC charging speeds, very fun, very comfy, very very pretty
Fuckin rednecks
Fleet sales are a huge factor.
Fuckin fleets of rednecks
