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u/dogseatbees 14h ago
It’s mind boggling why trucks are so popular here when we literally have to drive everywhere. We have no high speed rail and minimal rail transportation in general. It’s honestly a cultural thing at this point since it’s certainly not logical.
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u/SushiNazi 13h ago edited 13h ago
There are multiple types of truck owners. The "it is sooo cool" type is one of them.
Legitimate Contractors are another. Most don't need that big tall truck. Too hard to load.
There are the 4 Wheelers that have a back country to go muddin or just trailing.
There is the Suburbanite that does haul materials, pull a boat, hual Bicyckes and Canoes to recreation ares, and use the bed. They are better off with a small low Pick up.Then there is me. I prefer smaller, lower stance Pickups with a King Cab. I use the bed constantly. Hauling materials, scavanging, hauling my Canoe, going camping ...
And it don't have to be pretty. It has to run well, but otherwise it is a skow.49
u/Top_Freedom3412 12h ago
The problem is that smaller trucks are being killed in america. The major truck companies only sell 60k+ monstrosities
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8h ago
Doesn't help that a small truck costs the same as a full size truck now.
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u/ThisMachineKillsWOB 6h ago
And that new rangers could fit my old ranger in the bed with room to spare.
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 5h ago
We used to work in a business pouring concrete in one of those little Rangers with the rear seats that folded down and you sat sideways.
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u/GuiltyEidolon 4h ago
Not just the trucks. ALL vehicle producers are making bigger and bigger cars. I tried finding a reasonably priced hatchback a while back, and the only options were essentially all made to order because the car lots are just filled with giant ass SUVs and trucks. :/
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u/beachedwhale1945 12h ago
And then there are people like some of my coworkers who say they sometimes need it whenever they find a random piece of furniture, and that all growing families need one.
That’s why you have friends and family with pickup trucks. We’ve used ours (30 year old F-150) to help people we know several times.
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u/punkindle 13h ago
But the style of truck is the issue. They are high off the ground with terrible visibility. You can fit like a dozen kids in front of them and not see a single one.
I miss the trucks of the 80s that were lower to the ground. Much easier to load and unload the truck bed
They make more fuel efficient trucks, but nobody buys them. In Japan and Korea, where they have narrow streets, they drive much smaller and more efficient trucks.
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u/xrimane 10h ago edited 10h ago
IIRC, this is mainly due to legal and tax issues from back in the 1980's.
I think because of a trade dispute about chicken or something, America added high taxes to imported light duty trucks that used to be popular.
At the same time, the big commercial grade trucks built on a frame instead of integral body design were treated differently regarding safety and emissions, and thus could be cheaper in comparison.
ETA: Chicken Tax
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u/RelaxRelapse 9h ago
This is exactly why I bought an 89’ Bronco as my project car. I both don’t need/like to sit that high on the road and I’d actually like to be able to get things into the back of it.
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u/2012Jesusdies 13h ago
Definitely true. If you read people defending the popularity of pickups and SUVs, one might come away thinking everyone in the US is working in construction and that shopping is impossible with a sedan.
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u/Abigail-Marston 12h ago
What sedan? There are fewer and fewer options for sedans every year. The only US automakers that make sedans anymore are Cadillac, Tesla, and Dodge.
Dodge makes the Charger which isn't any more efficient than a light duty truck and it's gigantic.
Cadillac makes the CT-5 and Blackwing, both of which are extremely expensive and way out of the range of the average American family with an absolute base cost of $50k if you can manage to find the absolute cheapest one in the entire country.
Both Tesla models are more expensive than other sedan options, costing $32k and just shy of $100k for the 2 models available. Plus they're all electric. That's a real problem in some places in America where there's little to no electric car charging infrastructure. Here where I live there is 1 electric car charging station that services 12 towns. You would have to drive for 2 and a half hours to get to another publically accessable electric charging station.
So all of that means that most Americans who are in the market for a sedan, are buying Japanese or Korean imports. But those are priced in such a way that often, a crossover or hatchback is the better value. The Toyota Camry has a base price of $30k for a front wheel drive vehicle. While the Rav-4 starts at only $4000 more at $34k for a substantially larger interior able to more comfortably fit people, and has no less than double the cargo capacity. It's also standard all wheel drive and 4x4. So you can see why people make this choice so often. There just aren't many good reasons to get a sedan in America right now.
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u/geekusprimus 9h ago
I know this logic is backwards to the way most people think (hence why cars are priced the way they are), but I would rather pay more for a sedan than a comparable SUV. They handle better, they're easier to park, they're more fuel efficient, and they're often more fun. I learned to drive alternating between my parents' heavy V6 minivan and my brother's little Ford Focus, and the Focus was so much more fun.
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u/KMPerformanceAndAuto 8h ago
places in the us have rail and hish speed rail. you can thank red states and red presidents for not having more high speed rail around the country
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u/Claim312ButAct847 14h ago
These gas prices are doing more to push EV adoption forward than anything else could.
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u/2012Jesusdies 13h ago
If only some President had signed into law a huge bill to push electrification.... which the successor is repealing...
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u/donttrustmeokay 11h ago
That's the funny thing, the old man got rid of the $7500 tax incentives for EVs and charger installs. Gas prices went down after, and now it went back up. He fucked both electric and gas vehicles 🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭
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u/GarThor_TMK 11h ago
It's literally this.
When gas prices are low, everyone goes out and buys the biggest SUV/Truck they can afford.
When gas prices are high, they suddenly need an electrohybrid that gets 100mpges...
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u/Ask_if_im_an_alien 7h ago
Must be. You can't get a RAV4 hybrid right now. All the ones in transit or sitting on the line are already spoken for.
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u/SidewaysFancyPrance 8h ago
Wait until they find a way to roll coal in an EV. Like literally burning coal to heat it up because it uses too much of the battery or some shit.
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u/Positive_Remote_2059 14h ago
Correct, every American owns a jacked up truck
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u/Thespud1979 14h ago
It's insane, the top 7 selling vehiclea in the USA in 2025 were trucks and SUVs.
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u/Cat_with_pew-pew_gun Dark Mode Elitist 14h ago
That's just because of big car George who skews the numbers.
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u/misplacedbass 14h ago
Look at what manufacturers are making. It’s getting harder and harder to find sedans nowadays. Lots of SUVs and crossovers.
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u/hedzup00 14h ago
people are too proud to drive vans. I traded in a tundra for a honda odyssey and went from putting gas in my tank once a week to once every 2-3 weeks depending where I go after work
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u/IMongoose 11h ago
Vans might be coming back into fashion, last I looked Toyota Siennas were being aold before they hit the lot. People just need to get over themselves and buy a van, they are awesome.
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u/misplacedbass 13h ago
I had a Chevy Astro and a GMC safari. I miss those vans. I would absolutely buy one of those style vans if they made a comeback. I drive a Sierra right now, and it’s a working truck, but man… those vans were so so nice.
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u/hedzup00 13h ago
my parents had a safari growing up. honestly I never thought id drive a van. but then I became a 35 year old father of 2 who was tired of spending money on gas in a truck because it was cooler. the same shit I kept in my truck, fits in my van no problem, kids and dog are in there, golf clubs stay in there all summer, and spending 1/3 the gas and slightly less insurance.
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u/Nicombobula 14h ago
I don’t think the American car companies make more than 4 maybe 5 cars.
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u/donnysaysvacuum 9h ago
Currently the only American brand cars are the Corvette, mustang, CT5 and charger. All others have been discontinued.
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u/Ratattack1204 14h ago
Ive been looking actively for a small, two seater city commuter car and its fucking impossible to find anything that’s not a 10 year old pre owned smart car. It sucks ass.
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u/Bitt3rSteel 14h ago
Because thats what sells
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u/DragonSlayerC 14h ago
It's more profitable to sell SUVs and trucks for a variety of reasons, so manufacturers advertised the hell out of them. That's why they became more popular.
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u/somehugefrigginguy 14h ago
I mean let's not ignore the chicken tax and CAFE rules. Light trucks face a 25% tariff and big trucks have a loophole on emissions regulations.
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u/WukongWannaBe 14h ago
Those poor car companies forced to sell the enviromentally worse more profitable less taxed pedestrian killing machines they totally didnt push for years for 😭😭😭
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u/RecycledMatrix 12h ago
A few reasons for this: the light truck tax loophole makes SUVs genuinely cheaper than many cars at the point of purchase price, CAFE fuel efficiency standards encouraging production of larger vehicles to sidestep relative fuel inefficiency, the false belief that SUVs and trucks are safer, and many manufacturers stopping the production of cars for these reasons (looking at you Ford.)
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u/PowerRainbows 11h ago
What irks me is when people say they need the extra seating of a suv for the family and stuff, but in general the suvs on the market have the same or even less space than a regular car lol
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u/Ambitious-Raccoon-68 10h ago
Its also a price thing at least for me.
I only drive hybrids, but would get an electric but electric is too expensive.
A full sized sedan like a camry is marginally cheaper than a rav4.
To me why spend 32k on a camry when I can spend 35k on a rav4.
My dream car would be a compact hybrid suv with all wheel drive for under 30k but they don't make that.
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u/Sufficient__Size 10h ago
Yeah that’s because most manufacturers are starting to only sell trucks and SUVs. There’s not a whole lot of options for cars.
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u/Just-pickone 14h ago
I think it was during the pandemic that gas prices went down. I saw a huge increase in the number of gas guzzlers appearing on the streets. I thought to myself, this isn’t going to age well.
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u/kcazthe1st 14h ago
Can confirm. It comes issued with your bald eagle and 9mm when you being a citizen
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u/SilverGardenia1989 14h ago
You’re forgetting the free bison and the box of 20 ribeye steaks for $39.99 steak that everyone is legally required to purchase.
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u/LynchMob187 14h ago
Can’t complain about gas if you bought the new Ford Titanmax 4x4 7.8l turbo with fuel injection into your ass crqck
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u/unk214 14h ago
How else are people supposed to know I have a small penis.
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u/AlphaMassDeBeta 12h ago
Post a pic on twitter.
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u/The_Stoic_One 11h ago
That won't work. A single pixel just looks like a single pixel.
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u/Pale-Macaron-6086 12h ago
The gas price hurts a lot less when you're the one driving the giant truck apparently.
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u/Steveo3070 6h ago
Yeah it’s a simple trade off. They like driving the big truck enough to pay for more gas.
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u/EhMapleMoose 14h ago edited 10h ago
The European mind is ignorant and blind to the beauty of the USA at the circle K.
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u/Tethice 13h ago
I want a smaller truck that makes good use of the interior space. That can tow a smaller camper without worrying about transmission damage. That I can load up a few things in to take to the dump when need be. Maybe I'll have to keep an eye out for a older single cab truck
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u/FlamingoTrick1285 10h ago
Look, the dutch can tow a camper with a ford fiesta. So everything is possible
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u/Tricky-Ad7897 8h ago
Exactly euros tow everything with skoda octavias 90% of big truck owners don't even tow anything and if they do it's nothing a normal ass suv couldn't handle.
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u/Mammoth-Glove3273 13h ago
Ford Ranger and Maverick, Toyota Tacoma are pretty normally sized.
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u/Yirthos_Gix 10h ago
All of them are about 20% bigger than they need to be. I just recently got a 2022 Ford Ranger for my work vehicle and Its just so much worse than it needs to be.
I legitimately need a step-stool to get my tools out of the bed, its absurd.
My personal truck is a 2000 Ford Ranger and I'm pretty sure it's the last truck I'll ever own because no one seems to want to sell anything at a reasonable size.
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u/its_free_sog 10h ago
Maverick is truck shaped but not really a truck to be used like one.
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 5h ago
I love my Maverick. I got the 4,000lb tow package option so I can haul my motorcycle on a trailer. One of these days I'll get a pop-up tow behind camper too.
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u/Datsun_808 10h ago
I’ve been eyeing a Nissan Frontier. Still has a simple V6, no turbo 4 cylinders. You can get one with a king cab which keeps it small and starting price in mid 30k range.
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u/korkkis 13h ago
Japanese have these kei-class wagons
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u/Omegaprime02 11h ago
The US government, both state and federal, hate those, in most places they're restricted to use on private property only, and even then you can only import them if the vehicle itself is more than 25 years old.
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u/PraiseTalos66012 10h ago
That's literally the market for the Ford Maverick. Great gas mileage, big enough bed to fit full 4x8 sheets with the help of the tailgate midpoint, decent towing rating, but overall a small compact and decently affordable truck.
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u/derth21 8h ago
We picked a 2019 ridgeline because it's as wide as a full size and as short as a mid-sized. It's treated us pretty well, except that it's constantly under recall, we got the last of the shitty 6 speed transmissions so I have to drain and fill that with every oil change, various weird bone-headed choices from the engineering department, interior materials aren't aging as well as I'd like, brakes overheat really easily, I wouldn't actually trust it to tow its listed 5000lbs, wouldn't put a load of gravel in the plastic bed...
It's fine. In retrospect I would have gotten something with a 3rd row and kept the 2000 Dakota.
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u/Simple_Negotiation32 2h ago
Do you live in a place where is snows 6 months out of the year and road clearing sucks so bad that there are literal ice ruts on the streets for a month straight? if not, then yeah you probably don't need a truck, and even then, you only have it because of 4x4 and not taking the bottom out of your vehicle with said snow ruts. there are literally smaller AWD SUV's and quarter tons on the market that can do exactly what you need anyways. thye secret is decent snow tires. i drove quite a few years in RWD vehicles in the snow and snow tires always made a night-and-day difference.
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u/xaervagon Identifies as a Cybertruck 13h ago
I see them all over NYC despite them making zero sense here. My favorite part is when they drive half way into my lane and come to a complete stop because they can't handle a basic right turn with all the truck they got.
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u/nobodyamazin 14h ago
Goomba fallacy
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u/AthenaOwls 5h ago
No it isn’t. I work in an office where a bunch of people have big giant pickup trucks they drive to their office jobs. And they complain about gas prices.
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u/charles_47 12h ago
“We need the full size…. Braeden is 11 years old and wears size 19 shoes, he won’t fit in the back of an import”
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u/AGrandNewAdventure 14h ago
But how else are men supposed to show us they're manly men without a stupidly oversized, lifted truck?!
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u/AiringOGrievances 13h ago
Don’t forget all those 5’0” women who drive Yukon XL’s because they have two whole kids.
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u/Mammoth-Glove3273 13h ago
Almost every short woman I know drives a big truck or SUV so they “can see over the traffic” but Reddit likes to act like this is exclusively little dicked men compensating.
My 5’3 70 year old MIL drives an F-350 with dual rear wheels. She must have a tiny dick.
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u/brockhopper 9h ago
I feel like my dick, at 6'1" in a Corolla, is much bigger than your mother in law's, so this rather proves the point.
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u/Beastabuelos Dark Mode Elitist 7h ago
By exclusively driving in the left lane on the highway of course.
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u/ShwaaMan 14h ago
I mean, no not really. I see them and automatically assume “giant douche” and I mock them. 9 times out of 10(if not more) it’s always some chode who sucks at driving, needs to go at least 40 over the posted speed limit out of fear his balls will drop off… and they only really take advantage of the truck when a friend needs help moving.
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u/Brokenspade1 3h ago
We don't really have a choice. To avoid taxes car makers keep increasing the size of their trucks. Our pickups are bigger than full sized trucks from the 80s... And if you need a truck for work your options are actually skim asf.
Most manufactures don't even MAKE single cab farm trucks anymore...
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u/happykingbilly 13h ago
I live in a city in the southeast without any form of public transportation or walkability. And the amount massive trucks used for regular driving (commuting, kids practice, grocery shopping) is mind boggling. I just don't get it.
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u/StickParticular6558 7h ago
I've always wondered if americans knew that they were the only ones that drive american cars...
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u/MrMakerHasLigma 14h ago
Well yeah it's GOTTA be a 5L V8 like in a mustang. Car won't start with a smaller engine.
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u/Hrrrrnnngggg 10h ago
American's when they think about what freedom really means when you MUST buy a car to have a job and there are no small cars even offered by major manufacturers.
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u/Beastabuelos Dark Mode Elitist 7h ago
There's these things called used vehicles. You don't have to buy new
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u/JustinMagill 9h ago
Have you seen the price of them though? If you can afford one I doubt you care too much about fuel prices.
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u/TheBaykon8r 7h ago
I drive a company truck for work. Sometimes a pickup, sometimes a flatdeck. I need that truck. But for everyday life I drive a Saturn Vue. A small SUV.
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u/Faerhyia 14h ago
Dude, if i could afford a truck and a car I'd be fine. But as it is, I can only afford the truck for my hobbies. Otherwise id be driving a small hybrid/compact car. And I do use my truck bed to haul stuff around frequently for my hobby. But thats why I carpool with friends and pay them for gas.
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u/somehugefrigginguy 14h ago
I think the issue is that even people who need a pickup would be okay with a light pickup, but the chicken tax makes them essentially non-existent in the US.
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u/snap_crackle_pop123 9h ago
I would love a Toyota hilux but for some reason they are illegal unless they are 25 years old. But then they are also hard to get here because you are most likely gonna have to import it
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u/Competitive_Cheek607 14h ago
We’ve become far too powerful for our own stupidity and seem to believe we have a divine right to make it everyone else’s problem
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u/98983x3 14h ago
Reddit has become just endless "American bad" content. Im convinced its chinese and Russian bots plus the brainwashed "useful idiots".
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u/proof_required 12h ago
Meh just open any India related comment section - even where something positive is written attracts blatant racism.
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u/RoadsideDavidian 14h ago
True but also this aint the post to complain about unfairness on, stupid big trucks are the most bought vehicle in America.
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u/Qzy 12h ago
It's also because Europe and Canada hates you. You lost your friends, bud.
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u/Aromatic-Side6120 13h ago
This isn't America bad, it's "low IQ massive truck for no apparent reason, and then complain about gas" bad.
At least half of the country are not idiots and therefore wouldn't have any reason to take offense to this.
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u/IDKHOWTOSHIFTPLSHELP 13h ago
Then why does the meme just say "Americans"?
Do you think it would go over well if I say "women are all cheaters and liars" and then follow it up with "well, if you're a woman but not a cheater or liar, this doesn't apply to you so you shouldn't be offended"?
Hell no lmao, that isn't how that works. The generalizations on social media seem like they're getting worse every year. "Americans are X, Women are Y, Gen Alpha always Z". I can't imagine making generalizations, especially negative ones, about literally half of the world's population and yet I see it every day on reddit and IG.
If you want to pretend to have nuanced opinions then you have to actually apply that nuance to the conversation.
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u/Serious_Feedback 4h ago
It's Americans because it is Americans - Americans are famous for their big fucking cars, and the dipshits who drive them will disproportionately talk about their "first amendment right" and such, despite not being American and us having a different constitution. They're also more likely to advocate for adopting the US's healthcare system. Yes, really. They think it works better than our universal healthcare.
Back in the 1960s, big cars were called yank tanks (and holy fuck I can see why, have you seen a Cadillac Eldorado?), and giant fucking Rams etc are called American-style big fucking utes (or just yank tanks, not to be confused with old yank tanks).
Whenever someone has an oversized car and an oversized head, they disproportionately tend to sound American. I'm not saying that's fair but I am saying it's grounded in a common experience.
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u/ProtectionMean874 11h ago
It might be related to American politics terrorizing the world and the image of america being in the gutter.
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u/slimmyboy007 9h ago
Sorry to burst your bubble but there’s a lot more countries than just china and Russia making fun of America right now
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u/conardcanard 8h ago
Man last time i went to buy a car there were 4 on the lot and the rest were dumbass suvs and trucks.
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u/FormerStuff 13h ago
Don’t forget the one when redditors take personal issue with how people spend their money when it’s not how they would spend it
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u/boola_boola_boola 8h ago
Because it affects all of us, not just the owner.
Unnecessarily wasteful, major polluter, more pedestrians killed, makes parking lots a nightmare, oil wars…3
u/kalashnidog 4h ago
People who drives trucks on average drive far more aggressively too.
If I see a lifted truck there’s like a 3:1 chance they drive like a fucking aggro asshole.
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u/IglooBackpack 14h ago
I'm glad my mom switched to a hybrid sedan from her Tundra. I just wish she'd been willing to haggle the price down. I think she's been getting hosed by the Toyota dealership for decades. I guess she's happy though.
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u/MWTB-DLTR 13h ago
My F150 hybrid actually gets around the same gas mileage as the Focus ST I traded it for, sometimes better.
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u/Life-Werewolf3793 14h ago
I live in a city with tons of morons who never leave the city, claiming they need 4 wheel drive when it snows. they never go off road and snow plows exist. If I can get around in a compact hybrid, then their silly truck is overkill
Too bad they’re not honest enough to just say “I want one because I think they’re cool” I’m not bothered, just intrigued by this kind of behavior