I’ve owned a lot of different vehicles over the years.
1998 Ford Taurus, 2002 Ford Mustang, 2012 Honda Civic Coupe, 2016 Honda HRV, 2017 Yamaha FZ-09, 2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata, …and finally… 2023 Ford F-150 Tremor
My two favorite vehicles out of that list are the Miata and the F-150. I’ve lived both lives and they’re not comparable.
The Miata was a blast to take out into the country and find a series of twisty corners while banging through gears with the top down. I do miss having the wind in my hair and no particular destination in mind.
The F-150 is great because I’m building a house and need to haul loads of lumber and plywood. It’s also fantastic because I can take it off road and camp in the bed on vacation, getting to places the Miata could never go. It’s also pretty fun to drive with a lot of power.
Admittedly, when you get spirited with the pedal, you can hear the echos and screams of dinosaurs as their remains are incinerated expeditiously by the twin-turbo V6. Not the most environmentally conscious thing I’ve owned, but I disagree that trucks aren’t fun.
Interesting. I admittedly don’t have much experience with driving many types of cars, I’ve only ever driven cars ranging from a hatchback to a small SUV, with the notable exception of C7 Corvette, that was super fun.
But how does the FZ-09 not immediately take the #1 spot over all the cars?
If we’re going to let people drive all these unnecessarily large trucks on our roads, we should create a new license class for them. Something between a Class D and Class B that has its own written/road test, where they’re forced to learn about how these cars have huge blind spots, longer breaking distances, and how they’re not crash compatible with standard sized cars. Hopefully, if a government agency acknowledged how dangerous these trucks are, it might also lead to bigger insurance premiums for the dorks who drive them.
I was at a set of train tracks behind a large truck. Well, in front of him, a car was stalled with hazards on. He looks behind him, backs up to go around the guy, and taps my front bumper. Dude’s truck was so large he couldn’t even see me in the rear view, and the side mirrors made me invisible since the wheel wells were so wide.
I don’t even drive a tiny car or anything, just a mid-sized sedan….
I hate driving or riding in large vehicles though. I feel like they’re tall, unwieldy, and I’m short, so I usually can just see high enough to drive but always feel like I’m about to hit everything. Can’t imagine having one as a daily driver.
Not that this is adding anything but I’ve been hit three times by big trucks that “didn’t see me”.
The first time my wife and I were driving home from a date and he came from behind and just came into my lane and destroyed the left side of my car. He was a good guy and agreed it was his fault and the insurance worked out great.
The second time my wife and I were on our way to a concert and the same thing he came him behind except he also pushed me into a parked car destroying both sides of my car and almost ripped off my front left tire. This fucker lied to his insurance and because we had no witnesses I ended up paying for the rental and deductible. I also installed dash cams after.
The third time I was driving home from seeing one of my kids (they’re all adults) and stopped on the interstate in stop and go traffic. This guy rear ended me. When e pulled over he swore I stopped suddenly for no reason and was driving like an idiot. We called the cops and I showed him the video where I stopped due to traffic and the guy was at least 200 yards away when I did this PLAYING ON HIS DAMN PHONE! Needless to say the cop was on my side.
Note: My small cars are sports cars, so not exactly environmentally as kind as a smart car, but I still am concerned with these giant vehicles that are just begging to hurt people. I think they should follow the same regulations as buses. Put giant ass mirrors on the front on them like school buses and all, require a higher level license just to be able to drive them and so on.
Got nailed twice in one month. Dash cam cleared me on both. 2nd guy also wanted to lie, tell i showed him the camera by my rear view mirror. I ride now, but still have front/rear on my bike. Also on my helmet. Dash cams for life
At night this situation is even worse as the trucks headlights shine level with small car windows just right into the side mirrors and through the rear window into the rear view mirror. Without mirror dimming it is hell, rear views have auto or manual dimming but many cars don’t have any for side mirrors. And headlights nowadays are bright white LEDs and coincidentally huge on trucks because of course. Still don’t stop their drivers hitting pedestrians and stuff apparently either lol
When I bought my Prelude, it had bluish white LEDs. I swapped them out for halogens because I’m not a psychopath.
It’s got very dark tint on all the glass except the front. That makes the bright lights one million times more tolerable. Idk if the tint is legal, but I’ve driven by dozens of cops in the thing and have never been stopped so I guess it is lol
I sometimes try to adjust my side mirror to reflect back at them. I’m positive I fail every time because the limited range of the mirror motors, but it keeps me from getting angrier at least.
i’m not a person to buy these type of truck(my country don’t support, nor i work in farm, not i want to deal with the pain) and i don’t see the problem, but i also don’t drive, so could explain?
Does it? People tend to buy ones with large batteries because they “might need the range”. When I first saw a Tesla (Y, I think), I was shocked at everything being 25% larger than a normal European car.
I don’t know about where you live, but I often make 150+ mile trips from where I live. Just to and from work is 190, and there’s nowhere to charge at work. I usually work from home, so that’s not a problem, but I just can’t afford to live anywhere closer.
If I could find one, I’d love to get an old Honda Insighf. Mfers get like 70+ miles to the gallon. With a 10 gallon tank, that could bring you 700 miles! More if you do some mods to it to improve MPG further.
by subsidies I also mean R&D to improve range. Photovoltaics is getting better and better and I imagine being able to get a pretty nice range in sunnier countries, like in these races through the Australian interior where some concept cars were able to drive the entire distance without charging at like 90 km/h average, forgot the name
There are quite a few classifications of trucks. In the U.S.:
Class 1: 0 - 6000 lbs
Class 2: 6,001 - 10,000 lbs
Class 3: 10,001 - 14,000 lbs
Class 4: 14,001 - 16,000 lbs
Class 5: 16,001 - 19,500 lbs
Class 6: 19,501 - 26,000 lbs
Class 7: 26,001 - 33,000 lbs
Class 8: Over 33,000 lbs
Classes 1 through 2 are considered “light” truck, 3/ through 6 is “medium,” and 7 and 8 are “heavy.”
Classes 7 and 8 require a commercial driver’s license.
Generally, Class 3 starts to have 4 wheels on the back axle, and Class 6 generally starts having multiple axles on the back. At a certain point, you’re up to 18 wheels on a tractor and trailer.
OP’s picture is probably of a Class 2 truck, while you’re thinking of Class 1 trucks.
No, this is overcompensation no matter the drivetrain and weight limit. Open your eyes, no one NEEDS a lift package like that. It’s bullshit. Especially when you see what real world offroad vehicles look like - hiluxes and shit that won’t bog down - not this goofy ass bigfoot wannabe.
Thanks for the ‘clarification’ that just excuses their idiocy.
The meaning of words is consensus-based. If you want to make the point you’re making, you probably should avoid making up your own definition of “light truck.”
Also, I don’t think this is a lift package. I think this is literally the factory specs.
keep telling yourself that monstrosity is a light truck - the only way it could be considered light is against the even larger idiot boxes with even larger lift packages. meanwhile, light trucks: kei’s, s10s, hiluxes - not shit with a 6’ hood. fucking idiotic designs unsafe for anyone but the idiot driver.
and yeah, it’s a lift package, jesus h look at the passenger window, it’s ABOVE the drive through lip.
god why is there always some asshole waiting in the wings to say NUH UH HE’S NOT COMPENSATING FOR ANYTHING
I mean, if a “regular sized truck” is a semi trailer, then of course it’s light, because those trucks weight about 5-10 tons, compared to F150 that weights 2-3 tons.
Fuck that car tho, all SUVs and this one in particular. I always giggle when I see it IRL because it’s comically bad-looking scaled up version of a toy truck.
While you’re in what looks like a 90s Honda, for newer sedans that are at the same height I always tell people I’d rather be in my small car in an accident than my giant 2500. Humans are real stupid and think that bigger = safer, but for cars and trucks it’s basically the opposite. The worst vehicle in the states to be in during an accident is a truck. Often SFA trucks have steering columns without much of a shear making for a giant harpoon aimed at your body during a crash. In every category the best these trucks can muster for accident ratings is “poor” and that’s if they’re lucky.
Yes. But the extra systemic problem those ratings don’t show/account for is that moving at same speed these needlessly heavy trucks also carry more momentum, have relatively very shitty brakes for their weight (and the fairly poor tyre quality with ‘design over function’ approach doesn’t help either).
What I’m saying is that if one of this (smoll pp) big trucks crashes into whatever your vehicle is will hurt a lot more compared if an (average pp) nornal car would have crashed into you at the same speed (more energy gets transferred into your mushy internals).
It’s more dangerous for everyone + they actually disregard safety advances bcs box shape.
I grew up on a farm around square body Chevrolets and those things were great to work on. They had the power to tow, the bed to haul, but they weren’t so big that you needed uppies to maintain them. I saw a square body at a car show last year and I was pretty surprised at how small it was compared to today’s trucks.
I have Subaru Crosstrek, it’s like a lifted Impreza (around the size of a VW Golf but a couple inches more suspension and chassis lift, for the parts of the world that don’t have them).
I have trouble reaching the driver thru windows at newer places because they’ve redesigned around these fucking stupidly tall trucks.
I’ve always wondered if tall truck size is justified because of deer crashing into cars at high speed. Smaller cars would be screwed in such a scenario, but there aren’t that many deer crashes in urban areas.
Higher bumper heights reduce close range visibility and increase pedestrian mortality and injury in collisions. The reduced visibility has increased risk of running over children and pets hidden in the blind spots.
This is unironically a consideration in Alberta but I will still never have one (unless I were to need one for a job). The stopping distance is so much better in small cars. I can even feel it just driving around, if I have stop fast I REALLY feel it in a minivan even with 4 nice disc brakes, don’t feel it nearly as much in a sedan.
If that would have been a problem someone wanted solved there are many better solutions available, like wildlife overpasses, heavier windshields (the polymer between the glass panels) that dont buckle-in, even plough like fenders.
Overall all cheaper, than decades of lifting trucks higher and higher. We have to face it that this is just a design choice, but one that affects everyone and not just the buyer.
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