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Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

economist.com

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Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#421

Post by sjducb »

I grew up on a farm and I always thought that modern "off-road" viechles like pickup trucks wouldn't actually be good off-road.

These are the reasons:

1) They are too wide. Real farm tracks are often narrow and overgrown. You want a narrow viechle to fit down them.

2) They are too heavy. When they get stuck you want them to be light so it's easy to pull them out. Ideally a little manual pushing should be enough

3) Off-road "capability" isn't actually that important because you could get a Toyota Camry down 99% of farm tracks. The 1% that's impassible by a Camry is also impassable by most off-road viechles because a pipe broke or a river flooded and washed away the road completely. You want off-road capability to prolong the life of the viechle, not to get down the track.

4) You need good visibility from the cab so that you don't run over your colleagues when doing complicated maneuvers.

Those little Japanese pick-ups look perfect.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#422

Post by freetime2 »

rtpg wrote: post #391
fomine3 wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kangoo buyers in Japan also cares fashion. Japanese vans like Toyota Townace are too boring for them but Kangoo is cute.

Yeah, sure. If you're running some successful bakery in Kagurazaka having the nice-looking truck feels like a "fine" decision. My mental image is that Townaces are bigger, but maybe that's just my impression from the Kangoo's curves

L/W/H for Kangoo is 4490/1860/1810 vs. 4065/1665/1930 for the Town Ace. So probably quite a bit easier to park/maneuver the Town Ace.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#423

Post by kinjba11 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #229
munificent wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still drive a manual 2002 Toyota Tacoma and you'll have to claw it out of my dead hands for this exact reason. I really love the utility of a pick-up truck, but I absolutely despise the size of any of them in the US in the past couple of decades. I wish they still made mid-sized pick-ups that were actually mid-sized. A Tacoma is nearly the size of Tundra was twenty years ago, and a Tundra today is like the size of…

Yeah, what the hell happened? And I miss my manual (1980's?) Chevy Luv.

Not Just Bikes, a YouTuber made a video about increasing vehicle sizes in the US and why you may be interested in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN7mSXMruEo

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#424

Post by chrisco255 »

dyno12345 wrote: post #387
chrisco255 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of large truck owners definitely do. 1300 pounds is nothing, and your ignorance is telling. Most people doing real work with trucks are hauling heavy duty construction trailers, or otherwise, but even if you wanted to move furniture you'd quickly exceed 1300 pounds. Even a tiny 4'x 8' U-Haul is 850 pounds empty: https://www.uhaul.com/Trailers/4x8-Cargo-Trailer-Rental/UV/

"75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less" https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-siz...

Thanks for the useless hit piece, if you can find the scientific data, I'll evaluate it, but when I click into the links on the article, I'm unable to find it.

So we're clear: because surveys are incredibly difficult to do in a scientific way and there's a dozen ways to ask a question that can skew results, there's a hundred ways a journalist can misinterpret the results of that question, and there's a thousand ways you could incorrectly slice the demographics such that your survey skews completely out of sync with the target subject.

We want to know what large truck owners are doing with their trucks. We don't care about small truck owners not towing things because small trucks aren't considered to be excessive and truck beds are useful things on their own.

Show me the data. Not the spin.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#425

Post by imp0cat »

sk0g wrote: post #232
jmrm wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, don't buy our cars here in Spain. Most of people here, specially young people, cannot afford a new car with our 1100€/month after taxes of mininal wage and our 350€/room /month (in cheap places) on the flats we usually live. With that situation, we usually buy cars before 2005 or so, and we pay those 3k to 4k euros in those, and usually with over 250 000 km (155 000 miles). Depending on the model, they even c…

That sounds extremely high for what it is. The second-hand car market has probably gone insane over there as well though Here in Australia I bought a 6 year old Citroen DS3 for about EUR 5.5k, and it had around 60k km on it. Now I was looking at ~3 year old Golf GTI/R, and you can get them for about a 5% discount over buying a brand new one... Why.

The old one was mk7 and the new one mk8? That would explain things.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#426

Post by venk12 »

I find European cities to be well designed. Especially in the Netherlands where I currently live (not Amsterdam). Every city has a city center where all the commercial activity happens surrounded by residential suburb. Everything in and around the city is reachable by bike.I think this is great for a healthy and eco-friendly life.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#427

Post by fortuna86 »

bluSCALE4 wrote: post #381
ElFitz wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So American drivers are aggressive towards those they think to be poorer than them? Why do you think that is? (genuinely curious)

Americans are aggressive as hell. I'm willing to bet that cyclist are maimed and murdered hourly by aggressive drivers and get away with it. I was personally ran off the road by an SUV because I apparently angered the driver, because yeah, killing me totally teaches me a lesson.

US isn't even on the top 10 list of worst / most aggressive drivers. They at least respect lanes as drawn on the road.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#428

Post by Stephen_0xFF »

elboru wrote: post #184
voisin wrote: post #92

I wish the actual story was “US manufacturers announce line of small, Japanese style pickup trucks” Importing adds friction both up front and for ongoing sourcing of parts and maintenance. Just give us some options for local pickup trucks utilizing existing repair facilities! Instead everyone bitches about truck drivers having such large vehicles, when that’s all that’s on offer here!

RAM sells a small truck in Mexico called RAM 700 and it’s getting popular for work purposes (specially in urban areas). I have no idea why it’s not being sold in the US market. https://www.motor1.com/news/447996/2021-ram-700-debut/

Ford is doing the same with the C pick up truck. I often see Rangers with Mexican license plates around town since I live in south Texas. I think if Ford or Ram can sell $100k pickup trucks in Mexico they would in a heart beat.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/03/04/ford-quietly-begins-prod...

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#429

Post by Gustomaximus »

Another one to consider is a Suzuki Jimny. These are smaller again. You see people who cut off the back and add a tray. Great little things that get around well.

I have a 2002 Hilux in the 2.7L four-cylinder. These things tend to be fairly bullet proof and great for on farm work both in what it does and being a cheaper vehicle you done stress about dings and scratches.

On thing the article didn't mention about side-by-sides is they tend to do better in mud and hills. So in areas like I am where its hilly and slippery clay soils, side-by-sides can offer a decent advantage and safety aspect getting around vs a ute/truck.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#430

Post by yosito »

ElFitz wrote: post #371
iambateman wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all true…and also American drivers are legitimately aggressive toward these kind of vehicles. They have a terrible reputation, primarily because they get used a lot by people who can’t afford a car. I wish it were different, but driving a moped/Vespa on American roads is a pretty big risk.

So American drivers are aggressive towards those they think to be poorer than them? Why do you think that is? (genuinely curious)

As an American who grew up feeling annoyed and aggressive toward people driving motorcycles, but now drives a motorcycle regularly for the past 10 years, it never had anything to do with how poor someone was. Motorcycles aren't the most practical vehicles on American roads, so I always perceived them as a sport, not a necessity. And motorcycle drivers has a reputation for pulling stupid stunts and causing accidents on the highway. 19 year old kids would buy sporty motorcycles, drive 2x the speed limit on the highway, swerving between lanes of traffic, doing wheelies, etc. Or a gang of gnarly men would ride into town and parade through the streets on their Harleys. When these are your stereotypes of people on motorcycles, any time there is a motorcycle approaching you or blocking you, it's easy to feel annoyed and aggressive. Motorcyclists (and cyclists) are not seen as poor people choosing practical transport. They are seen as hobbyists pursuing a luxury at the expense of others' convenience and expectations.

Of course, I don't see things this way anymore but I'm fairly confident that this is a common mindset.

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