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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

#461

Post by stevev »

nyx wrote: post #29

The 25-year import rule here, which bans Americans from importing vehicles from other countries unless they're 25+ years old, is just awful for those of us who would be interested in driving small, efficient foreign cars. It would be great to live completely car-free, but absent major changes to how we plan our cities, it's just a sad reality that cars are a necessary ingredient to life in the vast majority of Americ…

The 25-year import rule serves as evidence of how the United States has struggled in competition and developing vehicles over the past several decades.

Toyota and Subaru are present in the United States because there is an incentive to manufacture them locally, which serves as a valuable learning experience for the US.

Thus the United States' car manufacturers are either perceived as being of low quality or lagging behind their competitors, leading to the country being utilized as a third-party for inexpensive assembly.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#462

Post by deaddodo »

alpaca128 wrote: post #460
HPsquared wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cyclists are perceived as the opposite: hobbyists who go too slowly and hold everyone up. By the simple act of riding down a busy street, a well-placed cyclist can necessitate hundreds of questionable overtaking maneuvers as each car has to pass them. "Trail of chaos" in other words.

And most of those cyclists would love to be on a bike lane instead, but those often just don't exist. From personal experience it's also annoying when I get hate from car drivers who assume I deliberately use the road instead of the "bike lane" which is in fact only meant for pedestrians, but try to explain that in half a second while passing and when the official road markings are only visible with forensic tools.

While LA is hardly a paragon of bicycling accessibility, it does have a ton of dedicated cycling routes (I’m talking 8-12+ ft wide, dedicated pathways) that can get bicyclists to most of the major hubs throughout the city. Even still, you’ll see the occasional bicyclist(s) who wants to drive down Washington Blvd during rush hours Because-They-Can(TM) and the cycling path is a little too inconvenient for them, holding up hundreds of cars.

I have nothing against the majority of bicyclists, but those occasional entitled few are the only ones people see; which can easily paint their opinions of all of them.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#463

Post by nicexe »

nyx wrote: post #29

The 25-year import rule here, which bans Americans from importing vehicles from other countries unless they're 25+ years old, is just awful for those of us who would be interested in driving small, efficient foreign cars. It would be great to live completely car-free, but absent major changes to how we plan our cities, it's just a sad reality that cars are a necessary ingredient to life in the vast majority of Americ…

Cyprus regulations for importing cars state: - Must be 5 years old or newer for Passenger car. - 4 years old or newer for Commercial cars up to 3 tons

I find it funny (yet I see this all the time) that 2 countries have polar opposite regulations for the same topic.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#464

Post by deaddodo »

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.

I mean, I've seen plenty of jackass drivers threatening or acting aggressively to cyclists in Europe. Even the Netherlands, of all places.

The biggest difference is there are more protective laws / dedicated bike lanes and the critical mass of cyclists means you might be swatting at a bee swarm.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#465

Post by shellfishgene »

bink wrote: post #235
porphyra wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vans are really much more practical. * protects your goods from weather * more cargo volume * better forward visibility without a long hood * easier to load and unload due to being lower * can park it without people being able to walk up to it and taking your tools and equipment out of the exposed truck bed

I think this is true unless you're hauling something that you really don't want in a closed space with you. Lawn equipment, motorcycle, fertilizer, that sort of thing.

Most van models are offered commercial version that has a separation between the cab and the cargo space, at least in Europe.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#466

Post by Broken_Hippo »

oyashirochama wrote: post #406
TingPing wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it still is… smaller cars, smaller batteries, better all around.

Versus distance and that is an issue of just the geography of the US, we are insurmountable large, even a high end bullet train would take 8-12 hours crossing the country. Stopping absorbs a lot of time for charging compared to ICE or hybrids.

It isn't an issue for everyday driving though. Most folks never take that trip at all, and they surely aren't doing it for a commute. Truck drivers are an exception.

IIRC, the average commute in the US is about an hour. Realistically, you probably are only going to need a few hours of charging daily.

Of course, the real problem in the US is infrastructure. It does no one any favors if you can't charge your car at your apartment, while at work, or can't find places to charge along the way. I haven't lived in the US for nearly 10 years - I moved to Norway, where electric cars are popular but the infrastructure for them has been growing too and there are places to charge your car. And that's just not possible in the US, and I doubt this is going to change in the current political atmosphere - again, rural and poor areas will be left behind at best.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#467

Post by HWR_14 »

worthless-trash wrote: post #370
upofadown wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toyota can't import trucks with such a small footprint. That would screw up their fuel efficiency metric. That could lead to fines from the US government. That is the primary issue here that prevents the sale of small trucks in the US. With the current regulations, it makes the most sense to sell trucks with the longest wheelbase and largest width.

Can you explain this a little more (I dont live in the US and a preliminary search is failing me). It sounds as though the 'regulations' are preventing US consumers from having a choice in trucks, which.. kinda makes no sense from what I've seen in the wide range of oversized trucks in the US.

Bigger vehicles are "trucks" and smaller vehicles are "cars". They have different standards. So while a small Japanese truck may have more efficient than a larger truck, it is legally a very inefficient car.

This is also why SUVs exist, they are legally trucks for fuel efficiency/etc.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#468

Post by deaddodo »

iambateman wrote: post #385
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)

It’s complicated. If you lose your license for drunk driving, you can still drive a moped, so there is a reputation that the person driving the moped has a bad past. Plus, there just aren’t very many on the road so they stick out as unusual. And there is a cultural obsession with big vehicles being tied to masculinity. Which means that many (15%?) drivers would feel happy or even a little justified to blow past a mop…

> And there is a cultural obsession with big vehicles being tied to masculinity.

This is definitely regional. In California, social status (/"masculinity") is tied to luxury brands. Especially in the metros, if you were driving a giant truck you're going to be laughed at (more often than not) as parking is going to be impossible for you and you're going to be spending 150usd/5days to fill up.

In Cascadia/Northern California, eco-drivers (Prius, Tesla, etc) are seen as the self/entitled assholes.

And in Colorado, it's people with AWD/4WD cars (especially, Subarus and Jeeps).

"Trucks" as a social status signifier is confined more to more rural and Southern states.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#469

Post by marcus_holmes »

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.

For some reason in Australia this got picked up by the media who made a small culture-war type conflict of cars vs cyclists. It's now open season on cyclists by car drivers (and very occasionally the other way around) - every regular cyclist has a tale to tell of car drivers being openly aggressive (I had a beer bottle thrown at my head by a passing car - luckily his aim was as bad as his judgement).

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#470

Post by deaddodo »

stevev wrote: post #461
nyx wrote: post #29

The 25-year import rule here, which bans Americans from importing vehicles from other countries unless they're 25+ years old, is just awful for those of us who would be interested in driving small, efficient foreign cars. It would be great to live completely car-free, but absent major changes to how we plan our cities, it's just a sad reality that cars are a necessary ingredient to life in the vast majority of Americ…

The 25-year import rule serves as evidence of how the United States has struggled in competition and developing vehicles over the past several decades. Toyota and Subaru are present in the United States because there is an incentive to manufacture them locally, which serves as a valuable learning experience for the US. Thus the United States' car manufacturers are either perceived as being of low quality or lagging b…

There are a couple issues with your assessment.

A) most cars manufactured by European and Japanese brands are built in Mexico and direct imported via NAFTA/USMCA. The fact that Toyota and Honda choose to continue to do manufacturing in the United States is probably seen as a boon to those local communities.

B) the "low quality" image of American brands is pretty limited to the United States, like a lot of American products (California wine, for instance, is generally bottom shelf in the US but well regarded internationally). In Russia, Ford used to be their top marquee. Ford and GM are both huge in Oceania. In LATAM, they're seen as a step up from Japanese and Chinese brands and Volkswagen. In Europe, they're not generally perceived as low-quality; instead, the perception is that they're too large and fuel inefficient for most European roads/cities.

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