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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

#531

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#532

Post by khc »

mcv wrote: post #495
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)

This is a weird cultural thing about the US. I once read about an experiment were people were sorted from rich to poor, and were then given an amount of money to give to a person next to them, either just a bit richer, or just a bit poorer. In practically every country in the world, this experiment resulted in people giving money to the poorer neighbour. Only in the US did they give it to the richer neighbour.

Reference?

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#533

Post by masklinn »

gnz11 wrote: post #529
masklinn wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They at least respect lanes as drawn on the road. Sometimes anyway. Ignoring lanes when making a turn (e.g. drift out on a multi-lane turn) is sadly common.

Not to mention failing to stop at the clearly marked lines at intersections. They seem to stop either a car length behind the line or a car length over the line in the crosswalk.

Also related to both, cutting corners (literally) when making turns, american drivers seem to have a real problem with tight turns. One reason why it’s risky to stop over the line incidentally, as a car making a shallow turn is very likely to step into your lane if they don’t take an over-wide turn instead.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#534

Post by iamthepieman »

HPsquared wrote: post #442
yosito wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

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.

I get annoyed at cyclist and I am one! I just won't ride a bike on a road without a bike lane because it terrifies me and morning commuter traffic on a road with a half-meter shoulder with barely awake hurried drivers going 50+ miles an hour is the worst place to bike.

Eventually I just moved within walking distance of work but would have loved to be able to get exercise biking 5-10 miles each way.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#535

Post by xboxnolifes »

mcv wrote: post #499
HWR_14 wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is this why American cars keep getting so ridiculously large? Because bad rules make them count as efficient even if they are woefully inefficient?

Yes. The US has decent cars, but terrible SUVs/trucks, because the SUVs and trucks have more lenient emissions regulations.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#536

Post by daemin »

HWR_14 wrote: post #467
worthless-trash wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I read an article recently about the growth in sales of such "trucks" in Australia. In there people were complaining that the existing parking spaces aren't big enough for these vehicles, so there should be a review into parking regulations to make spots bigger to accommodate them.

In my mind I would like to see the opposite happen, and instead have a review into these "trucks" to see if they are actually what we want for the road.

There's been diagrams produced that through the ages these vehicles have been getting bigger but with less actual cargo space in them. While some in the country might want them I don't believe for a moment they are as necessary nor as useful for the cities and suburbs where parking space sizes would matter.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#537

Post by aembleton »

sofixa wrote: post #520
deaddodo wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pr…

> 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. The only American brands I see in Europe are either old Chevrolets (manufactured in Germany by Opel when they were part of GM) or Jeep/Dodge/RAM trucks and similar which are owned by Stellantis (the merger of PSA (Peugeot, Citroen) and FCA (Fiat, Chrysler)…

I often see Fords and Teslas

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#538

Post by hahamrfunnyguy »

gramie wrote: post #354
Aeolun wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s legal for BMW to import it’s cars and sell them, then it should be legal for Toyota to import it’s kei cars and sell them in the US right? You just can’t do it as an individual.

I would suspect that Japanese kei cars would not pass the safety requirements. Road speeds really are much slower over there. IIRC, the warning alarm on my kei car in the 90s would go off if I exceeded 90 km/h (about 55 mph).

The highways speeds are the same though. I drove a kei car on the highway in Japan. It was fine, but not a great driving experience. I wouldn't have wanted to drive a regular/full sized American car in Japan though, the roads are really narrow.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#539

Post by GiorgioG »

mcv wrote: post #514
GiorgioG wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did “need” become a requirement for having things? Who gave you or anyone else the authority to decide what other people “need”? I don’t think people “need” motorcycles, private planes, vacation homes, more than a few million dollars in the bank, etc. But who am I to tell people what they should have? Live and let live.

The problem is that they're not letting others live. Those oversized cars are a lot more dangerous, and they pollute more, they take up more space.

My F150 pollutes much less than my wife’s car simply by virtue of me working from home while she commutes every day. Taking up more space is not an issue for people who don’t live in big cities. Trucks are not more inherently dangerous than any other vehicle just because of their size. If that were the case let’s outlaw semis, delivery trucks and anything larger than a VW Golf (a car I had & loved in my youth.)

You folks need to get it out of your heads that one size fits all and everyone needs to have the same values and make the same choices as you. Everything has risks and trade offs.

Re: Rural Americans are importing tiny Japanese pickup trucks

#540

Post by daemin »

mcv wrote: post #506
nickpeterson wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been downvoted over this before but really we just need weight limits on cars. Efficiency is pretty closely aligned and we seem to regulate that just fine.

You need stricter license requirements for more dangerous cars. Get a commercial license if you want to drive an actual truck.

That could be one way to reduce the desirability of these "trucks" and SUVs by making anything classified as a truck require a truck license to drive. Though I believe as in Australia in the USA drivers licenses are on a per-state basis. This makes it much more difficult to get enacted, though I imagine California and New York might be places where it could get traction.
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