It barely fits in the bloody car park. So bad for pedestrians and the environment.

  • shirro@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    For complete fairness to everyone we should tax every vehicle on road or path from scooters and bikes to b-doubles based on the 4th power of axle load to properly account for the impact on road maintenance costs. Then additional levies for disproportionate environmental costs and harm to vulnerable road users. Keep the overall tax amount the same but shift the burden so people with smaller vehicles pay substantially less than they do now. And then add strict liability for anything much larger than a kei car.

    • ephemeral_gibbon@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      Yes, however with that it’d be more expensive to administer taxation on bicycles etc. Than what they’d bring in… So not really worth doing at all.

      • TassieTosser@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        Since the amount of damage caused by bikes to infrastructure would be small, the govt could just slap a tax for the cost to the purchase price of every bike. Not saying I’d agree with it but there are ways to make all road users pay their share.

        • itsmikeyd@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Surely human powered transport should have tax breaks in order to encourage adoption by promoting affordability though.

  • 5redie8@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Hi American here - please don’t let those things take over your roads, it sucks for all the reasons you think it does

  • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
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    1 year ago

    But now that Holden have stopped making Commodores, how else are you meant to show you’re a dickhead?

    • Treevan 🇦🇺@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      Through the quality of your driving, the aggressiveness of your horn usage, the size of your exhaust, and how quick your road rage builds.

  • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    I don’t understand why they’re suddenly getting traction here. These big utes have been around forever but it just feels like you see them all the time now.

  • XiELEd@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Why do people even like inefficient, huge cars if they’re not going to use most of its features, not even in the foreseeable future? Such a bloated design for an everyday car, and even more potentially dangerous at that… those Japanese cars have a more elegant and sleek design, as well as efficient. Well, I would like good public transportation too.

    No matter how you look at it, all the pros of those kind of cars turn into cons when they’re used as cars for everyday personal transport.

    • LanyrdSkynrd@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In America they are mostly bought because of consumerism and fragile masculinity.

      Where I live trucks are at around half the vehicles. My wife and I play a game where we try to spot a truck hauling something that they actually needed the truck for. Most trips I’ll see dozens of trucks and zero being necessary.

      • Tb0n3@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Do you see them on the weekends when they’re hauling their 4 wheelers, boats, or motorcycles? You probably don’t make it to the outdoors much, but there’s good reasons to have a pickup.

        • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          A Chevy Bolt EV hatchback can tow right sized utility trailers, boats, campers, bicycles, cargo boxes, motorcycles, ride on lawn mowers and ATVs. With the roof rack it can move kayaks. Before someone chimes in to say it can’t, I own one, I live in a rural area, I do these things and have done them for part of the last 150,000kms.

          If the little ol’ bolt can do it, think about all the larger vehicles that could do it too. The idea that you need a weekday driver pick up truck to have enough utility for weekend fun is a myth told by truck salesmen and people trying to justify the unnecessary purchase they made.

          • Robert7301201@slrpnk.net
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            1 year ago

            I looked into if it would be possible to tow a small trailer with the Bolt, but it’s not rated for any towing load so it’s an insurance liability. Is your model rated for towing, or are you just accepting the insurance liability?

            • Funderpants @lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              My insurance company tells me that when a trailer is attached it’s covered under liability, no different than a cargo box on a hitch. Rated capacity never factored into the discussion, just don’t overload the OEM hitch that I have installed.

              But now we’re talking about differences in people’s specific insurance coverage, which may vary by country, state, province, provider, and legislation and not the overall point which is that owning a daily driver pick up truck just because you occasionally tow is more an excuse than a nessecity for many , many truck owners.

    • thoughtorgan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      As a big dude I can’t comfortably fit in a lot of smaller vehicles. I used to love my truck. Now I’ve settled on a Crown Victoria, the thing is a boat made for land.

      I live in America so it’s far from the worst offender.

      • XiELEd@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I think I can understand that, it’s just that some people just get the biggest car they can find only as a status symbol and think of nothing else about it, then when they get an inconvenience they don’t even think that it’s the cost of having that design. Not to mention the environmental impacts. But if I were in your situation, I certainly don’t want to feel cramped in a car, especially if it’s in America where you’ll be driving fora significant portion of your day. I mean your car could be inefficient, but it’s probably because efficiency wasn’t accessible for you in the first place.

  • 𝐘Ⓞz҉@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    These mofo americans are ruining it for everyone. I have stopped watching hollywood movies as they tend to show these cars and most regulars get brain washed and start buying this shit.

  • bkmps3@aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    They’re every inconvenience rolled in to one. A pain to get in. A pain to park. Use heaps of fuel. Don’t fit in garages, and to top it off are expensive AF. I’m confident in saying unless you tow like, horse floats on the regular, if you own one you’re a fucking idiot.

    • Takatakatakatakatak@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      They’re not actually that bad on fuel. Don’t get me wrong, I’d never own one but a few of our major players at work have them as some sort of status symbol. Cruising in overdrive at 100km/h they can go as low as 6L/100km, but average is around 12L/100km unless you are doing lots of hunting through the gearbox or driving like a dick, then you can see some truly disturbing fuel usage figures.

      To put it in perspective, this is on par with a modern hilux, and WORLDS better than the 2022 79 series landcruiser even with all the fuel efficiency gains they made.

      To be clear I still don’t think anyone should be driving one here - our roads and car parks are simply not built for them. They aren’t that great offroad either. Really the only genuine use case is towing an enormous caravan down the hwy, in which case I hate you anyway because that’s TWO symbols of you being an inconsiderate prick that doesn’t care about anyone else.

      • R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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        1 year ago

        Yeah that’s not as bad fuel efficiency as I thought tbh. My 2004 hyundai elantra shitbox gets similar.

        • Takatakatakatakatak@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          I used to give them all shit about hooking their wallets directly up to the fuel tank to save time, but it seems I was wrong on that one. There’s a RAM something or other, an F150 and a Chevy Silverado in the circle of super ultra power megablokes. They all get pretty similar figures: 12-13L/100km average.

          I was pretty miffed because that’s actually better than my comparatively tiny japanese 4x4 gets sometimes. They must have put some serious work in to achieving those figures with such a massive vehicle and massive engine.

          • boonhet@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            European here. Japanese cars just have bad fuel economy tbh.

            In the America-centric culture we have here on the Internet, they’re touted as highly efficient because the comparison is usually Prius vs F250, but really you can often get better fuel economy from German cars than Japanese. German diesels in particular. Average driver will probably get the same highway fuel economy out of an E-Class or a Civic.

    • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      They’re also way more dangerous. They do more damage if they hit something, and because of the terrible visibility they’re more likely to hit something.

      That said, if they do hit something, the people inside the tank might be ok.

      • R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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        1 year ago

        They are more likely to roll than normal cars (SUVs excluded), and when they roll they’re generally more likely to crush the roof due to their weight. So yeah, while they’re better off than the car they hit, they’re still not amazing safety wise.

        • Recant@beehaw.org
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          3 months ago

          While true on the more likely to roll due to their higher center of gravity, unless they are lowered after purchased, I was surprised to find that at least for the f150, the roof strength is almost 6 times the weight of the truck.

          That’s according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety which is an independent review organization that gave the f150 one of its highest ratings.

          More information is here: https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/ford/f-150-crew-cab-pickup/2021

    • Frog-Brawler@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I agree with you mostly, and I absolutely hate these things as well. Here’s the 3 reasons someone might have one of these for personal use…

      1.) Heavily vested in the culture war shit.
      2.) Maybe they own a boat or something that needs to be hauled in a trailer and the engine on a standard size vehicle isn’t sufficient.
      3.) They live somewhere really cold and remote and need to attach a plow to the front during the winter in order to leave home.

      • HelixDab@kbin.social
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        1 year ago
        1. Frequently hauling items that won’t fit inside an enclosed vehicle
        2. Frequently used over rough terrain where high ground clearance and 4WD is necessary.

        I have regular need for a truck to carry lumber to and from home improvement box stores and lumber yards (it’s remarkably inconvenient to carry a 10’ 2x4 in anything that doesn’t have an open bed, and you can’t fit a 4x8 sheet of plywood inside anything smaller than a panel van). But even with that, it’s far, far cheaper for me to rent a truck for a few hours when I need one than it is to make payments on one, pay for insurance, gas, tires (!!!), repairs, etc. It would be nice to have one on the forest service roads around here–I broke 2 motor mounts on a Civic on a forest service road–but that’s uncommon enough that it’s not worth the purchase.

  • Designate@lemmy.letthewookiee.win
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    1 year ago

    If you live in the City then these things are pointless, but in the country they are some of the handy vehicles to have. And they sell like hotcakes out here.