Quote:
Originally Posted by Akrapovic
Question for the Americans here (Broadrun and JHamilton especially seem to know their stuff!) - I know absolutely ZERO about pickup trucks, and in the UK they're relatively rare.
Why are pickups important in the US, and what features are considered the important ones? And why am I so skeptical over the Tesla pickup, despite supporting the electric car movement. Is that a viable option?
Genuine questions from someone who has never sat in a truck.
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For me personally a truck is a starting point as a vehicle but I am kind of an exception. I am 6'7 (2m) and 300 lbs (136k, 21.5 stone) so most cars are right out. I tried driving a friend's Toyota tiny 'SUV/crossover' thing and holy tiny car, I barely fit and could not have driven it for more than 10 min. And I grew up always having a truck, or two, in the family. Learned to drive in an 85 Suburban, manual everything and full vinyl interior. Rode like the Flintstones car but could pull anything with wheels under it and carry at least 5,000 inside the truck. It didn't go fast and was full front to back with a distinct lean to the rear. But then I'm also a guy who wants to squeeze his giant self in to an old British convertible at some point so maybe my opinion isn't worth much. Or distorted by all the fuel/exhaust fumes in the truck.
That used to be the selling point of trucks. Vinyl, bare metal, fix it the Clarkson method and drive until the frame actually rusted to dust. Jump from the early 90s to now and oh how things have changed. The old F-series 350s and up were a mix of frames without much value placed on anything beyond work, comfort wasn't even considered. Ford and Chevy both set out to comfort their 150/1500s and made dedicated HD (really trucking wise medium duty but who's going to advertise we're the mediumest truck?) frames and packages. Hence the birth of the truly SuperDuty F-series trucks and the HDs from Chevy/GMC. Although GMC stuck with their own line of GREAT medium duty trucks for a while longer. As the trucks improved in the 150/1500 lines and became more car like, softer ride, improved interior, hvac systems that actually worked, the fleet buyers and HD buyers wanted similar things in theirs. My family it was 4 kids, add in 6 people, camping gear and food for a week, trailer, etc you end up blowing past the 150/1500s payloads quickly.
Now, well you can get a top of the line F350/Silervado 3500/Ram 3500 dually diesel for more than a base 911. Believe the Rams and Fords top out at close to 100k after all is said and done, now no one actually pays sticker so guessing it's closer to 80k but that's still a LOT for a truck. But you will get all the usual car bells and whistles. And the ability to tow 30,000 lbs all day if you feel the need. Sadly this has made getting a truly 'stripper' work truck harder and harder. And even the middle of the road trucks have exploded, to replace my soon to be 4 model year old truck it is close to an additional 10k over the MSRP then.
As for the Tesla truck? For me it's the limited payload you're going to have to end up with for the range to market a truck. Now I doubt that will curb sales in any way unless the Tesla Model 3 buyers all start to dump the 3s in favor of the truck and the value plummets. But they are holding steady for now it seems. But I think that will be a city option truck and will sell all they can make to hipsters who can't work on their old Chevys and Fords I see running around their parts of Atlanta/Decatur.