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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I'd say the most important feature in a pickup is the bed...
sorry.
That's the real answer too though. I hauled a bunch of building materials back to a supplier yesterday and took two clients to lunch today, all in quiet comfort. That sounds like a commercial, but it's the truth! I didn't get trucks until I owned one, but now I can't imagine not having one. How will I get to the race track?
Pickups are an excellent value. If you want a regular cab with a vinyl bench seat, you can have it and if you want a suede headliner and leather saddle bags on the back of the seat, you can have that too. I wouldn't but other people do. You can order pretty much whatever you want and will never see the same truck side by side.
The performance is bananas. Tow ratings from 9-30,000 lbs, payload capacities up to 7,000 lbs, and off road many would dust off a Range Rover for a 3rd of the price. My truck is just over 20ft long, weighs nearly 3 tons and will hurtle to 60mph in 6.5 seconds. The Raptor is now a trim level on the F-150, so now you can just check the box for 'trophy truck'.
They are what American car companies build best. Everyone one of them is tough as nails, including the Toyotas and Nissans. This brings me to a potential Tesla pick up. The impression I have of the Teslas I have been around is they are not built particularly well. If it is to be full size, and it really needs to be, it has to be tough. It's a tough market too, look at Toyota and Nissan. They're very capable trucks but have never been able to put a significant dent into the big 3 because something just misses the mark - styling, interior, etc. I think that would be more difficult to overcome in the immediate future than even the electric technology.