Keep these monstrosities off our roads 🙅‍♂️
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@fj Ok ik American trucks are massive, but could you atleast have used a graphic that actually compares trucks and not the smallest form factor style car against a vehicle that *has* to be large enough to haul stuff.
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
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️"US carmakers have accused Brussels of keeping their largest pick-up trucks, including the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado and the Ram 1500, off European roads”
https://www.ft.com/content/3eb796fd-bcdb-4a9f-89b7-f7d5e692a3cd
@fj What those carmakers failed to understand is that the European infrastructures are no designed to accommodate such vehicles (parking space, narrow street of old cities, etc).
Also there are not adapted to coexist with pedestrians and bicycles.
Those problems doesn’t exist in US as cities are car centered and walking nearby or biking on roads is considered an heresy. -
@reloadedhead Fuck off. Nobody wants to walk or bike near that shit. Hell, most people don't want to drive a normal car near it either.
You are free to move to the USA if you want to drive one.@tkissing chill, I asked respectfully. You should consider answering in a similar manner.
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@fj Id much rather have Japanese Kei cars on our roads.
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
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️"US carmakers have accused Brussels of keeping their largest pick-up trucks, including the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado and the Ram 1500, off European roads”
https://www.ft.com/content/3eb796fd-bcdb-4a9f-89b7-f7d5e692a3cd
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FWIW, the truck in the comparison with the Twingo is an F350.
@Sir_Osis_of_Liver @Quantensalat @fj We have only the F150 in Europe, and even this one is not small by any metric, but it still manageable for everyday use.
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@sanzky @fj That Peugeot is not an overly large car, it's about the length of a full size european station wagon like the classic Volvo 745 or Mercedes W123/W124T. I'd select the Mercedes GLS as a comparison for the Escalade, and then we're in the same ballpark of oversized ugly abominations. What's the more interesting question then: how many of each are sold in EU/US?
@cm @sanzky @fj The reason it's "large" is not just the wheel base and track. It's the height and the way it fills out the envelope.
Basically even if you can find sedans and estates with similar wheelbases, those are cars you can see through and around in traffic. These SUVs (and crossovers) are opaque boxes that create danger wherever they go. And with the driver's seat that far from the nose they have just AWFUL blind spots to boot.
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@tkissing chill, I asked respectfully. You should consider answering in a similar manner.
@reloadedhead I considered that and decided that the likelihood of your question being in good faith is not very high.
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
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️"US carmakers have accused Brussels of keeping their largest pick-up trucks, including the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado and the Ram 1500, off European roads”
https://www.ft.com/content/3eb796fd-bcdb-4a9f-89b7-f7d5e692a3cd
@fj Well, here in the United States of stupid, insecure men with shitty personalities and penises no one will touch *need* these gigantic compensatory machines. #TheOnlyGoodNaziIsADeadNazi
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@simon_brooke @fj also if it doesn’t fit in the parking spot - tow away.
@ghard @simon_brooke @fj
Put it in a crusher that will compact it down to the legally permitted length and bonnet height for safe visibility of pedestrians. -
@simon_brooke @fj also if it doesn’t fit in the parking spot - tow away.
The Netherlands already taxes cars at sale according to their weight and carbon emissions. I think the annual road tax also goes up with weight.
About a decade ago I looked up the taxes for an Audi Q5: they were about € 20,000 at sale. You see very few of those on Dutch roads.
I expect other EU countries to have similar tax codes.
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@reloadedhead @richlv @fj
this article has an in depth analysis. these things are deadly. More mass = more momentum = more energy transfer in collision. Also, there is the fact that lower cars break legs, these things smash thoracic cages.
https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2025/being-hit-suv-increases-likelihood-death-or-serious-injury@tribactam @richlv @fj thank you for referencing this article. Very interesting read!
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The Netherlands already taxes cars at sale according to their weight and carbon emissions. I think the annual road tax also goes up with weight.
About a decade ago I looked up the taxes for an Audi Q5: they were about € 20,000 at sale. You see very few of those on Dutch roads.
I expect other EU countries to have similar tax codes.
@CelloMomOnCars @ghard @fj That's true, but the rate of increase isn't nearly steep enough.
As I said, damage to the road scales with the fourth power of the vehicle weight, so if the fair tax on a vehicle weighing one ton is $100, then the fair tax on a vehicle weighing four tons should be $100,000,000.
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
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️"US carmakers have accused Brussels of keeping their largest pick-up trucks, including the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado and the Ram 1500, off European roads”
https://www.ft.com/content/3eb796fd-bcdb-4a9f-89b7-f7d5e692a3cd
@fj I wonder why

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@fj I strongly feel that vehicles should be taxed by unladen weight. The damage to roads -- which has to be met out of the public purse -- scales with the fourth power of the axle loading, and the tax should scale similarly.
It would be tricky to frame legislation which outlawed very large and heavy private vehicles which would not also outlaw fire engines, for example; but it wouldn't hurt to tax them into oblivion.
@simon_brooke @fj look at the Dutch car roadtax per weight group+fuel type. I think that is pretty much what you mean.
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@fj why not let people decide if they want such a large vehicle or not?
Not everything is a matter of want. I.e. we tend to not let people decide whether they want to kill children with blunt objects.
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@reloadedhead I considered that and decided that the likelihood of your question being in good faith is not very high.
@tkissing I was genuinely asking. Still not a reason to go full ballistic, but that’s just my point of view.
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@Sir_Osis_of_Liver @Quantensalat @fj We have only the F150 in Europe, and even this one is not small by any metric, but it still manageable for everyday use.
I have an F150 Lightning EV and a VW Touareg TDI.
If I lived in a European city, I wouldn't have either. The Lightning in particular would just be a pain to live with there.
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@tkissing I was genuinely asking. Still not a reason to go full ballistic, but that’s just my point of view.
@reloadedhead
"Why not let people decide if they want a giant car?"
"Why not let people decide if they want to wear a mask when shipping during a pandemic?"If you want to ask good faith questions and get polite answers, try sounding different from assholes who very loudly put their personal comfort over the health and life of others for the past ~6 years.