Keep these monstrosities off our roads 🙅♂️
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
️"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 wonder why they chose to shrink the car even further than the specified width and height? the point can be made just as (if not more) forcefully if they didn't resort to distorting the relative sizes
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First and foremost: large vehicles are safer for the people in them, but much less safe for those around them. They crush smaller cars. Small children cannot be seen if close to the front. The headlights blind me when one of these is behind me in the road. They block sight lines. I think that wanting a big truck is basically anti-social.
This goes double for cybertrucks.@ThreeSigma @richlv @fj @reloadedhead A little old, but still relevant: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24139147/suvs-trucks-popularity-federal-policy-pollution
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@mausmalone @Rin3d @fj
Despite the F-350 being slightly taller the visibility is much worse than the van. The Van driver can see a child or short Adult. The driver of an F-350 can't unless quite far off. -
Keep these monstrosities off our roads
️"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 that is not a car
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
️"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
Simply because they are a hazard.
Dangerous, not needed and not suited for European roads and cities.
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
️"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 love how the examples are among each brand’s smallest pickup trucks
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
️"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 a fair comparison would be with the high-roof mercedes sprinter. Of course, the shortest sprinter van isn't even sold in the US, and is still some 30cm narrower than the F-SuperDuty.
Though I still won't defend how absurdly large our cars are. I want something affordable the size of the old jeep cherokee or a golf estate, and it just doesn't exist on the new market.
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
️"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 they aren't cars, probably not even trucks, they are HGVs and if we did allow them on our roads you should need a HGV licence to drive them.
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@richlv @fj do you mean they are more dangerous due to the size and potential damage in an accident?
I am genuinely asking, because I come from a land in which having pick-ups is very common in rural areas for work and stuff, but not that common in urban environments, because surely nobody wants to drive that in narrow streets!
@reloadedhead @richlv @fj cities and suburban areas = pedestrians.
It used to be that if you unfortunate enough to be hit by a truck it would probably be a survival accident. After all the mass of the grill really only came up a little bit over your hip. Now, if you’re hit by a truck, you’re going to be pulverized. I live in the US and it’s a nightmare. I absolutely will not ride a bicycle in my town anymore because I would be asking to die. -
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@mbirth @reloadedhead @fj can we not use that as a slur?
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
️"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 Completely agree, although European vehicles keep creeping larger and larger. Car shopping recently and I was surprised at how big a Peugeot 3008 had gotten. Width wise, it's 2 cm narrower than a Ford Ranger.
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@mikaeleiman @fj thats why I like my Polestar 2 so much. 4,6m is shorter than most competitors, still ride is perfect and the width is also on the narrow side. The EV9 window line is above my roof 🫣
@disco3000 I really like the polestar 2 but it's outside my budget. unfortunately there are very little sedans/estates EVs. I checked the BYD seal but is also super long and doest not fit on my garage.
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@fj incredible cultural insensitivity from Brussels, don't they know that the F150 is Ford's *smallest* truck in that line?
Edit: for context the f-350 is 6.8 m long and 2.4 m wide, it's a common vanity truck in the US, I often see them without a scratch and with no dirt as though they'd never left the pavement (ah, the link is for the f-350 so ok)

@wronglang @fj the 350 isn’t the top either. Shaq has a custom F650 and I see F550’s with flatbeds pulling gooseneck campers fairly often.
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
️"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
Cars keep getting bigger, even here in the uk. Roads, on the other hand, refuse to widen and simply degrade faster because of the excessive burden of the vehicles' weight.
Engine cc and fuel economy are already largely constrained by fuel duty. Let's begin making VED decisions based on vehicle mass. Promote smaller cars and motorcycles over tanks.
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@wronglang @fj the 350 isn’t the top either. Shaq has a custom F650 and I see F550’s with flatbeds pulling gooseneck campers fairly often.
@passwordsarehard4 @fj oh God, I must've blanked that out of my brain, I think 350s are the biggest I regularly see but I know what you're talking about with the campers. Ugh.
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@fj I love how the examples are among each brand’s smallest pickup trucks
In fairness, the F350 pictured is about as large as most people would get for personal use.
The Ford Maverick is far smaller and has seen high demand. The hybrid version is remarkably efficient.
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@ghard @simon_brooke @CelloMomOnCars @fj EVs are somewhat heavier but not by much. our car has 78 kWh (nominal) NMC battery capacity and that’s like 360 kg. The electric drivetrain is lighter weight than an ICE would be with gearbox and clutch and cooling and all the other stuff. Tank and fuel also weighs some, so I’d expect a 100-200 kg mass penalty for being BEV instead of petrol (can’t compare this model directly, no ICE option)
@uint8_t @ghard @simon_brooke @fj
So far, zero emission vehicles have just about zero tax in NL, at sale. I don't know about the road tax.
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Keep these monstrosities off our roads
️"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'm an American who lives in the woods. Usually this kind of truck's target market. I'd much rather have something like an aussie ute or toyota hilux.
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@fj I sometimes see the Ford Ranger, which is a "small" pickup per US standards and it's already ridiculously large. I hope we never see those monstrosities here.
But UVDL will UVDL and she might cave to them