It seems like everyone wants to drive a truck these days. From the kind-of-awful all-new Bronco to the ever-popular Ford F-150, America is just gaga for trucks.
I’ve said repeatedly that I would never drive a big truck as a daily, but I do get that they have purpose. I mean, we do have race cars to tow and plywood, …
I wouldn't want to daily a full-size truck. I did that with a Silverado for several years and while it wasn't terrible, it's not a fun vehicle in heavy traffic or tight downtown areas. 12 mpg was also kind of painful. So I replaced it with a first-generation Ridgeline. I drove it daily for a year or so and it's a very good vehicle. Most of the advantages of a truck but without the disadvantages. It only lacked torque and towing capacity so it went down the road for the Touareg TDI and the 7700 pounds of towing capacity. At times I do miss the bed and trunk of the Ridgeline but not enough to give up the 490 lb-ft of torque. I keep thinking about buying another one but it would just sit in the yard and collect leaves. Maybe after the Touareg's time is up.
Tim Suddard said:
the kind-of-awful all-new Bronco
Whoa! Shots fired! 
I am not at all comfortable with the idea that the liking of something has to be derived from some rational basis. For example, I don't want my wife to think too hard about if there's some valid reason she likes me.
If you like something, like it. Aspire to have it. Get it when you can do so. Life is way too short to try to justify liking something. Should I have liked my Excursion? It was hard to park, burned fuel like nobody's business, didn't handle well, wasn't particularly attractive, and the towing and hauling I did could have been done with a more "reasonable" vehicle. But I loved the damned thing and don't feel like I need to justify why.
You like trucks? Buy a truck. You hate trucks? Don't buy one.
Tom_Spangler (Forum Supporter) said:Tim Suddard said:
the kind-of-awful all-new Bronco
Whoa! Shots fired!
I've only driven a two-door one a very short bit around the block or whatever, but I kind of like them. The 7 speed manual shifts nicely and the turbo gives it plenty of power. It's weirdly both huge and tiny at the same time.
I loathe trucks...............I find them joyless farm implements, BUT
They have great outward visibility, the modern ones are plush as plush can be, they are quiet inside and generally are a nice place to be.
I still loathe them for daily driving but I understand why people like them.
Seems like the crew cab pickup is making a run at the full size SUV for the title of "lacrosse mom vehicle of choice" around here. Dads with office jobs are using them to commute. Many of those trucks are hauling a giant travel trailer or boat on the weekend; there seem to be a lot more of those around now too.
A loaded up pickup is expensive but nice enough to be a status symbol and (apparently) drivable enough to run around in every day. One vehicle to do it all instead of having a car and a separate vehicle in the driveway that only gets used to haul stuff.
Sometimes I forget that normal people don't usually have more vehicles than drivers in their household :P
Hey Tim, I've been in auto lending since '79 working for various banks and OEM's finance companies. I learned a lot from car dealers over the years
Back when I was say 25, mid 80's before the SUV and Truck craze, I always remember a general manager saying, "every homeowner needs a truck." So true, kind of like another dealer once told me, "everyone buys a black car, once!"
I daily an '07 Scion tC with 190,000 miles. My wife drives a minivan with the rear seats out for her home staging business. We do any personal business/travel in my car. If we need anything bigger, we just rent it for the day.
I don't have a solid answer why I like them but I am happiest in a stripped out V8 regular cab truck. It just does everything I need, I can haul the dogs to the beach, I can go to the dump, cheap to insure, easy on tires, super comfortable while towing, don;t care if it gets scratched or dented, easy to work as the engine bay is huge.
I don't get the super luxury trucks as all when people use them as trucks, totally get it as transport for the family plus the occasional haul. Things like hte Raptor ride better on bad streets then any luxrury car I have ever owned.
Son of a construction worker. They were always around. You become comfortable with them.
I had trucks all my life. But about six years ago I swapped to an SUV. I do not miss the truck for a minute.
Because up until the invention of beds too short to sleep in, they were the Swiss army knife of cars. Now they just seem to be status symbols that have had entirely too much utility stripped away to be useful unless you're buying way more truck than you need.
I'm with you Tim. Not a truck lover.
Honestly the Element I got from Tom does 90% of what I need a truck for. That last 10% is towing. It hauled tools from Ohio, my bikes to Arkansas to ride. Helped my nephews move.
If it could tow, it'd be the perfect vehicle.
But I also grew up in an SUV family in the 70s and 80s. My dad had a Ramcharger and Trail Duster. We were early adopters.
Absent a logical need for one, I am completely baffled by the current craze for giant pickups and SUV's at all much less as daily drivers. In my mind it's a bit of an indictment of the people who own them that they care so little about the earth and the people around them.
I currently drive a sporty compact sedan with a manual (Kia Forte GT). If I could choose to daily drive any kind of vehicle it would be of similar size but in wagon form. Other than a large family, I can't imagine needing more vehicle for most people.
All that said, I have an irrational desire for a dajiban. The fact that I could track it and use it for house renovation needs is beside the point. :-)
I never thought I would be the person to daily drive a truck. That being said I love how useful having one is, sure its just a Nissan Frontier with a short bed but its perfect for what I need. I work from home so fuel mileage isn't a huge concern and now that I have had something where it so easy to put the new appliance in the bed or pick up a trailer to move something bigger I don't think I can go back.
I think most points have been made and I agree, 80%+ of non-commercial trucks in the Philly 'burbs are status symbols these days. And as someone who is currently feeding into that statistic by going from a 2011 Jetta, to a 2014 GLI, to a 2015 Jeep GC (temporarily), one small advantage of trucks not mentioned - sidewalls.
Maybe it's just the crumbling PA infrastructure but man it is nice not to cringe at every hidden pothole! I was up to replacing a tire every winter and some years repairing a bent rim.
I've logged a lot of time in trucks, so they are mainly tools rather than lifestyle implements to me. That said, there's something nice about riding high in a rugged vehicle with the ability to throw a lot of crap in the back. But loving them.... that's another matter. The closest I've ever come to loving a truck was a 1990 Toyota 4x4 standard cab with the V6. It was just fun. Like a tall sports car. But I'm in the minority. To love most trucks you have to love size. And I like my vehicles smallish.
This may piss some people off, but I think that a lot of people who aren't very significant in their regular life love trucks because the characteristics associated with the truck transfer to the driver. You may be a soda jerk in real life, but if you can afford payments on that Dodge , you're a man, a player, just like how Luxury cars are often seen in the inner city.
Most of these crew cab, short/medium bed trucks a are simply the full size sedans of yesteryear. For example, in '72, there were over a million of the Chevy Impala/Biscayne/Caprice (same car, different trim levels). Then you combine those sales with however many of the sister brands from Buick, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile, then add in the sales of the full size Fords and Mopars, and you see that there were a LOT of those big beasties cruising around then. Once those cars disappeared, people turned to full size trucks to do the same job, and they got plusher, comfier, and faster. AND they had a practical side that the full size sedans don't have.
So yes, this:
is really just this:
Oddly I see a connection with the fall of the big coupe (Monte Carlo, Thunderbird, and some bigger 2 door sedans) with the rise of trucks as "personal luxury / cool cars".
What else can you get a V8 and big comfy seats that's not a sports car or luxury sedan? The Challenger / Charger are sort of recent anomalies.
I'd happily daily drive a RCSB lowered a few inches if I could afford it.
Chris_V said:Most of these crew cab, short/medium bed trucks a are simply the full size sedans of yesteryear. For example, in '72, there were over a million of the Chevy Impala/Biscayne/Caprice (same car, different trim levels). Then you combine those sales with however many of the sister brands from Buick, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile, then add in the sales of the full size Fords and Mopars, and you see that there were a LOT of those big beasties cruising around then. Once those cars disappeared, people turned to full size trucks to do the same job, and they got plusher, comfier, and faster. AND they had a practical side that the full size sedans don't have.
So yes, this:
is really just this:
You type faster than me, but we have the same idea.
redtanrt10 said:
I always remember a general manager saying, "every homeowner needs a truck."
Hey, that's my line! I don't care when he said it, I said it first! 
A truck is a tool. I would not choose to daily my truck, since it seems a tad wider than some of the skinny lanes one finds on urban streets and back country roads. I'm often aware of the looks of sheer terror in the eyes of oncoming motorists as they scurry for the ditches to escape the ominous big mirrors and dual rear wheels of my humble truck. I drive it when I need a truck, which is every so often. Other times, I drive something else. If I had a smaller truck, I doubt I'd drive it any more often.
I' ve had my Canyon for 4+ years now, and it only has 20K on it. I tend not to use my new stuff and keep using the old stuff....makes no sense, but lately I've been driving it more than the old MINI. It's nice, comfortable place to be, it costs no more in fuel, and I can hear the stereo. The only downside is parking it. It's the long box, so the turning circle is bigger, and I'm just used to running errands in the MINI. In a couple of years I'll probably go trade it in on a small CUV, once I dispose of the Challenge car and trailer.
msterbee said:Absent a logical need for one, I am completely baffled by the current craze for giant pickups and SUV's at all much less as daily drivers. In my mind it's a bit of an indictment of the people who own them that they care so little about the earth and the people around them.
I currently drive a sporty compact sedan with a manual (Kia Forte GT). If I could choose to daily drive any kind of vehicle it would be of similar size but in wagon form. Other than a large family, I can't imagine needing more vehicle for most people.
All that said, I have an irrational desire for a dajiban. The fact that I could track it and use it for house renovation needs is beside the point. :-)
I'd give my left sack for one of these, spousal unit would murder me in my sleep though.. Wouldn't mind those wheels on my GMT400 though..
I watched the final drag race scene in American Graffiti and when the '55 flipped over I wondered how different is a new 2WD double door truck from that car?
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