this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2024
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] [email protected] 118 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They need to be taxed more and held to a higher efficiency requirement.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (12 children)

Yes, this. The only reason they even became a thing in the US is loopholes in regulation. They're completely impractical too, they have as much bed capacity as a Kei truck, sometimes less. People only think they "like" them because car companies marketed them as big strong men's cars.

I'm glad this is being talked about, I've noticed them everywhere and it's getting really concerning, especially as a parent with children who could hide under those massive hoods.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Please don't call pickup trucks "Utes". From an American perspective, Utes are small trucks based on cars, like the El Camino or Holden Ute. They're way more space efficient and I'd imagine a lot more fuel efficient than their pickup cousins. Utes are dead in the US because they got eaten up by giant pickups, but it'd be cool if they made a come back.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Please don't call pickups "trucks". From a German perspective, trucks are way bigger than pickups (above 3.5t) like the Atego or TGL. They are way more spacious and I'd imagine a lot more useful than their pickup nephews. Pickups are niche in Germany because they are too small for most business use and worse than a station wagon for families, and I hope it stays that way.

[–] inclementimmigrant 7 points 8 months ago

Please don't call suburban penis replacements "pickups". From a rural American perspective, most people who drive these four door, crew cabin, near useless short bed, almost always washed and waxed, with oversized, underutilized engines driven around the city is just sad and pathetic. I saw one of these when I was vacationing in Bonn and I just laughed with my wife and went "damn, I guess male penis compensation is universal".

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

From an Australian perspective, presumably where OP is from, Ute apparently is slang for pickup...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute_(vehicle)

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

As an Australian, A ute isn't exactly a pickup, although we don't use the term pickup so not exactly sure, it's like a sedan with a bed/tray. My understanding is a pickup is higher off the ground than a traditional sedan.

Think of an El Camino - that's a ute

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Yeah, a pickup truck is a body-on-frame vehicle with two separate body units: the forward section with the engine compartment and passenger compartment often called the cab, and a separate cargo box that in some cases might be removed and some other body installed for specialty jobs. An Aussie ute is built with its body as a single assembly, and some might even be unibody construction rather than body-on-frame.

Utes often share styling or even components with sedans, pickups don't.

[–] John_McMurray 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

You'd imagine wrong. El caminos had the same motors and gearing as the pickups.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago

I believe the new term is "Wankpanzer"

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago

also in the netherlands

[–] duffman 14 points 8 months ago

Driving a smaller SUV and the number of vehicles whos headlight are at my eye level really sucks. There's also some study out there about the unnecessary raised hood that does nothing but increase fatalities and lowers visibility of the 10 meters directly in front of the vehicle.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (3 children)
[–] supercriticalcheese 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (3 children)

that looks... surprisingly acceptable in size compared to those american style bullshit vehicles appearing on the sidewalks here in europe?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Traditional Australian utes were just passenger cars with the back chopped off. So they had the same footprint as passenger cars with the same safe front style and efficient practical design. Then the American pickup trucks arrived, stole the term "ute", and now proper utes are extremely rare.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

First the libs dismantled the Aussie car industry

then the wank tanks arrived

[–] supercriticalcheese 3 points 8 months ago

well they have these as well and they are more and more popular

[–] spez_ -1 points 8 months ago

This is too small for me

[–] Tetractys 11 points 8 months ago

Aussies created the category of vehicles with trays. Ute = UTILITY VEHICLE. Yanks fucked it up and morphed it into "trucks" - the monstrosities of emotional support vehicles you see today.

[–] thesporkeffect 7 points 8 months ago
[–] Etterra 7 points 8 months ago

If y'all figure out how, please let us know back here in America. A lot of us hate these goddamn things too.

[–] vallode 6 points 8 months ago

Always boils down to the "If I buy a bigger car I'll be safer!" fallacy. If I buy even bigger shoes I'll be safer from injury in running! If I buy bigger and better trousers I will get less injured at work! If I buy a bigger phone I will get scammed less!

I hope people in all the countries facing their initial "Yank Tank" fevers will vote someone in that is responsible enough to reverse this process. I recently sold my 2003 "Combi"-style car because it was simply too big, looking for something smaller has me left wanting but I'll make do without a car for the time being.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

What? You don't like being killed by a giant tank size vehicle? You don't want your kids being run over? What kind of person are you?

It used to be you could only back over your kids accidentally but now you can front over your kids. That's a real term frontover. It was invented for these type of vehicles by the manufacturer. Of course they know!

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