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

https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/renault-twingo-1998-3-door-hatchback-vs-ford-f-350-2016-4-door-pickup-crew-cab/

@fj I've been looking at cars recently, and I've decided to not get a Kia EV9 because it's too large to fit in normal parking spaces. The EV9 is 5 m, and this abomination is 6.35 m?! That's just bizzare.
@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 if only someone made a not-huge seven seat car… Sigh.

@mikaeleiman @disco3000

They made seven/eight seat yet still smallish "station wagons" sixty years ago and I still see plenty of that format driving around now. Who is supposedly stopping anyone building those now, exactly?

@jerrej

Safety ratings. Tragically it's a key selling point that your toddler crushing wheeled machine will protect you against even against the most egregious driver of another toddler crushing wheeled machine.

With the airbags, crumple zones, motorised belts, you need perhaps 40 centimeters of extra bulk all around the "car".
@mikaeleiman @disco3000

@jerrej @WestLawns I haven't found more than a handful of alterantives for: full EV, seven seats for adults, price below 65k € . The short list I have is Peugeot e5008 and Kia EV9…

Our current car is a Sharan, and if there was an EV version of it we'd probably go with that.

@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.

@mikaeleiman 6,35? That's just one cm shorter than my complete Fiat Ducato based campervan 😱 @fj

(Non paywalled ft article available at: https://archive.vn/rjBNl )

@fj big cars for big egos
@fj Id much rather have Japanese Kei cars on our roads.
@Kensan @fj in Amsterdam microcars are more and more in use, but Kei cars would complement nicely, also for professional use.
@Kensan
Isn't their cost so high?
@nuwagaba2 Not from my experience (in Japan). Why would the cost be high?
@fj real men drive 350 anyway

@Quantensalat @fj

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.

@kingmoth @Quantensalat @fj

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.

@fj that vendors even see a market potential means that diesel and gas, while being near-unaffordable for a large part of the populace atm, are still not expensive enough for too many. Also: matching efforts by EU conservatives to reduce CO2 pricing before it takes full effect. @catsalad
@ll1t @fj @catsalad these are status symbols for the 1%. They are insensitive to prices as any amount of consumption is a miniscule fraction of their wealth.
@fj You can’t even get a capable small truck in the US anymore. Tacomas are as big as Tundras used to be. It’s ridiculous. The hoods are so tall they suck for off-roading visibility. You lose the trail in front of you going uphill.
@killionaire @fj yep stupid government tied emissions requirements to foot print size and shits been getting bigger ever since.
@Rin3d @killionaire @fj and the people who drive them really should not be. Because they think these are automobiles for a small city streets. They are showpieces now as the truck beds are so small you can’t haul anything other than your trip to Costco. Good luck putting furniture in the back of one
@Rin3d @killionaire @fj No small trucks in the US because of a 60 year old law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
Chicken tax - Wikipedia

@starlily @Rin3d @fj Wow. Never knew that. Thank you.
@fj I wish they’d be largely banned from American roads, too.
@mwyman @fj Ten dollar a gallon gas will fix that.
@starlily @mwyman @fj not enough. We got assholes spending $10k to get the emissions devices removed so they can “roll coal” on the libs. It’ll go to gas rations and they’ll find some way to bypass it.
@passwordsarehard4 @mwyman @fj The average drivers of these pavement princesses are not usually jerks with fuck you money. There's very few of those, really.

@fj
This is not an important fight for American car makers. They just make noise out of habit.

Even with the current IVA loophole, the market for supersized American cars in the EU is minuscule. If they sold well, they would make EU type approved version and would have no need for IVA.

@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.
@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.

@wronglang @fj just checked what parking places (e.g. in cities, on the side of residential roads, etc.) are specced for here.

The whole parking space (with air, i.e. road, pedestrian path, other parking spaces on the side, not walls) is at least 2m wide and 3.35m long. This includes room for mirrors, to exit on the sides, and the front/back overhang when driving through to the kerb stop.

Your vehicle must fit into this, or you will find insufficient parking everywhere.

@mirabilos @fj I mean I drive an early 2010s Chevy Sonic because here a car is required to survive so you didn't have to convince me.

They really don't care about anybody else's use of space

@fj good for you EU. Well done.
@fj our roads aren't big enough for those monsters on wheels 😅
@fj why not let people decide if they want such a large vehicle or not?
@reloadedhead @fj Because they endanger others, use way more space and it also encourages driving like pricks.
Or is it just making pricks more visible?

@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 They absolutely are far more deadly in accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists (of which we have so many more in the EU than in the US).
@reloadedhead @richlv @fj I see aso’s driving these wank panzers around narrow streets in Amsterdam.
@ghard @reloadedhead @richlv @fj yeh, I always make a point of staring at them with a disgusted look on my face. Worst is these things in Amsterdam rush hour, when they go through the traffic lights even though there is no space to go on, and then block the crossing. Most cyclists at RAI crossing will bang on the side as they go past, but it’s necessary as they might move on as the traffic moves and won’t see us.
@reloadedhead @richlv @fj From what I can tell, they're not even that good as duty vehicles and most never get used in that way.

@richlv @fj @reloadedhead

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.

The reckless policies that helped fill our streets with ridiculously large cars

How federal lawmakers helped SUVs and pickups take over America

Vox
@MichaelPorter @reloadedhead @richlv @fj
I still feel that the 80s decision to classify SUVs as light vehicles was a big step down that slippery slope.
@ThreeSigma @reloadedhead @richlv @fj Odd, I didn't have trouble reading it (not a subscriber). Do they have a monthly limit that you ran into, maybe?
@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
Being hit by an SUV increases the likelihood of death or serious injury | LSHTM

The likelihood of a pedestrian or cyclist being fatally injured is 44% higher if they are hit by a sports utility vehicle (SUV) or light truck vehicle (LTV) compared with smaller passenger cars, new

LSHTM