One of these has definitely hauled more than the other, and i guarantee you it’s not the ford.

  • Yerbouti@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    The F150 was the most sold car in the US last year. I’ve never seen so much of those in Montreal CA in over 20 years. We.are.doomed.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Wasn’t this mostly because of the semiconductor shortage?

      Takes nearly as many components for a small cheap car as it does for a massive expensive one, so they focused the manufacturing on the big one and they’ve even had to cut back on that.

      • MammyWhammy@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        No, the F-Series has been the best selling vehicle in America for 30 consecutive years or so.

        A good portion of those sales are for commercial fleets, but plenty more are just for suburban parents to drive from parking lot to parking lot.

        Last year wasn’t an anomaly.

        • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, it’s been a trope for years, lampooned by The Simpsons with Canyonero, even Robocop with its 6000 SUX.

          I don’t really understand why though. Maybe it’s just because America is huge and people think nothing of driving 100 miles to go to work so want to do it in comfort, or maybe it’s the really low taxes on fuel. Maybe if they were paying UK levels of petrol duty (52.95p/litre, that’s 263 cents/gallon, plus 20% VAT), those big trucks would be quickly abandoned, along with dreams of sprawling suburban hell-holes with no pavements.

          I know exactly one person who has one in the UK and we all laugh at him and call it his Fall Guy truck. Mostly because I’m old enough to remember that.

          • MammyWhammy@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            It’s due to generations of propaganda that cars=freedom and how that’s affected every aspect of American urban policy.

            Most state government departments of transportation don’t fund public transit and see cars/highways as the only available option to move people from point A to point B.

            This affects every level of American life. So much so that not only is gas in the US not taxed at levels seen in other developed nations, it’s subsidized.

            Pickup trucks now are a defacto status symbol, and on roads where cars are getting bigger, many buyers who would consider smaller alternatives also buy bigger trucks and SUVs than they would have otherwise.

            Additionally there’s a loophole in the car efficiency standards that are more lenient on SUVs and trucks than cars. This has led most manufacturers to focus on marketing Trucks and SUVs rather than cars. GM and Ford current don’t sell and have no plans to sell new cars in the US market. Their entire fleet is SUVs and trucks.

      • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The way CAFE standards are calculated takes the overall footprint of the vehicle into account. Making the truck bigger gives them more leeway in fuel mileage. They couldn’t afford the offsets for making a small truck, they already have to buy them from Tesla even after juking the formula.

    • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Increase fuel taxes and it will reward smaller cars. Inflation has tanked below to within targets while interest rates are still high. The market is primed for tax increases as the BoC loosens it’s monetary policy.

      • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The CAFE footprint standard has made the huge truck count as more efficient than a small car towards the fleet standards. Then they make up the last bit by buying offsets from Tesla, which is what actually keeps Tesla in business.

        • TauZero
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          1 year ago

          Wait wait, WHAT? If you buy a tesla you don’t even get to feel smug about saving the environment, because they already sold off the smugness to someone else?

        • MammyWhammy@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          It’s what used to keep them in business, they can actually turn a profit on their cars now, which is why their stock price has gone bonkers.