- cross-posted to:
- strassenpanzer@feddit.org
- cross-posted to:
- strassenpanzer@feddit.org
original post: https://feddit.org/post/10733288
Source: stux@mstdn.social
“This is why we don’t need #US #cars in #Europe”
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There is something poetic about this image and how the USA “fits” in with the rest of the world.
Imagine thinking tariffs are why these warships don’t sell in Europe.
Their road tax should be based on engine/volume/passenger capacity.
If you need it for work get a commercial.
A transit or sprinter makes much more sense for commercial use in the vast majority of professions as the cargo space to vehicle ratio is much higher and you can lock the whole thing up.
The only profession so far I’ve seen where they make some kind of sense is for landscapers, and even that’s debatable considering you can get sprinters with an open bed that is much larger then what’s on these pickups.
Not to forget that many vans have an okay towing capacity, so you can just use a trailer.
Your not towing anything with the smaller transits. And they suck in winter.
Your not towing anything with the smaller transits.
Even the smaller vans can tow 1.5t. I’ll concede it’s a lot less then a pickup can tow but this is not “nothing” and plenty practical for lots of use cases you’d have in any city.
And they suck in winter.
This is the Netherlands, not the Yukon. We don’t have 5 foot deep snow on the roads in the Winter. In fact it’s been years since we had any kind of snow at all. We just have a mild chill and mostly just rain.
The off-road/awd capability’s of any vehicle are almost entirely irrelevant in the Netherlands for the overwhelming majority of people.
Man Ive pulled literal tons of cable for 100s of KMs with those, the NV400, the traffic and vivaro. Winter times down to the back of the beyonds. Mind you our winters are wet not the coldest.
Then get one of the bigger Sprinters. They’re also available as 4x4.
I’m genuinely not aware of a single country that takes vehicle volume into road tax calculations, but that sounds like a damn great idea
Im a bit of a genius. But seriously I think it is the common sense move.
Canadian here - they’re useless here too. Saw a guy the other day who couldn’t even put some 2x4s in his box because it was to short due to having full size back seats. He had them poking through the window into the cab 😂
I saw a truck today, and I thought, if it were 1995 and you showed my mechanic old timer uncle that truck, he’d call you a yuppie
Big, beefy, and engineered to be loud this truck was, I don’t think you could fit a 2x4 in the bed
the actual bed size is smaller than the old 90s ford rangers’, iirc.
I bet it was a half-ton sporty short-box.
With the rear seats dropped my MK5 GTI has almost as much cargo space as some of those bloated cries for help.
And the orange man doesn’t understand why Europeans don’t want to buy American cars. :\
hey. we zijn allemaal Van Oranje!
We don’t need US cars like that one in the US!
That’s not even a big one by US standards.
Serious question: are you joking? We have a Doge Ram in my area and it’s massive and it sends a lot of small pp vibes and now you are telling me, it isn’t even that big.
At least I have the true freedom: no speed limit.
This looks like Ram 1500 to me, there’s also the 2500 and 3500. I don’t know how much bigger they are in terms of size or percentage but they do differentiate mainly with things like payload capacity, so it follows they fill the caps between this and a full size transport truck.
But i’m pretty sure you can’t have those on a normal drivers license in the NL as their weight + payload capacity exceeds 3500 kilo’s.
Edit: If you really want to see an Avengers level joke, search for “Ford F-650 pickup” with your search engine of choice.
Also, for added clarity the 2500 and 3500 models are essentially identical size-wise. Just have more springs.
I’d say they’re about 1-2 feet longer (not counting the 3 bed length options), and a fair amount wider than the 1500.
The 1500 has a towing capacity of approximately 12k lbs. Goes up for each of the upper models.
Yup, EU is the weight limit 3.5t for a B driving license (regular car) but a C1 (up to 7.5t) or C (semi truck) is possible to make. A coworker has a truck license. He bought an old fire truck and made a camper out of it for his 2 kids and his wife.
But this is just comically large. I do understand it for the US in more rural areas but Europe? They don’t fit in parking spots and are just wasteful. 12.8L/100km?! And then they go shopping at Lidl. And people complain about SUVs but compared to US trucks, an SUV is a small car. I really hope that US trucks don’t get more common here.
Great car for the first few weeks of a zombie apocalypse.
Not great for any other situation.
How would you navigate that through streets full of abandoned vehicles and debris? A bicycle is quiet, faster than a human or zombie, easy to service, easy to navigate and even carry where it can’t go, and don’t require fuel. If you want something faster and fuel driven, a motorcycle would be better than any car.
Oh I wouldn’t. The Dodge Ram would most likely serve as an excellent vehicle for transporting stuff. I’d do it as in project zomboid - drive the car to the border of the city, loot, bring loot back to the car, rinse and repeat until the car is full, then it goes back to base.
On top of that, the dodge ram has significantly more horsepower and can waltz through small and medium-sized zombie hordes without slowing down too much.
I see you’ve thought about this.
I’ve just seen one too many winters with icy roads and cars being stuck and (temporarily) abandoned making roads between towns unusable for a while.
I imagine that but worse with everyone fleeing the city and getting turned, being unprepared for a journey, running out of gas all over the place - not just cities. Maybe they can go off-road and get around a perpendicularly abandoned vehicle or two but eventually there will be an obstacle no truck can bridge.
So for me, I think two wheels for mobility. But that would also depend on what kind of zombie and what kind of apocalypse. Are they fast or slow; do they hunt by ear, sight, smell; is it almost instantaneous or after a year-long pandemic, do they travel in pack or avoid each other, how do they perish, etc.
Haven’t really thought about it, it’s more a “I played 600 hours of project zomboid” lmao.
But ye, depends on a lot of factors - if we assume slow moving zombies that tend to be at the same locations, a large car like a dodge ram would be awesome ngl.
*days or even hours, until you run out of gas.
Well, if I had such a car, I’d probably make it my mission to take over a petrol station or something similar so I have a steady supply for now.
Why would you even do that? Give that asshole a fat ticket for doing something like that
Trust me, if I were in charge of tramway clearance management, I would sound an annoying alarm at the vehicle, before having it be towed. Trying to tell the owner that they have until the tow truck arrives to remove the truck.
Too bad the tram havent hit his car
This was taken BEFORE tram went to ramming speed.
Modern day trolley problem. Do you ram the Dodge Ram?
Dodge the ram or ram the Dodge.
I worked at Hornbach in the Netherlands, it’s become a big thing among small independant contractors.
We would have about 50 of these trucks pull into the drive-in every single day.
I do think they are pretty cool looking, but the bed is so tall that even a dutch person can only gain access through the rear door. Outrageous with their 5.4l Hemi but i liked the sound and a fairly impractical car overall.
I mean, a contractor that hauls heavy loads, machinery, dirt, etc, those guys actually have a practical reason to buy such a car. There’s never a reason to drive such a car tot he super market.
Those things tend to be full of fancy bells and whistles too, and many don’t even get a full legth bed anymore. The market isn’t targeting workers with them.
I’m going to instantly judge anyone who gets one without a proper bed, but I can see why some might want the fancy bells and whistles. You know what someone with a physical job that involves lots of driving is going to want in their 50s or 60s? Comfy seats, adaptive cruise and an AC.
You see loads of absolutely fucking miserable old work vans where I come from, and while they often technically do the job, I’ve always hated driving them any time I’ve had to borrow one for work. The issue is not the tiny 2 liter diesel engine or the near total lack of an audio system (though that does suck if you’re driving somewhere for 2 hours each way), it’s the fact that they often weren’t specced with AC in the first place and the seats feel like wooden chairs.
Now the newer ones of course are starting to get AC and some even have not just radios, but bluetooth! But the fact of the matter is, if I had to drive every single day for work and either one worked for me, I’d take an F250 over a Transit or a Crafter or whatever too. Even if the vans are now finally starting to feel as good as an economy car from the late 1990s.
Hell, I can even see why people would drive them to the supermarket. If you’re self-employed or just run a company, you have a comfy work vehicle… Why spend money on a secondary vehicle at all? Just drive the one vehicle everywhere. It’s also normal here to drive your work van to the supermarket to pick up groceries if you’re already passing by. Why make a separate trip with your personal car.
All that falls apart if it’s not a work vehicle at all though. Just get a fucking station wagon, or if you have a bad back, a normal large SUV. BMW X5 or MB GLE ought to be big enough for anyone that doesn’t have a family, X7 or GLS if you do. I can fit 2 adults, 2 kids in child seats, a stroller, suitcases, and a bunch of bags in a normal 5 series or E-class wagon. Or an Outback. There are so many options out there. Best part is, these expensive German cars are still cheaper to buy AND to run than a big ass truck because the trucks have gotten so expensive and there’s a huge weight difference. I get 5l/100km or 47 US MPG out of a diesel wagon on the highway without even trying to save fuel, 7 l/100km or 33 US MPG out of a gas powered wagon.
Get a van, you can actually reach your stuff AND keep them dry in a larger space.
Pick up trucks are useless.
probably a hefty road tax in NL for such a large vehicle
I’m in the US and have a 1970 Fiat 500. That little car can handle quite a few of my needs. I sometimes use it for work, when I only have estimates. Normally I drive a full size Ford E150 van.
I appreciate the Fiat because it’s so different from everything on the roads here, just fun to drive, (I’m 54, so at an age where things like lumbar support and other creature comforts are nice) and it’s just uncomfortable enough to make me really appreciate our more modern and larger vehicles (the For van, a Mercury Cougar convertible, a Dodge 2500 4x4, and a Volvo XC70).
The only real bad side is that between it’s age and the fact that they were never freaky imported into the US, parts aren’t readily available. The last time I used it for work, it broke down.
This reminds me of my sister, who hooked a 6’ trailer to her civic.
The original post was on reddit, a few years ago.
That team’s going to have to pick up some speed if it wants to get through.
