They don't even really sell legitimate work trucks anymore. A pickup with an 8' bed, A/C, and a bluetooth radio should cost like 30k and get 25mpg but good fucking luck.
In addition to their imposing size and protective shells, SUVs also offer a useful aspect of social camouflage, enabling the well-to-do to ‘pass’ as regular working folk in urban settings. For example, an MTV executive who travels to ‘fringe neighborhoods’ in search of new talent admits that ‘he feels less conspicuous in a Jeep than in a Mercedes’ (Kuntz,1985: 266). In Hollywood, the early 1990s trend toward ‘downscale’ vehicles is reflected in the popularity of SUVs. Some entertainment executives cite the personal hazard of driving luxury cars, especially flashy sports cars, in ‘crime-vulnerable Los Angeles’ as an explanation for Hollywood’s attraction to Range Rovers with headlight ‘rhino-guards’
Come to think of it, this kind of thinking can come in handy if we're doing any organizing out in rural America, assuming one is not rural.
As a leftist growing up in the middle of nowhere in a red state, I'll admit that I almost felt ashamed of being...a rural American and I stopped doing the shit that I really liked growing up doing. I don't dislike the US because I have a strange aversion to cowboys and peach cobblers, I just want the US to stop blowing up brown kids with my healthcare money and to be nicer to the rainbow people and women. No matter what the Bible says. I tend to get along with people better if I just embrace what I do growing up instead of trying to LARP as a Californian as I did growing up.
I drive a pickup truck because I have a side job where I install low voltage in new builds because my employer doesnt pay me enough so I have to work two jobs. Do you hate me?
That's like the average cost any new vehicle in the US. Even a used one from like 5 years back sells for more than 10k above what they would usually be.
Interesting. Also what's with the popularity of flat bed trucks over like white transit vans? You will basically not see these flatbeds outside of america, everyone uses vans.
If by flatbed you mean pickup trucks; My guess would be it's a holdover from when America was a lot more rural and much more of the economy was agricultural. Pickups are great for work here you need to move lots of heavy, dirty stuff like dirt or bricks or cinderblocks or whatever random construction materials. Just throw them in the back and go. Same goes for all kinds of heavy tools. Just shove them in the back. The open bed means you can access the cargo from any direction and there's no limit on how tall your cargo can be. You can fit it out with all kinds of accessory racks to carry different kinds of tools and equipment. And pick-up trucks, at least historically, were pretty rugged and well suited for operating on poorly maintained dirt or gravel roads.
A lot of people in the US who use trucks for work do use various kinds of transit vans, they're very common for all kinds of tradesmen. But pickup trucks have become sort of a luxury status vehicle so there are tons of wildly oversized pickups that don't actually get used for anything. A lot of them are made with a crew cab so you can seat 4-5 people, but they only have a 4 or 6 foot bed so you can barely haul anything.
Taking my bajillion dollar 3 ton hunk of metal on the road, running down literally every single pedestrian in sight, pumping enough emissions into the atmosphere to kill every person with asthma in a 50 km radius to show solidarity with the proletariat
I legitimately hate pickup trucks and everyone who drives them
I'd make an exception for old-school trucks, or people who actually use them to haul stuff.
But these fancy tech suites are for rich people that want to pretend to be poor, because....cowboys or some shit.
Cowboy patriot lake dog grill football beer wife guy
New guy unlocked
I know many of these guys
They don't even really sell legitimate work trucks anymore. A pickup with an 8' bed, A/C, and a bluetooth radio should cost like 30k and get 25mpg but good fucking luck.
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"social camouflage"
https://mypages.unh.edu/sites/default/files/jlauer/files/lauer_2005_driven_to_extremes.pdf (page 12)
Come to think of it, this kind of thinking can come in handy if we're doing any organizing out in rural America, assuming one is not rural.
As a leftist growing up in the middle of nowhere in a red state, I'll admit that I almost felt ashamed of being...a rural American and I stopped doing the shit that I really liked growing up doing. I don't dislike the US because I have a strange aversion to cowboys and peach cobblers, I just want the US to stop blowing up brown kids with my healthcare money and to be nicer to the rainbow people and women. No matter what the Bible says. I tend to get along with people better if I just embrace what I do growing up instead of trying to LARP as a Californian as I did growing up.
I drive a pickup truck because I have a side job where I install low voltage in new builds because my employer doesnt pay me enough so I have to work two jobs. Do you hate me?
Does your pickup start at $41,000?
Nah, it's a 2011 with body damage. Like 20k on trade.
That's like the average cost any new vehicle in the US. Even a used one from like 5 years back sells for more than 10k above what they would usually be.
Huh, am I out of touch with US vehicle prices? I feel like that's nearly double the average cost of a new car in the UK.
Depends on the car but pickups in the US are obnoxiously expensive for various reasons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
Interesting. Also what's with the popularity of flat bed trucks over like white transit vans? You will basically not see these flatbeds outside of america, everyone uses vans.
If by flatbed you mean pickup trucks; My guess would be it's a holdover from when America was a lot more rural and much more of the economy was agricultural. Pickups are great for work here you need to move lots of heavy, dirty stuff like dirt or bricks or cinderblocks or whatever random construction materials. Just throw them in the back and go. Same goes for all kinds of heavy tools. Just shove them in the back. The open bed means you can access the cargo from any direction and there's no limit on how tall your cargo can be. You can fit it out with all kinds of accessory racks to carry different kinds of tools and equipment. And pick-up trucks, at least historically, were pretty rugged and well suited for operating on poorly maintained dirt or gravel roads.
A lot of people in the US who use trucks for work do use various kinds of transit vans, they're very common for all kinds of tradesmen. But pickup trucks have become sort of a luxury status vehicle so there are tons of wildly oversized pickups that don't actually get used for anything. A lot of them are made with a crew cab so you can seat 4-5 people, but they only have a 4 or 6 foot bed so you can barely haul anything.
Turns out that it's more because of dealer marking up the prices https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/kbb-atp-january-2022/
I'm the one true leftist, the only person I dont hate is Carl Marcks.
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WHO DOESN'T!?
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okay :LIB:
Taking my bajillion dollar 3 ton hunk of metal on the road, running down literally every single pedestrian in sight, pumping enough emissions into the atmosphere to kill every person with asthma in a 50 km radius to show solidarity with the proletariat