Why don't trucks like this exist here?
Posted by chingchenghanji1@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 46 comments
I see these all over Europe, but for some reason they are less popular here in the USA. I know they can't tow or offroad as well as the f series but for light duty hauling why not use one of these?
Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit
The reason most people get trucks are either because they like the look/aesthetic, or they want something that can tow and off-road. This truck doesn’t fulfill any of these things.
It’s popular in certain parts of Europe because it provides some of the capabilities of a truck in a very small frame that can fit in the narrow streets and be easier to park. Narrow streets and lack of parking isn’t a common problem in America.
So it doesn’t fulfill any of our common needs or wants for a pickup truck and it’s main benefits solve problems we don’t have. That’s why it’s not popular here
dontdoxmebro@reddit
A Ford Transit is wider than an F150. In fact this vehicle is so wide it has marker lights on the roof.
FAx32@reddit
Trucks are working vehicles in Europe. You have the right tool for the job at hand.
Most Americans who drive a pickup don't want to get them dirty, they are almost all about the aesthetic.
Figgler@reddit
It really depends on where you are. I don’t see very many clean trucks in my area, they’re used pretty hard here.
FAx32@reddit
Never been to Durango, but I would surmise that is correct if you just told me you were from there.
I live in the burbs of a 2.2 million person city. About 25% of the vehicles on the road are pickups. They get dirty only because nobody washes them in the winter (because they are just going to get dirty again with road grime). April to October? Fashion show for 90+% of them.
GOTaSMALL1@reddit
FFS.
When your exposure to the road is commutes, grocery getting and suburban driveways of course 90% of the trucks you see are just getting used for commutes, getting groceries and parking in suburban driveways.
emessea@reddit
The point is these people don’t need a pickup truck, they buy it for the aesthetics
4514N_DUD3@reddit
I used to drive an SUV and it just can't really handle the mountain trails that well. Bought a truck 5 years ago and never looked back.
ScreamingLightspeed@reddit
Same. At the very least, people who have trucks tend to move lot of furniture for people and/or do grocery shopping for multiple households. I've never met someone who owns them solely for the aesthetic because gas is too expensive for that shit lmfao
ALMOST mentioned my asshole brother as an exception because he's rich and precisely the type to have a vehicle solely for the aesthetic but then I remembered he actually does a lot of off-roading with it. I often forget he has hobbies lol
emessea@reddit
Have a friend who bought his brothers old ford ranger as a just have in case. He’s such a nice guy he helps his neighbors out bc none of them want to get their pickups dirty
shelwood46@reddit
I do see them used, in van and truck form, almost exclusively as commercial vehicles here. Most people buying pickup trucks are using them as passenger vehicles, these are just not practical for that in any way.
tedlyb@reddit
Bingo. This is the correct answer.
Spud8000@reddit
EPA cafe mileage rules would fine a US manufacturer for that small truck. it makes no sense, but the EPA requires only massive huge trucks nowadays.
01WS6@reddit
These are already sold in the US and dimensionally bigger than a standard F150...
Sadimal@reddit
Back in 1964, France and West Germany imposed tariffs on chicken imported from the US. In retaliation, President Johnson imposed a 25% tariff on light trucks. However if it were built as a passenger vehicle before being imported it would circumvent the tariff.
So the Ford Transit was manufactured as a cargo van. When it arrived from Türkiye to Baltimore, Maryland, the vehicle would be reconfigured into a light truck.
US makers switched to larger vehicles due to MPG regulations. Each maker had a limit on the overall mpg of their vehicles for a model year. However, larger trucks and SUVs do not have to comply with these regulations. So it became more of an incentive to make and market larger vehicles.
Plus there is also the culture of large pickup trucks being a country thing. City boys started buying the pickup trucks even though they don't use them for anything besides driving around and showing off.
In both areas I've lived in, having large pickup trucks were a necessity. People needed them for moving farm equipment, hauling livestock and trade work.
The small kei trucks in Japan have increased in popularity over here despite the fact that in many states, they aren't road-legal. However, most people that buy them use them for private property maintenance.
wvc6969@reddit
We have a shit ton of ford transits i’m not sure what you’re talking about
ScreamingLightspeed@reddit
Too small to fit a couch (unless the cab is bigger than I realize and making the bed look smaller than it really is) and too shallow to trust with groceries
SkiingAway@reddit
The base van/truck comes in 3 lengths, the one pictured in OP's link is the shortest size I think. That bed also looks custom + it appears all the sides flip down, not just the tailgate - some kind of special purpose - perhaps making it easy for forklift access or the like.
If you've got the longest wheelbase model, you could put a 14ft bed on it.
Adjective-Noun123456@reddit
We have Ford Transits here.
And they're terrible. The cutaway cabs like that are like baby cybertrucks in the sense that they completely fails at being a truck. As a van they're.... decent? I guess? If you're a fleet operator that really needs small vans?
SkiingAway@reddit
Delivery services + certain types of tradespeople tend to utilize them heavily.
Linfords_lunchbox@reddit
🥧🔑 van.
Pickups do the same job.
Fireberg@reddit
We have cargo vans.
Joel_feila@reddit
most ford transit are in van form. A truck like that does sell much because you would go full van or large pick up truck.
StarSpangleBRangel@reddit
🤔🤔🤔
chingchenghanji1@reddit (OP)
I said less popular
Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit
lol did you not read your title?
StarSpangleBRangel@reddit
What’s the title of your post
ATLien_3000@reddit
Clearly the answer is that only lamos in New Jersey drive trucks like this.
KaBar42@reddit
Because that is a very specific setup for a very specific niche. Within that niche, it's very good at what it does... outside of that niche, it's very bad at everything else.
If you need that specific setup, you will buyt that specific setup. Outside of that specific niche, a traditional pickup is a far better choice of vehicle.
Graflex01867@reddit
My guess would be the cargo capacity. It looks like that version, with the single rear wheels, has a cargo capacity around a ton and a half. Compared to the size of the cargo bed, that’s not all that much. You’ve got a lot of room, but not a ton of weight. It fits in that weird space between a pickup truck and a regular van, which would get you enclosed storage. Or you’d just get a box van, which gives you even more room inside the box because it’s taller/wider.
NormanQuacks345@reddit
What exactly would I use that for? Why buy that over a Tacoma?
If I need to buy a truck for personal use-truck things (I don't own a truck but still), I'm going to but a pickup so that it can double as my everyday car. Not whatever the hell that is to haul my boat and snowmobiles around.
Crayshack@reddit
I was going to make a comment about the smaller footprint of the Transit being easier to park, but I looked up the specific numbers and apparently, the Tacoma is smaller. So, I actually don't know what metrics the truck in the OP can beat the Tacoma in. Based on what I can find, the Tacoma wins at: parking, hauling, towing, offroading, MPG, and MSRP. So, I actually can't think of why you would buy that over a Tacoma.
Northman86@reddit
Mainly becuase long distance hauling is more important than being able to fit in a crack of someone's ass.
Crayshack@reddit
Limited use case. Most light-duty hauling is better met by a van than a truck and most cases where you want a truck over a van, you want it to be a bit heavier duty and/or have offroading options. I suspect that they see heavy use in Europe due to the smaller roads and parking situations meaning that it's more important to have more compact vehicles, but that isn't a big deal in the US so there's less cases of someone needing a particularly compact truck.
I actually used a Transit van a bit for work. It worked perfectly fine in 90% of the scenarios I needed it and the biggest limitation I ran into was the lack of offroading ability. So, a small truck was a better option for that particular job.
Also, I would like to point out that the F-series is not the smallest trucks available. The mid-size truck class is very popular and takes over that light-duty hauling nice. That job I mentioned where I had a Transit sometimes, we also had Colorados which were not much bigger and fit the needs of the job far better. The Tacoma is one of the best-selling mid-size trucks in the US and is frequently uses as a massive workhorse truck for companies that need light hauling. I worked for a different company at one point that had a whole fleet of Tacomas for light hauling duties. We did have a few bigger trucks for heavier-duty work, but the Tacoma served the light-hauling niche well while being smaller and more fuel-efficient than an F-150. In fact, it gets better gas mileage than the example you linked.
hatred-shapped@reddit
I mean...... Google?
https://www.ford.com/commercial-trucks/transit-chassis/models/chassis-cab/
https://alumaklm.com/products/truck-utv-beds/
Cocacola_Desierto@reddit
Because it's ugly as fuck and doesn't work as a commuter, offroader, or tower. You kinda answered your own question.
Avery_Thorn@reddit
One reason is because European countries have outlawed washing Chicken in chlorinated water, and have put a large import tariff on imported chicken meat.
Seriously. Because of this, the USA put the “Chicken Tax” I,port tariffs on trucks. This makes it infeasible to import trucks from Europe into the USA.
This means that basically all trucks in the USA are built in the United States. (And Mexico and Canada, which until last week was basically “in the USA” for tariff purposes, based on the longstanding understanding of the brotherhood and mutual economic ties that our countries shared. Fuck you, Trump)
So while there are exceptions, if you are going to build a truck in the USA, you might as well customize it for the US market. In fact, you might as well design it for the USA. This is why Toyota and Honda makes trucks in other markets, and completely different trucks for the US markets. (Canada and Mexico can have either truck.) This is why basically most trucks sold in the USA are Ford, Ram, and Chevy. This is why these trucks are not sold in Europe - because they don’t suit European tastes.
The Sprinter was sold, as a van and incomplete vehicle, in the USA. Some of these were made in the USA, some imported as passenger vans, then converted. This truck was probably built from an incomplete Sprinter chassis meant for the RV trade by a coach builder. It probably fit the original buyer’s purpose well enough that they were ok paying the extra, but it likely was significantly more expensive than just a Ram 3500 truck.
DoubleDongle-F@reddit
They do. They're just only used by professionals with a clear and constant profit-driven need for a truck like it. Most random unmodified pickups are daily drivers owned by people who use them as a truck for personal purposes of varying frequency. But there are plenty of dedicated professional/commercial trucks for those who need them.
Hegemonic_Smegma@reddit
Trucks like this are very popular in the United States. The chassis is used for box trucks, which are common for light local delivery.
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
Home Depot rents something like that. It's on a Chevy truck chassis.
TheOfficialKramer@reddit
Cause they're worthless. Had them in the Air Force to run around the flightline in Saudia. Pretty worthless as a truck in the U.S., it's a golf cart with a small bed.
machagogo@reddit
Ford Transits?
They certainly exist here...
https://aaoldbridge.worktrucksolutions.com/transit-350?filters=Chassis.Make:Ford
SensationalSavior@reddit
Because chickens, that's why.
Recent_Weather2228@reddit
This looks like a van turned into a pickup truck. This is more necessary in Europe because y'all don't do pickup trucks so much over there. Vans are plentiful though, so it's easy to just make a version with a bed. Over here though, we have plenty of pickup trucks, and if you want a truck, you might as well get the real thing. That's my guess.
Poodle-Soup@reddit
Do people use these as their normal vehicles i Europe? Or for commercial use? I've seen these around, but they are usually fleet vehicles
angrysquirrel777@reddit
For commercial use you'd normally just buy a van and for personal use you'd buy a Tacoma or Ranger or something.
There is no need to buy one with their downsides.