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.
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.
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.
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.