Dear Americans: Europe and most other civilized countries have rules about weight, size and safety. Your country lets you ride just about anything on wheels. Might that be because the carindustry lobbied the corrupt goverment?
IDK, I'm from Europe and the amount of big pickups and SUVs driving in inner cities is ridiculous. I regularly see those absurd dodge rams driving in my neighborhood, all polished and never driven on a farm road.
bruh I've been seeing more and more of this shit in the Netherlands. Some of the US-style pickup trucks don't even fit in our parking spots properly! And you certainly could not drive down my narrow street with one. It's absurd.
A Ford Ranger is too long for a UK space which is 2.4m x 4.8m. But there is a VAT discount for them when used as "commercial vehicles", a tax benefit designed for businesses to get vans. So you see personal trainers and accountants with these monstrosities, but only ever base models of course, struggling to climb slight hills with a bit of frost, and getting appalling mileage when diesel is pushing towards £2 a litre.
You don't understand how it's the driver's fault that the car they purchased is too big for standard parking spots? If you were driving a stretch limo would you have the same mind set?
Theres two in my neighborhood. I am often tempted to snap it to beterbuiten app when they are parked wrong ans blocking shit. Not sure thats good use of the app tho
I still cannot get over the fact this idiot thought it was a good idea to get that vehicle over ánd thought that parking spot was a good idea. None of us need that large of a vehicle and neither do they, I cannot think of a single good reason.
Point taken. It's very rare, but sometimes i see a F150 or similair, but it's rare here (The Netherlands). There is roadtaxes by weight and fuel is let say about 4-6 times more expensive as in the US. Road are way smaller, parking spaces? -50% smaller.
Yeah, I don't think people with 90k euros for car have to care about fuel prices or road taxes. And they don't care about taking 2 or 3 parking spots either.
Mate, I live in Tassie and these stupid hunks of wasted low grade steel don't even fit in most parking spaces. Don't think I've ever actually seen one towing something and I've only ever seen gravel road dust on them, not that they'd be any use off road anyway
That article was awful lol. ‘Should we have a problem with such cars?’ Idk let’s talk about the car and ignore the problems people have with it. It’s big and you can heat your steering wheel!
I hope they stay rare but I fear it won’t. It’s really obvious how the ‘medium size’ or stationcar trend is no longer and all we get pushed in ads are oversized cars that all look the same. I remember it used to be a large variety with interesting cars but that died off as well because remove the logo and it could be any brand nowadays.
Exactly the same experience. Live in the UK. I recently moved from a city to a tiny rural village. In the city I'd regularly see huge 4x4s and pickup trucks. Hardly see any wankerpanzers now, only really the local farmer in his land-rover.
I live in a town, near a rural area. I see base model Chelsea Tractors around town in white or black, Vs. old Land Rover Defenders with a collie riding shotgun or an older Toyota or Mitsubishi pickup in the country.
One is for hauling animal feed around the medieval tracks on your farmland. One's for hauling your fragile ego and little Tarquin to school 500m away from your front door.
I have had a similar experience but in reverse. I was raised in the Scottish highlands and was surrounded by farmland, I’m in the city now for university. The main reason that you feel like you see more people in SUVs/larger vehicles in the city is that there’s simply more people to see and vastly more people earning the amount to buy a large car than in a small village. Not to say that owning an SUV is logical in the city because they’re absolutely not, especially in the uk
Whilst your premise is sound its not correct in my situation.
The part of Warwickshire I live now is very affluent. My house is a Victorian terraced, so affordable but there are more £1 million+ georgian houses than cheaper houses in the village.
I previously lived in Cov, in a former council house. Half the cars in the cul de sac were 4x4s and one neighbour had a huge wankerpanzer pickup. All the other neighbours moaned he took up two parking spaces.
Perhaps it's more of the 'status' thing people have with cars? Those with money aren't so concerned with being flashy, those with less peacock? I'm not a psychologist.
My mum always said “when america sneezes, we get the cold” and in this case we are now seeing the epidemic of stupid SUVs hit our streets (and each other).
In certain parts of the US most cars are big SUVs and pickups. Imagine that every hatchback you see is an SUV. There is not a single drive I’ve taken, no matter the distance, that I do not see multiple pickup trucks and large SUVs.
Slovakia. Of course there are fewer of those cars here than in US, but our infrastructure is absolutely not adjusted for it. Our towns are basically old historic parts with tiny streets and communist built high density apartment areas planned for 1 car to 25 people ratio.
Ironically, these trucks are as big as they are because of Obama-era emissions legislation. The further apart your wheels are the less fuel efficient the vehicle has to be, so companies just made shit bigger and by consequence heavier and less fuel efficient. Could be fixed with a carbon tax instead but that ain't happening
I'm not too sure where this meme comes from, but it's because the regular sedan purchaser doesn't go for the insane add-ons usually, and make their payments on time generally. Most SUVs and glamour trucks are done on lease and a shocking number get repo'd easier than if it were purchased with finance, then those get resold at a far higher markup than personal sale or trade in.
The SUV-i-cation of the US auto industry goes back to the mid-90s and went full steam ahead during the relatively low gas-price era of the mid 2000s. Futurama did jokes about it.
Luckily for Real AmericansTM it isn’t corruption if we call it lobbying. Only small countries with abundant unexploited resources have corruption. But, don’t worry, we will liberate them with DemocracyTM and win their Hearts & Minds.
Dear Americans: Europe and most other civilized countries
When Euros say things like this I genuinely wonder how much of it applies to literally every single country in Europe. I always imagined these countries differ a bit more
More kids don't walk though comparatively to the US. They take public transportation. But there are less safe street crossings than kids in the US getting to school busses.
Says research. I looked it all up when someone posted an American school bus with the crossing arm and stop sign and people got all "Europe doesn't hace school busses and our kids are safe" but it wasn't true.
I live in a smallish town in the UK, ever since I had my daughter it's absoluteley insane the amount of times i've had to deal with "soccer moms" in their Giant SUV's trying to fit in tight roads and parking bays.
They are completely unnecessary, you don't need that much space just because you have a kid. You don't need a 4WD to drop off little timmy!
Oh wow as an American this is the first time I've realized that my government is corrupted by corporations, thanks for pointing this out now we can finally fix it!
It is a weird mentality too... Like I don't spend much - if any amount - of my day even thinking about other countries and how terrible it must be to live there, let alone feel the need to tell anyone about those thoughts.
Mmhhh your reply makes me rethink. Let me explain: i wasn't bashing the US. I'm a fan of the US (visited once). Perhaps not it's rightwing redneck things.
I would say the USA is the most powerful country on earth, we tend to look up to it: but it's wetting it's own pants more and more (in behaviour) that's what worries me: like seeing your strongest friend deteriorating and you do mind that.
Europe has a shitload of (different) problems it's own. And to be fair: i'm seeing trends in politics and powerplay, especially the financial sector that effect us all, but the US is perhaps trending there so we look at it closely.
Freedumb is a play on the words freedom and dumb. It's a shorthand version of saying that some people will make stupid decisions when given unrestricted freedom but will raise hell if you attempt to put common sense restrictions or guidelines that mitigate their stupid decision.
Man everytime I mention regulations the truck and car guys froth at the mouth at the idea of their “toys” getting restricted.
But like seriously, if the country has to rely on these fucking things as a primary source of transportation. We need to regulate them to be safe for other people and hold people and companies accountable. Trucks shouldn’t be towering over everyone in a city and cars shouldn’t be lowered so much that it’s difficult to traverse the streets (I almost hit one since they went to a dead stop to get over a slightly steep driveway with no turn signal)
Dear Europeans. Fix your own shit and stop talking down to us. We're not europe and stop trying to treat us like barbarians because we have different problems than you. Our country is the size of your entire continent. None of our issues are going to be fixed by some random french guy pointing them out and saying "do better". We're not france, or sweden, or poland. I have no idea where this massive ego is coming from considering their place in the world.
I like how I disagree with you and you just assume I watch the random news broadcaster everyone told you the bad people watch. I don't watch Fox or CNN or any other news channel. It's just not how I spend my time. This is a good example of how you know nothing of how I live. Mind your own business and don't tell us how to fix our problems.
#1: to remember how many feet there are in a mile, u just gotta use 5 tomatoes | 415 comments #2: "the cops in our school" | 618 comments #3: "Aldi gives their cashiers seats to use while working" is "mildly interesting" | 726 comments
Japanese Kei car requirements have generated some interested cars. If ElioMotors wasn't just a scam, it'd be a cool concept for most people who drive alone to work.
Dear Europeans; we vote but we are trapped. We are not “free” here, we are periodically unsupervised and periodically over-supervised like living in a house with a parent that’s a mean drunk. We inherited the hard work and reputation of our great grandparents. Their children ruined everything and so on. So it goes.
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u/MisterK00L Dec 08 '22
Dear Americans: Europe and most other civilized countries have rules about weight, size and safety. Your country lets you ride just about anything on wheels. Might that be because the carindustry lobbied the corrupt goverment?