this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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Europe

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[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 24 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Europeans can vote with their wallets and boycott nonsensical vehicles from the fascist country across the pond. They don't have to wait for their increasingly corrupt powers that be to do the work for them you know...

[–] Lembot_0004@discuss.online 75 points 4 days ago (5 children)

You can vote for yourself only, not for your imbecile neighbour who "Biggy car. Wanna-wanna-wanna!"

You can't expect Europe to not have that contingent.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 39 points 4 days ago

Yup. This is the best argument for regulations because voting with your wallet isnβ€˜t as democratic as it sounds.

[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 17 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Well, it's not final. I remember a time - in Belgium I think - when a utility vehicle was defined as having no backseats for passengers. Scores of people registered Porsches and other obviously passenger cars with the backseats removed as tax-exempt minivans.

Belgium put a stop to that and suddenly, all those backseat-less sportscars got taxed like they ought to be. Just like that, retroactively.

The same thing can happen with your vroom-vroom-loving neighbor very quickly.

[–] syklemil@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 4 days ago

Depends on what's actually in the trade deal.

But yeah, hopefully we can tax the yank tanks out of Europe if we can't ban them outright.

It was similar in Germany. I owned a pickup truck campervan a few years ago (really old ford ranger which was tiny compared to current models) and they suddenly taxed the vehicle as a commercial truck instead of an RV, this made it really expensive. Taxes are the way to go to discourage people from driving these cars.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

A few years ago, seeing a US style pickup truck in Germany was very rare. Those that were around were usually genuine work vehicles. But now you see more and more douchemobiles that clearly serve no other purpose than to boost their owners' fragile egos.

[–] trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

They are extremely impractical. With the typicallly sized American pick-up, You get virtually no loading space on the footprint of a decently sized van, powered by an engine that guzzles fuel like no tomorrow. Unless you absolutely need 4x4 and low overall vehicle height in combination, you're better off with a van. If you need that combination of features to do some actual work, better get a Hilux, because that's a seriously mass produced vehicle for which you'll easily get spare parts and that can be repaired with metric tools. If you actually need a pick-up with dead serious off-road capabilities, get the pick-up version of the Land Rover Defender. Instead of one of those extremely large pick-ups with twin tyres on the rear axle, as you see over in the US, you can simply get a proper truck, which offers better visibility, far superior loading space to footprint ratio, and, thanks to European workplace safety regulations, more comfort, because it has mandatory air suspension in the driver's seat.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 4 points 4 days ago

I seriously hope people start vandalizing these things, I think that would go further than voting with their wallets.

[–] hector@lemmy.today 3 points 4 days ago

You could shame them for being a stupid asshole buying it.

[–] taldennz@lemmy.nz 23 points 4 days ago

Except the endangered pedestrians aren't the buyers... The rules are to protect the pedestrians from buyers that value their purchase above the safety of others

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 15 points 4 days ago

When you're voting with your wallet, people with bigger wallets have bigger votes, and those guys tend to not be on the right side of most issues.

[–] Parasail2109@jlai.lu 9 points 4 days ago

Consumers does have a lot of power but consumers seems to be influenced a lot and not reflect "logical" and "human" in their choice.

[–] BigShammy80@feddit.org 6 points 4 days ago

Yeah, no... that will not work. People always want the biggest dick, car, home whatever... Some people will buy them for sure.

They can, but propaganda works. A few commercials of driving those things over pristine wilderness and throw in some sex - boom Every idiot wanker has one.