Yes, there are legitimate uses. However, trucks and SUVs account for 80% of car sales in the US. 80% is NOT representative of the number of people who actually need a truck or SUV.

Trucks and SUVs kill more people, because they are bigger and heavier and have less visibility. They run over more children, because the hoods are so high you could lose track of a whole kindergarten class standing in front of them. They are more efficient than they used to be, but still drastically less efficient than a sedan or station wagon.

I don't judge someone for having different tastes. I judge someone for letting their aesthetic choices cause them to do more harm to the planet, and endanger more people, and risk the lives of their own children (because that's who they're most likely to run over because they can't see them).

If you need a truck or SUV for your job or because you actually haul a lot, or maybe because you have accessibility needs for a bigger vehicle, great. Enjoy. But that is NOT 80% of people.

most of the people buying these are buying a costume, not a work vehicle, if my neighbors are any indication

it's a status symbol

I grew up in a city of ~30,000 in the rural south. Every fucking one of my guy friends ~needed~ a truck... except the only work they did with it was mod it to be intentionally louder and less gas efficient, and go off-roading. The extent of real work put into them was occasionally hauling some furniture when helping people move: something that 1. could've worked with a day rental, and more inportantly 2. Only needed a f150 sized vehicle and not the Ferd F-teen-thousand with quintuple cab space and a v8 diesel hemi lifted on off-road dually tires blowing black smoke all over the other cars.

Most of the adults who didn't buy into all the annoying "truck guy" modifications still had the biggest gas-guzzling, space-hogging pieces of emotional support vehicles permanently shined and bed emptied, never doing anything with it but driving to their office/retail job and the grocery store.

I live in a small village in the mountains, most of my neighbours are tradies or cobtractors. Their weapon of choice (along with the farmers here) is the Citroen Berlingo.

It can tow a lot, long stuff can use the cargo hatch at the back of the roof, and it can do pretty serious off-roading. They're also good family cars.

I encourage you to watch this Not Just Bikes video .

@SlamDrag @TDCN both Chevy and Ford are abandoning the sedan market and focusing on selling trucks to a blue collar aesthetic, not that the global market for cars/trucks is anywhere near a majority of rural that the pickup owners in cities are aspiring to virtue signal. The US became a majority urban nation in the 70s, the world population became majority urban (as opposed to rural) in the 00s. If consumers keep LARPing as small town people in cities, co's are going to keep selling them trucks

@SlamDrag @TDCN I live in Australia. We’ve had ‘utes’ (utility vehicles) since forever. Pickup trucks. They’re common as muck. Literally every tradie has one. Feels like about 50% of vehicles are a ute.

They’re a car with a flat panel on the back. You can put all your tradie stuff in them and bang them about a bit.

We do not need these ridiculous F150s. Which, by the way, no tradesperson is filling with concrete. Because they’re precious and fucking expensive.