The shift to these ridiculously large trucks is partially consequent of the poorly-implemented Obama fuel economy regulations. The regulations were determined by wheelbase and tread width, which disincentivized manufacturers from making mid- or small-sized trucks. The bigger they made them, the less restricted they were by fuel economy. Larger vehicles also ease constraints on engineers; they don’t have to struggle fitting a lot into a small body. Once large trucks became the default offering, they morphed into the annoying cultural “status” symbol we know today.
Anyway I have a Miata MX-5 and I love my tiny car.
The CAFE act caused most of these changes and was signed by Clinton in the early '90s. Obama may have made things worse, but the roots of the problem go back much further
CAFE standards date to 1975
Ahh, didn’t realize that. I guess Clinton expanded them?
Long before that though, back when SUVs became popular because they were trucks and didn’t have to obey sedan fuel economy. This was back in the late 90s
I also love your tiny car, even when I see one from behind the wheel of my slightly less tiny Civic, which I adore.
I’ll just leave this here. Took this shot of my car a few years ago.
Ugh, that reminds me - just a few weeks ago, I ended up next to this monstrosity:
With it being that high up off the ground, using the truck bed for any actual purpose is going to be difficult, unless you have an actual semitruck loading bay in your back yard.
That truck has not, and will not, experience a single second of actual work.
Nor will it ever leave pavement.
perfect working height for unscrewing part of the diff
Why does it remind me of this two
these*
Who am I to disagree?
I’ll add to this too, taken a while ago of my old car in an Australian shopping mall, and Nissan Patrols aren’t even the most egregious here.
Before I read your comment, my stoned, dumb ass was wondering what the arrow was supposed to be pointing at.
I like your car
Thanks!
It literally looks like you could just drive under that ricking monstrosity lmao
the upsetting part is that the body would fit under and the windscreen and above - the fragile parts - would get hit by the bulk of the truck… cars are made to crumple on their noses etc - nasty gore scenes ensue
just wait for the cars to get even bigger and you can just cut through traffic by driving under them
It’s a temptation every Miata owner faces.
🎵 12 yards long, 2 lanes wide 🎵
65 tonnes of American pride!
Top of the line in utility sports
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts
Baby, I may have micropenis, but my monster truck will vibrate enough to make you orgasm!!!
Some time later, the woman breaks up with the dude and starts a relationship with the truckDon’t forget the spousal abuse
I’d much rather drive the Miata. There’s a reason that when I was forced to purchase a car after almost 20 years without one, I opted for a Miini Cooper. Sure, they’re cute, but I was ecstatic to look it up and find it was only about an inch larger than my first car, a 1983 Renault Alliance MT.
Small cars rule.
Smart car here :-D
I miss my mini. With the rear seats folded down, it had a surprising amount of cargo capacity.
Here in Alberta, young men hatch out of their eggs with a mullet on their head and the keys to a Ram in their hand. It’s basically a social pressure at this point.
I miss mini-trucks. Compact size cab with full size bed, engine from a sedan and 4wd. Good economy, much cheaper, great utility, better handling, less dead children, and a lot more fun out on the trails.
Caustic masculinityfear of smol pp ruins everything.I strongly agree. One thing to add to your list: easily being able to lift things in and out of the bed, even from the side.
It’s just marketing. Australia shares a lot of American culture and we still have car based utes, though larger vehicles are also becoming popular here
The amount of times I’ve looked at the Aussie and Japanese markets and just sat jealous…
Sometimes it’s not good here. We only have 25 million people and we drive on the left, so we miss out on quite a few vehicles
Never knew we were body-shaming people & yet here we are.
Speaking of Mini-Trucks, I actually see them in use in my area a lot (usually the 3-wheeled variety)
Pp size matters not, big truck people are still afraid.
I used to work with a guy who had a Tachoma that he loved and he only used it for offroading. He kept a pair of spare axles in the bed to swap out on the trail if he snapped one.
The big one should not be legal.
The big one is a work truck and should not be driven as a commuter. It really shouldn’t be allowed on roads where cargo trucks aren’t allowed.
It should require a CDL
Agreed.
Even as a work truck it’s comically large. You can get the same amount of cargo space in a far smaller vehicle, this one’s only advantage would be the sheer horsepower which you only need for very specific work.
It is made for towing massive trailers.
It’s made for carrying tiny penisses. Cars that are actually made to tow massive weights look like this
or this
This is a weird argument to put here. You’re actually advocating against the smaller option.
I advocate for using the right tool for the right purpose. I’d rather have one real truck on the road that is able to transport a decent amount of stuff, driven by a professional truck driver with a professional drivers license than three of these wannabe trucks that are driven by wannabe truck drivers.
Those are impractically large or not highway ready for horse trailers and other comparably sized trailers that are used for working. The F250 and 350 sized trucks are for in between light loads and those loads.
Not everything needs to be at the extremes of tiny or semi trailer.
I thought you were talking about massive trailers and not horse trailers. Noone needs a clown car to tow a horse trailer or something comparably sized. Your average station wagon is totally capable of that.
One of the most common and reliable pickups was the 1970 Chevrolet C10 Long Bed:
Height: 65.8 inches Length: 207.75 inches Width without Mirrors: 65.8 inches Ground Clearance (Front): ~8.1 inches Ground Clearance (Rear): ~8.1 inches
This is a 2025 Regular Cab Long Bed Chevrolet Silverado 1500:
Height: 75.6 inches Length: 229.7 inches Width without Mirrors: 81.1 inches Ground Clearance (Front): 8.1 inches Ground Clearance (Rear): 8.1 inches
The “farm truck” excuse is nonsense.
In case you aren’t trolling, I’m talking about horse trailers that anyone familiar with horses would understand.
Also comparable trailers.
None of these should be driven around in a city regularly. These trucks are not made for commuters or small spaces. They are for large farm, construction, and other work that requires more than a light truck but not a semi or tractor. They are comparable to delivery trucks and vans. In fact, large vans are just enclosed versions of the trucks. This was the van version of the F350 of its day.
Say it with me folks!
Miata
Is
Always
The
Answer!except for the one I saw today with the wheels tilted so only the inner edge of the tire touches the ground
No no, Miata is always the answer. Clearly, Miata is in that case answering the question “how do I look like a bellend without spending too much money, and clearly communicate that while I understand mechanics, I probably shouldn’t”.
Miata
I would consider anything “slammed” no longer viable as a vehicle since they can’t clear a speed bump. I don’t even think they should be road legal because your reaction distance dramatically increases with those setups.
That reminds me of when I lived in Houston and they re-did the speed bumps in the parking lot of my apartment complex. There were some guys there who had small pickup trucks that they had lowered like that and they had a spoiler on the back of the bed. It was pretty funny to watch when one of them got stuck on the speed bump.
Emotional support truck vs. Sports car
I mean, a Miata is a good car, but a hatchback seats a family and gets the groceries.
I traded my minivan in for a civic hatchback. It easily does 99.99% of what I need a vehicle to do. For that last 0.01% of the time I rent a truck for $50. I save money and my car fits in the garage.
Exactly! I live in the suburbs, where every driveway seems to have a massive full size truck (because they barely fit in the garage)–and also, where I am 15 minutes away from at least 3 places where you can rent a pickup for like 5% of the monthly payment on one of those beasts.
Hatchback gang rise up
(2019 Bolt EV)
I mean these are also two different types of cars. But it is actually so weird to see even two cars of the same type made in different times next to each other. It’s like somebody messed with the scale slider in the level editor. It’s uncanny.
I don’t want to defend the overly supersized truck too much, but I do want to point out that even these are two different class of vehicles. Sure, you can cram 4 smallish people into that old Ford Ranger, but nobody is going to be comfortable or happy about it. Also, that small ranger has far less cargo and towing capacity.
Of course, a good chunk of truck owners do not need that much capacity and big trucks are just a toy/status symbol to them. Which is stupid. But there are use cases where those trucks are actually needed, and a small Ford Ranger won’t cut it.
That said, I do wish we could get more small pickup trucks again. The maverick is a good start.
For these kinds of comparisons people have to cherry pick and cannot compare similar class trucks because similar class trucks haven’t really changed in 30 years
If you compare the size of a base 1990 F150 https://www.edmunds.com/ford/f-150/1990/features-specs/
To a base 2025 F150 https://www.edmunds.com/ford/f-150/2025/features-specs/
The 2025 is 6 inches shorter, barely an inch taller, and barely an inch wider. Or in terms of percentages: -3.1%, +1.1%, +1.2% respectively
What has changed in 30 years is it was common back then for an average consumer to buy a “regular” cab two door truck with a 6 foot box, four door behemoths were rare. If you wanted a 4 door truck you had to get the F350
Today it’s the other way around, it’s rare to see a single cab F150 and now you can get a 4 door F150
Yeah, the problem isn’t that the big trucks exist. There is a place for them, always will be. But they shouldn’t be a commuter vehicle, the majority of owners never use them for their intended purpose, and even those that do need a truck rarely need one of the size they get.
Most definitely. The fact that the four door 5 foot box exists is hilarious to me in a sad kind of way.
I occasionally get made fun of for owning a 22 two door Ranger, that I bought a “tiny” truck. Honestly I hate how big it is, but I wanted a truck that would be my single vehicle, something I can use for DIY house projects, commute in, go camping/off roading, and take on cross country road trips. Custom ordered it with the specific features I wanted all for ~40k, meanwhile the guys giving me shit for it are paying just as much for a truck with less features, it never leaves the city, and waaaaay more expensive at the pump.
Morons
I tried to compare to a '90s F-150, but that site doesn’t have one.
Also FWIW, anecdotally around here small trucks seem more likely to be used as work trucks than [now greater than] full-size ones. My '90s single-cab Ranger was pretty clearly a former work truck (given how beat up the bed was and the fact that it came with a toolbox), for example, and I use it mainly for hauling and towing. Small trucks can, in fact, “cut it” in a lot more situations than people give them credit for.
Yeah my Uncle owned a irrigation company so he need to haul not uiat lots of pipes but pumps and even a ford truck could hold pipes that long so he need a trailer. Then for several years i lived out in the country and we needed a truck to haul teash to the dump. Nothing big just the smallest Toyota truck will do. But it also had to haul a family around so we needed a back seat that hold a 6 ft teenager
in australia, i make sure to kick and dent every yank tank i see. its not often - we have more of the smaller pickups (though we call them utes)
Thanks Obama
If you need to explain to Trump why many american cars do not sell well in Europe just show him this image. Chances that he’ll get it is higher than zero at least.
I cannot imaging driving around this hulk of a car all day. How would I even find parking space?
I think looking for a parking space in what is, effectively, a lorry - is a bit of a waste of energy. It will only fit into >=4 spots anyway, might as well just stop wherever you need. You’ll be a hated by everyone anyway.
Not taking a piss - are they legal in EU to drive on a B cat license?
I was in Rome last week and pleasantly surprised to see how many tiny cars they use.
There were plenty of Smart cars, but also many other ultra minis like Citroën AMI, XEV Yo-Yo and Renault Twizy.
They’re not just concept cars or used as gimmicks like elsewhere. People actually use them for their daily business.
The traffic in Rome is insane though. The reason they use tiny cars isn’t that the roads are small, but due to congestion and parking. It makes very little sense to own a car there at all.
For those that haven’t seen a Citroën AMI:
https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/citroen-ami-2020-2-door-coupe-vs-mazda-mx-5-1989-roadster/
It makes sense for Rome though, these cars are expensive and appeal to the fashion sensibilities of the population there, rather than just using the good public transport there. It’s a signal of wealth, rather than an actual functional commodity.
I found this out the hard way the last time I expressed my love of the AMI
Yep my uncle’s work van in the UK was as small as my Honda Fit. Just two barebones front seats and an empty cargo space.
i live in malta and got an xev yoyo amonths ago today. It’s my daily driver.
I mean why would that not be so? I no longer own a car but when I did, it was usually oversized for what I needed to transport (me and my backpack).
I have a small 3-door Corsa and it is oversized for my cargo :D (me and you guessed it, my backpack lol)
I get the argument, but it’s pretty obviously disingenuous.
The 250 is much less common than the 150. There are admittedly plenty of them. The 250 is bigger in every dimension.
And even my WRX towers over a Miata.
I just think Miata to 250 is a pointless comparison. And I say that agreeing that Miatas are fun and that the 250 (and even the 150) are way, way too big. I have a buddy with a 150, and it’s filled with his tools and lumber every day. I’d argue the 250 is totally unnecessary for 90% of trades, and I specify trades because your average Joe certainly doesn’t need one period.
I ran into a guy driving a F650 as his daily commuter when he was going for coffee at Starbucks. He made sure to tell every person behind the counter how great of a vehicle it was.
He had to jockey it to get into the parking lot.
While the F250 is less common than the F150 we’re still faced with a plague of oversized, dangerous, and ecological driving disasters on our roads.
The 150 ist just as stupid a car as the 250. If your buddy really needed a car to carry tools and lumber around, he’d drive something like this:
But that doesn’t help curing fragile masculinity. One of these cars is big enough for a family of nine and their luggage. The other one isn’t even big enough for one man and his ego:
I have a grand caravan I use for hauling shit around.
I can lay 8 sheets of 1/2" 4 foot by 8 foot drywall in that van.
How many can you lay flat in a 250? ZERO!
Ha, he had a rape van prior to the F150. He thinks the access in the 150 is better, and who am I to judge, because I don’t live it day in and day out, so I’ll defer to him.
This “just buy a van” crap really needs to stop. There are plenty of reasons specifically to get a pickup truck. The F250 isn’t even sold to customers without a commercial account with Ford. Work vans and trucks are often made on exactly the same platform with a different shell put over it. The van will tend to have worse gas mileage due to the frontal cross section usually being higher (they ride a bit lower while having a same or higher ceiling height).
The problem is really the F150 and similar. It’s still gigantic, it’s sold to whomever can apply for an 8 year/25% interest rate loan, and is rarely used for anything like actual work. The diesel version was also discontinued, which pushes some people–the type who do actual work with it–to either buy the F250 or find a somewhat older F150 model.
It is outright impossible to buy a small truck in the US. I know guys who do real work with it and they aren’t happy having to buy a big machine. No, not the Maverick. That’s “well, there’s spam egg sausage and spam, that’s not got much spam in it” but for trucks.
they ride a bit lower while having a same or higher ceiling height
This is the line that gives away why they’re unquestionably better if you actually need to use it for work.
These jackasses with a tray 1.5m off the ground clearly aren’t regularly needing to get to their oversized toolbox at the back of the tray, because clambering in and out of that thing is an enormous pain in the ass.
This gets brought up so much because it clearly differentiates the people doing work from the people playing dress up.
It does no such thing.
Are you aware of what a fifth wheel is? If you don’t, you really shouldn’t be commenting about what’s better for work or not.
I felt it was obvious I was talking about tradesmen and workers doing work, with all the talk about toolboxes and having to walk into the tray (and given that what most truck owners like to pretend to be). For use as a work vehicle, doing work tasks for tradesmen, a van is far more practical.
Are you implying that construction workers who move around a lot need a gigantic camper when they move between jobs? Because I realize that yanks do tend to do that, though I’d argue that this is more a reflection of yankee culture than applicability for actual work.
There are plenty of reasons a worker would choose a van. There are plenty of reason a worker would choose a truck.
Consider this setup:
Everything is made to be easily accessible. The rack can hold ladders and conduit that are as long as the vehicle (or even a bit longer). Other setups will have side access toolboxes.
Fifth wheels are not just for campers. They haul Bobcats. They haul livestock. They haul large sheds or even small houses. They haul several pallets of bricks.
For that matter, try getting pallet into a van as opposed to a truck bed. If it’s even possible to fit it in a van, you have to be a lot more careful while doing it.
That truck pictured would be better served with a van. Ladders and conduit on the roof, tools in the back. This is standard setup in the UK, UAE and Australia at least, I imagine for everywhere outside of North America.
Ah ok, I’ve only ever heard fifth wheeler be used to describe a camper. Hauling large trailers is something a pickup truck is better at than a van, but if that’s the type of work you do surely the obvious 5T flatbed is the better option, no? I appreciate that you’ll probably counter that the versatility for someone who only needs to do that occasionally and that is valid, but I hope you’ll appreciate that we’re now talking about a very small niche of of tradesmen in response to a comment I originally made making a generalization.
Doesn’t seem too easy to access anything but the first row of boxes. Where would you even store these orange boxes that are currently on the hand truck? On top of the rack? Seems like fun lifting them 5 feet if they contain any heavy tools. With a Van you have access from the sides built in, and because of the lower floor you could even add a ramp to push your hand truck into the car without having to lift anything at all.
Btw. it’s possible to fit two pallets into a small van. Heck, you can even fit a pallet into a cargo bike.
If you must transport a pallet of bricks you do it on an actual truck with a bloody crane on it. This is just kiddy shit. I can’t take you seriously if you drive a pallet of bricks around with that thing. Wtf. That’s just inefficient work.
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The 250 (rather 3/4T trucks in general) have limited consumer purpose, outside of towing large campers or car haulers. It’s also the smallest class that is recommended for gooseneck/5th wheel towing.
Commercially, there are more applications for it like hauling fluids, or as a snow plow, as well as the same towing arguments for consumer use. However, once you get into that stuff, you’ll find a 3/4T lacking, which is why you’ll see more 1T (350/3500) commercial trucks. They really are a bit of a silly ‘in between’ size.
For trades however, I would argue that any standard pickup truck is not the appropriate tool, vans are far more suitable for their use. Large “indoor” storage, tall enough to walk upright in, low to the ground so easy to enter/exit with tools, and they can be outfitted to store stuff on the walls.
I had my windows replaced a few years ago, and the work crew rolled up in a cube van, and inside it was set up basically as a woodworking shop, pretty much ready to go. They didn’t have to unload tools, set up tables, etc., just un-fasten some safety clamps, plug in an extension cord, and off they went. Maybe 15 minutes from parking to starting work, and that’s including taking some time to chit-chat with me.
I appreciate that insight, as I have very little of my own. My buddy is kind of a jack of all trades, framing one day, sheetrock one day, finishing the next. I think he likes the idea of unloading the bed easily, moving from one site to the next. I seem to recall his complaint about the van being associated with needing to kinda rejig it depending on the tasks he was performing, and if he had one of those days where he’s visiting multiple sites, doing multiple jobs, the truck was just easier. But that’s my faulty memory and zero experience.
All I have is having driven ambulances. I started back on the van conversions, older F350s. The boxes were squat only, no standing room. I left for about 10 years, roughly, and upon my return the ambulances were now F450 Super Duties. Absolutely massive, couldn’t stand it. I’m a good driver, I’ll toot my own horn, but I’d ride with a bunch of people who just could not navigate the big rigs into tight driveways, but there was this desire for size, and so we had what we had. I won’t lie, they were comfortable, all air ride equipped. But they were big, and adults could get lost in front of them. They did have all around cameras, but it’s crazy to rely on them.
Since my departure (two young kids and my own business is hard to find time to volunteer at the moment), they’ve gone the way of the Sprinter-type vans, which I can appreciate. I’m sure there were some sacrifices, but I also feel like 90% of the equipment we carried was hardly used. We’re also in suburban New Jersey, so it’s not like we’re responding to places and being the only ones on scene, so someone else will show up with the gear that I’m sure they did away with.
In sum, big truck (generally) unnecessary.
One way that your WRX and a Miata do favorably compare is bumper hight. If a collision the safety features built i to both cars would be fully engaged. In OPs example the truck would just roll up on top of the car bypassing pretty much everything.
So I do think even the stock F series trucks have to meet bumper height requirements. A whole separate issue are people raising their shitty truck without making adjustments to the bumpers. We see trucks and tractor trailers with Mansfield bars, yet Joe Schmo with his jacked up pavement princess does what he wants, and doesn’t even have a million dollar policy to at least remunerate the family of whomever he kills.
I thought my Veloster was pretty small… but it looks fat next to the Miata
Completely agree with this. It would be interesting (and more valuable) to see the difference between mean or average car size over the years. Especially since (in Europe at least), there has been a rapid increase in SUVs, and, I am guessing, a decline in compact cars.
They don’t even have my 2003 wrx to compare against. But it’s not much bigger. The WRX has gotten huge along with most of Subarus over the same time period since the Miata came out.
My Toyota is damn near identical though.https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/mazda-mx-5-1989-roadster-vs-toyota-mr2-1999-roadster/
I had a buddy who had a gen 1 or 2 MR2 (been so long), and that car was a lot of fun, but holy snap oversteer, very unforgiving. But hey that made it more fun, right? I preferred the predictable oversteer of my nismo 350z. I miss that car. But neither the MR2 nor the 350 are great when I have two little people to put in the back, and all of their stuff.
I had a 2013 WRX after the Nismo, and it was definitely smaller than the 2024, but my 2024 WRX is smaller than my 2018 Legacy was, that was a boat.
And I had a '99 Legacy before, and that car was fantastic. It had ground clearance, I took it offroad to places it absolutely didnt belong. Lots of fun. And very well equipped for it’s time. RIP.
Nice! I want a turbo gen 2 MR2 so bad. I have the mr-s convertible. It’s a ton of fun, but is so underpowered. I think of it more like a gocart. You need momentum to kick the back end out, otherwise it just understeers so much. It’s better once I installed a LSD after a bearing grenaded in the transmission and I had to rebuild it.
I still have my 03 WRX. I swapped the steering box for a newer sti one for a tighter turn, dropped in a '19 sti short block which increased compression, lifted it a couple inches and put in big all terrain wheels. It can go so many places it really shouldn’t. I love it.
Yeah, he unfortunately went too hard on the mods and it blew up one day, I was behind him when it happened, and it never got back after that. Bigger turbo, downpipe, all that jazz. This is going back probably 15 or more years at this point, but he had a trans-am ts6 after that that was an equally fun ride, absolute factory freak, but so different.
I will say, the '24 WRX seems more well equipped for steep driveways than my '13 did, that car was low. It’s a rally car and so it should look and feel like an old group B car. That sounds like a great “conversion”, because the '03 body is just such a piece of history at this point, that car is why WRX is what it is, and if you can keep it running, maybe make it a little more fun, that’s great.
