Compare american vs japanese craftsmen-cars

The extended cab version of the right truck would still tick all the boxes.

Off-road and towing capacity are probably the main feature you give up with that sort of design. Whether or not most people need that is a separate story.

You're mostly right. The main problem is that manufacturers chose to ignore the spirit of the US CAFE fuel economy regulations, and instead build everything bigger and bigger. That's why quarter-ton trucks grew to the size of the F150 in the year 2000 when they were quite a bit smaller before.

It's not the fault of the regulation. It is the fault of the manufacturers and to an equal extent, of consumers for preferring gigantic vehicles.

And let's not let GM off the hook for the 1990s Suburban, which began to, quite literally, dominate the roads. Those fuckers were the original huge grocery getter, and they had truly awful turning radius and blind spots. You just couldn't drive them safely or courteously if you tried. So of course everyone wanted more powerful and bigger vehicles to compete.

Thanks for pointing our the real incentives which are always some bullshit about more money and less regulations - basically the reason capitalism sucks at innovation - it doesn't care about whats important and in some cases actively hates it

I thought it was very disingenuous of OP to not mention crew capacity between the two trucks at all. I'd assume the bigger truck also has a better towing capacity which may be required. What isn't required is buying one of these trucks to get groceries and replace your tv every 3 years while commuting to your desk job 1 hour away.

Can't tow a boat an RV or trailer with the Japanese vehicle. All things Americans do for fun. For work? The Japanese vehicle can't haul 6,000 lbs of lumbar or steel, nor can it pull another vehicle out of a ditch.

Good pic. Question : I'm new to Lemmy. How come it's almost impossible to resize a pic without the pic closing on me? Is there a trick to this?

You don't happen to be a toxicologist, do you?

At first, I was going to criticize the collision speed of the example study, but found ( ok, I say found, I mean I googled for 15 seconds ) that the average American collision is occurring at less than 40mph, so good to go there.

Second, I was going to comment on the relative safety of being in the Kei truck and being struck by the 2500HD... but that just goes back to the 'participating in the arms race', so feels... stupid.

So, overall: Thanks for providing this. It directly answers the primary concern of 'what if I hit something tho'. There are some other angles I could nitpick on maybe, but they all feel like a kind of 'consolation prize' to the argument.

I lived in (and now commute through) a neighborhood of older houses, and higher incomes, so I see a lot of contractor vehicles. It seems like it breaks down as landscapers and lawn services use the pickup trucks; trades companies (plumbers, electricians, HVAC, carpenters, painters, etc.) use vans or box trucks; and the independent guys tend to use Dodge Caravans. Nearby, the university uses fleets of kei trucks (the low-speed versions because "freedom"), Ford Model E vans, and Caravans. I think the landscaping crew has pickups.

There are an increasing number of company pickup trucks, but most of them appear to be pavement princesses, used only for their usual function: transporting egos, not equipment.

Until you have an odd size item like a door in frame. Or need to move something like a 1 man post lift. And since you know you won't be cleaning it out as often so your always going to have extra crap your hauling for no reason. I'm just going off every pro that has shown up for work at my job sites in a van.

I was looking for the "America bad" comment, was not disappointed. At least that carried over from reddit.

Imagine being proud of drinking and driving

Edit: wow, seems your not alone in thinking killing others is a sport 👍

The most handy truck I had doing construction when I was a kid was out Mazda B2200 with the Perkins diesel. It'd go forever on no fuel and was perfect for grabbing a few tools for a quick run to a job site.

https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake/cc-outtake-1983-mazda-b2200-diesel-a-veteran-of-the-great-diesel-boom-with-a-license-built-perkins-engine/

Also spent a lot of time in the industry (drywall, lath, and plaster). Key cars top out somewhere around 750 pounds of capacity, and I could early blow through that with brining materials to a job site, or hauling stuff to the dump.

Key cars are cool, but you also need other solutions in place for materials delivery and hauling. American trucks are kind of a one size fits all approach to construction. Your truck for heavy hauling is also the truck you use for light hauling.

You can get one. They get imported. Search for Japanese car imports to your local area. Search for Kei Truck and you'll find em. You can get an awd turbo diesel for around 8-10k

Based on what I have seen at construction sites in Asia and the US you are correct.

Most construction workers don't actually need to move all that much stuff so they tend towards regular vehicles or at most vans or small pickups. Raw material is delivered on semis. Every time I have known someone who owns a vehicle like that they could manage with a sedan. When I go out to a site my gear weights about as much as I do and it's with two techs in an economy car.

Best example was one place I was at had these fake union jobs. One guy's whole job was to babysit a machine. He drove one of those. Lazy mofo. Never packed lunch, wouldn't sweep up his "workspace", his entire day was on his phone.

Why isn't that an option anymore‽ I'd absolutely love my 94 Ford ranger again, and I'm totes jelly of the old school Tacoma owners.

We only have large trucks in the USA due to CAFE restrictions. Basically in order to sell a small truck in the USA , it has to have phenomenal gas mileage or the manufacturer has to pay the government fees.
The government is the cause for these stupid large trucks.

The only places I've seen trucks like the 2500HD are north America, Australia and Thailand. They usually have only one, or rarely two people people in them. They never have a significant load in the bed. Everywhere else uses vans and light trucks and gets along just fine..

capitalism is the problem

Have you tried using a roof rack to strap the plywood down?

The percentage of trucks on the left I see actually doing that is functionally 0%

I agree with the idea with the exceptions of towing capacity, passenger capacity, and possibly (probably) bed weight capacity.

How often are people really towing that much though? Maybe a couple times a year at most? It would be cheaper to just rent a big truck for the few times you need it per year than have that absurd truck as a daily driver.

100km/h isn't that fast...

Yeah, if I got the truck on the right, I'd also need an SUV for the kids and the dog. What's the delta on having two cars vs having one that can be used for work and family?

So it's still cheaper than a domestic used truck?

It's probably model dependent, but the one I drove around for my job in Japan had zero leg room. My knees were resting on the dash as the passenger with the seat all the way back.

Who benefits from keeping these trucks out of american makets?

a) the consumers

b) existing auto manufacturers

Who chooses to keep these trucks out of american markets?

a) the consumers

b) the governments/lawmakers

Edit american not western.

I miss mini-trucks badly and wish there was an American market for them.

Or even what used to be regular size would be fine. My work just got a behemoth and it's technically a "small". I have to literally climb in by jumping to catch the roof (no handle on the basic model) and doing part of a pull-up. I'm short but not a little person.

My mom is disabled and uses a power chair (that does not fold. Medicare won't pay for sensible things like that). Our choices were saving up to buy a wheelchair van, which is so far outside of our means that it may as well cost a million dollars, or buy a pick up truck and a set of ramps. We searched for months and months for anything small, and could not find it. Eventually went with a Nissan frontier, a 2012, so the larger model. I'd kill for one of these little things. Would be perfect for us.