What is the use of pick up trucks?
Do only farmers buy Hilux/L200/Navara?
Also I have noticed that pickup trucks are very popular in USA/Canada. But unlike UK, those are mainly single cabs only. Why is so?
PS: By mistake posted it in non-motoring. Mods may please move it.
Last edited by: movilogo on Sat 25 Dec 10 at 11:46
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IIRC it was a tax dodge which has been curtailed.
Something like getting a luxury interior but not so much BIK tax as it was a work vehicle.
I have never had a company vehicle in the UK so not fully conversant with the details.
Someone will be along soon and fill in the details.
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We used a Minor pick-up as a breakdown tender when I worked at a proper garage in the late 1970s.
A van would have done the same job, but it was easier to lift stuff, such as wheels and tool boxes, into a pick-up.
And you can reach in from anywhere to get something out, which you couldn't do with a van.
Farmers I knew had mini pick-ups.
They could throw a couple of bales in and carry them sticking out over the side.
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Mine being a "classic" is as much for fun as work, but living where I do it's invaluable; the alternative would be a bigger car which could tow a trailer.
Iffy's right about the practicality of a pick-up; unlike a van you can just brush/hose them down after transporting dirty or smelly stuff.
Despite the comments on another thread, farmers are more likely to be running Japanese pick-ups than Range Rovers. As millions world-wide,and Jeremy Clarkson, have found out, they're virtually indestructible. Land-Rovers are still popular, but Toyotas and the like are far more useful.
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Went to test drive the Nissan but the seat won't go back far enough liked the height and the 4x4 but it's not something id buy for everyday use unless i had a buisness or had a bike on the back.
The Yanks i guess live in remote areas and back roads it comes into it's own like a landy does here.
Where do you put the shopping from Asda on the back seat?
No cab roof everything gets wet.
No a car for me is a better option but a Transit would be handy for everything else id like it for.
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They are about as tough and old tech as it's possible to buy these days without sacrificing too much comfort. The driving pleasure aided by a silky smooth auto box and comfort surprise many.
One of the many reasons we bought ours is the VED situation, the same engine as fitted to a Landcruiser (preferred) would see VED of around £425, taxed as a commercial means £200.
The dual cab can be very useful too if not carrying extra passengers, the rear seat folds up and fastens to the rear bulkhead, with a full width rail (one of my extra's, not from Mr T) across the roof line gives SWM a considerable carrying capacity for clothes etc in the safety of the cab.
The boot/tub being separate has good and bad points, it's nice to be away from certain loads but when carrying something extra long can be awkward especially with a fitted hardtop, plus it's ice cold in there this weather.
Interestingly there's now crash test footage of Hilux, fares better than expected, which old school separate chassised vehicles didn't before.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=heyWTCJFuJs
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sat 25 Dec 10 at 13:32
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Where 'Builders' here use them, we (some colleagues and I) call them Penis enlargers. They are nothing but a show off thing. Ain't a van. Ain't a pick up and serve little purpose whatsoever. Guys even buy a bolt on 'Roof' for the back bit! Beats me.
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It's a bit like that here in NZ too, Martin. And as a result they sell for silly high prices which makes me laugh.
I understand that pick-ups sell well in places like the US because they are cheap, and they face lower safety standards than cars, so are cheaper to make. But I doubt that's the case in Europe.
A lot of the far-east markest pick-ups are assembled these days in...Thailand, believe it or not. As is the Ford Fiesta for Aus/NZ markets.
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I know a farmer and a builder who both have double-cab pickups, one a Ford, the other a Nissan. Apart from whatever cost and tax advantages they have, these vehicles are clearly useful in a practical way, and both have switchable or part-time 4wd. The very idea that either of these characters would buy a truck to look macho is utterly ridiculous. They just are macho, and no one could doubt it.
I suspect those who sneer at these trucks and their little truckbed lids and so forth are just suffering a bit of Tonka toy envy.
When I visited Chad a couple of times in the early eighties the favoured knockabout vehicle was the bog standard grey Peugeot 404 pickup. Just as in Australia they would have been fitted with roo bars, in Chad the usual modification was two thick tubes, one on each side, from the rear of the cab sloping down to the truckbed floor somewhere near the rear wheel arch.
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One of my farmer pals has a double cab Toyota pickup, It has a metal, lockable loadbed cover and he keeps the equipment for his tree surgery buisiness in it. It is definately used as a tool, even if a comfortable one. He has had one warranty job in the first year, a rear wheel bearing which he believes was noisy from new now that it has been fixed.
I think there are two types of owners, users and posers.
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>>>I think there are two types of owners, users and posers.
Spot on ON.
Farmer cousin has one. Was a shiny thing in the showroom when new. Now caked with mud inside and out, steel wheels with true mud tyres, green nylon seat covers, sheepdog hair and lick marks everywhere, bits of dead sheep in the cab, baler twine & old sacks on the floor etc etc.
Other folks near us have them.... black paint, chrome bars, extra spotlights, headrest screen mounted DVD systems etc. They are... well shall we say on the chavvy side of average.
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>> Where 'Builders' here use them, we (some colleagues and I) call them Penis enlargers. They
>> are nothing but a show off thing.
Oh dear. Do I detect a touch of penis envy? ;-)
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Strange isn't it, most that own more substantial cars could manage perfectly well with a 107 for 99% of their motoring needs but think it fine (and indeed it is) to prefer something else.
Anti 4x4 propaganda really has worked.
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>>Anti 4x4 propaganda really has worked.
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Who metioned 4X4's?
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GB, its the manufacturers' Marketing that has worked in persuading people that they need a bigger car than they actually do... and that they need all those little extras that cost so much... I suppose you could call it propaganda, but I'd say it was marketing myself!
Last edited by: hobby on Sun 26 Dec 10 at 16:51
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Wasn't the SUV invented and promoted to get round the American CAFE regulations, as it was not classed as a car?
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 26 Dec 10 at 16:54
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>> Wasn't the SUV invented and promoted to get round the American CAFE regulations, as it was not classed as a car?
You are correct ON. They also bypassed crash safety regulations, could be offset against tax (as a commercial vehicle) and were protected from foreign competition by high import tarifs. They were a right old cash cow for the US manufacturers for years who managed to save on development costs by firing their design engineers (who walked into jobs at Toyota and Hyundai) to focus on these underengineered behemoths. Allegedly US compact cars were deliberately made to be awful to entice customers into the more profitable SUVs. The rest is history.
Anyway, pickups. I was once given by a customer in the US in his pickup. I can't remember the exact model but I think it was an F-Type. It was seriously enormous and had a 7 litre(ish) turbodiesel engine.
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Knob department just fine H. It seems that a lot of 'Builders' around here have them, but they are not fit for purpose. Can't keep a lot of things dry/safe. I laugh when I see them having to cut 8x4 sheets in half to get them in or they are hanging dangerously out the back. Most I see are pose value only. Give me a BIG van anytime.
M
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Spot on Martin.
Mr Hyacinth Bouquet next door to me has just bought one, along with a Victory King Pin motorbike.
One to pose with in Winter and the other one for the Summer.
He freely admits to being in the middle of a mid life crisis too:)
Pat
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In Australia they are called a "Ute" as in Utility. That must be a hint.
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Not only CAFE(corporate average fuel economy) but also many FMVSS(federal motor vehicle safety standards).California also had(and still has)tighter limits to the regulations so that when you buy a vehicle in the US it will be to either California or 49 States specification.
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The partner of a girl I work with has an immaculate twin cab Nissan Navara. He normally walks to work and drives 5k miles pa, using it mainly for the weekly supermarket shop and going camping. Good luck to him. It is his pride and joy and it gets cleaned weekly..more so if it looks at all dirty, which, being black, it does.
My Ca friends have a 4.7 Toyota Tunda pick up. Go anywhere when fitted with its winter tyres. Perfect for throwing the skis in the back, or loading up the skidoo, or attaching the camper (fifth wheel) and pootling down to Baja with the dogs & kayaks and living on the beach.
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> Give me a BIG van anytime.
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Tried it both ways mate. Bought a LWB M-B Sprinter specifically for moving down here with ( had 5 motorbikes plus house contents to move, fortunately a full month to do it in) and kept it for a year. Brilliant van, but I actually find the pick-up more practical as a day-to-day tool; for one thing it gets in and out of supermarket car parks much easier, and its battered appaerance tends to make owners of modern pick-ups steer well clear as they're frightened that some of the rust might migrate!
As I said above, because mine's a "classic" and admittedly bought primarily for fun, it's a bit different for me, but it's also proved its value as a workhorse. Even allowing for its prodiguous thirst for petrol, it's pretty much paid for itself.
I can see where you're coming from with the "pose value" comment in an urban or suburban environment; the load is not secure from prying fingers for one thing, unless you fit one of those big boot-lid things which even I admit make the truck look ridiculous. Out here in the bayou though, things are a tad different. I wouldn't have got my new staircase in the Sprinter though, or got my old kerosene tank up to the scrappie!
tinyurl.com/2dztn8q
tinyurl.com/26byvco
Last edited by: Harleyman on Mon 27 Dec 10 at 12:27
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Use of pick up trucks - henry k
