I had a 2016 GMC Sierra. Cost $100 a week to take my son to daycare. Sold it and got a Sienna Hybrid and a classic truck for hauling shit. I hate all the technology in cars these days. My van tracks me and in the app it says "this feature can be disabled but the tracking will not stop" or to that affect. Garbage.
Technology
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
five-speed manual transmission
I like having an automatic transmission.
I'd honestly love one of these, depending in if it's powerful enough to haul a decently heavy load up a hill.
I woodwork as a hobby, and have been wanting an old truck for a while, but the used truck market is pretty insane right now. All I want is an old beater with a reliable engine and a standard sized bed that's capable of hauling sheet goods (4ft wide) without hassle.
This would check those marks. If the price was right, I'd happily drive this little guy around.
Instead, the market is full of ridiculously sized pickups with tiny truck beds because either the cab is huge, or they waste so much space making the truck look "tough" that the beds shrink narrower than 4ft.
As long as I can get a small truck in a V6 so that I don't stall out hauling something heavy like cement bags, I'm in.
If you are in the US, look into minivans, or cargo vans. They are not popular here, so you're not paying the pretty tax on them, and most vans with the rear seats removed can easily fit 4x8 plywood in the back. A beater van with a strong engine should be a lot cheaper than a beater pickup truck.
People around here usually have trailers behind their normal cars for that. Works fine.
Yeah, I've considered that too. Neither of us have a car with a hitch, and we don't have a good place to store a trailer for extended periods of time, but it's an option I'm considering for sure.
Look into Telo trucks. Modern, electric, safe, small. I know they haven’t launched yet, but i have high hopes they get everyone rethinking their pickup choices.
Reminder that due to the chicken tax, these vehicles have to be 25 years old before they can be imported.
The big problem is, these vehicles were built to 30 year old safety standards - no vehicle from the 1990's (except maybe a SAAB, and even then they're not strong enough anymore and will fail a small offset frontal) can compete with a modern car in safety requirements.
There is also the fact that these vehicles have been around for 25 years, and have that amount of age and wear on their platform - they won't be as strong as they originally were off the production line.
Even if you could get a new one, I don't think they'd meet US safety standards. Not even close.
Mind you, the US has to have stringent safety standards because we have gigantic vehicles in the first place.
Kei vehicles are exempt from most Japanese safety standards, because they're meant for city driving with max speeds of 40-60 kph and everyone driving them knows and acknowledges that you're just fucked if you get into an accident at speeds higher than that (and not doing great even at 40kph). It's an explicit trade of safety for lower cost
And if you get it from Japan it's right hand drive so visibility of the incoming lane is crap as well...
Also, for Kei trucks specifically, cab over engine vehicles are unsafe in frontal collisions no matter what, even modern ones, that's why there's no regular passenger vehicle built like that anymore and it's only heavier vehicles (like moving trucks) that have this setup, they don't fall under the same safety regulations.
no vehicle from the 1990’s (except maybe a SAAB, and even then they’re not strong enough anymore and will fail a small offset frontal) can compete with a modern car in safety requirements.
Americans keep building bigger trucks and raising speed limits, then bemoaning how small vehicles aren't safe enough to survive an 80mph impact with a 10,000 pound vehicle.
You think these Keis are dangerous? Try riding a bike.
Man, I always thought the bigger SUVs looked like those oversized clown shoes, but the size comparison picture does drive home just how much dead air is in them.
Been to Japan lately. There are even Kei Fire Trucks, for the many small roads with wooden houses and shrines etc.
And then there are hundreds of different kei truck and van types for all purposes, even concrete mixers.
Also, private houses in cities are often small and space-saving and so are the cars. A sensible use of public space – and cars only park on private property or rented parking spaces.
These are rad. Weird they're not more popular internationally.
This is just freaking adorable!
How's my /keitruck subreddit doing? I got banned from reddit as a different username at the IP level so I have no clue. I was thinking about starting it again here on our own instance but it's been a struggle with de-googlelizing my life at the moment. But maybe someone else has one already? Time to leave that rotten place behind.