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US automakers are the most babied corporations in the world.
this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2026
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Fuck Cars
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These giant, stupid trucks everywhere was the biggest culture shock for me as a Dane, going to America last year.
That's the point, who needs a truck the size of a whole house.
Japanese pickup trucks have the same bed length as current American pickup trucks at a fraction of the size.
Hell even trucks from the 1980s - 1990s are a fraction of the size.
OK great so your curtain rod from home depot will fit in both, but how are you supposed to fit your obese family of 4 in the old ones?? Totally unusable, other than as a second car for commuting I guess
Ozempic.
Can we have them here in the US too?
Fuck those things (and I say this as a car enthusiast who occasionally needs to tow old classic cars for restoration or salvage and recycling).
That's great!
major bummer for asshole car/ truck manufacturers!
Been to Europe, you'd be a total idiot to drive an F250 there.
Your just jelous, looser
Same goes for the idiots driving them here.
Great! Now can we have this in the US too, please? Like, semis and other class-8 commercial trucks at least have a valid excuse to be massive (and even then, Europe manages to make their semis smaller than in the US while still having equivalent GVWRs by way of cabovers still being common over there, while cabovers are all but extinct in the US outside of trash trucks and fire trucks, basically); they're typically carrying payloads as heavy as 100k+ lbs in some cases, and need specialized licensing to operate on top of that (CDL requirements kick in at class-7, or GVWRs above 26k lbs in the US, class-8 is 33k+ lbs, and semis are typically 80k lb GVWRs), but pick-ups really don't need to be as big as they are, they have no excuse.
Fun fact, cabovers are super common in southern AZ.
Plenty of people use their large pick up trucks for towing large trailers. Just today driving home from my farm I passed a dually truck towing a massive load of hay bales. A little Ford Maverick or Toyota Tacoma couldn't handle that, and a semi would be overkill.
They're just extremely impractical to drive in the city. I don't know why so many people buy massive trucks and mostly drive down small streets and cramped parking lots, not to mention they never hook up a trailer even once in their life.
I still remember when my state required large pickups to have commercial licenses and have commercial insurance. Adding a few extra hoops to jump through could be similar to abolishing pickups while still allowing reasonable exceptions, maybe requiring extra drivers training
I know it could be personal bias but a lot of pickup drivers don’t seem capable of staying in their lane, taking a turn, maneuver in a parking lot. We need to recognize these are huge vehicles and require a little extra skill to drive.
And they should lose that license if they leave the trailer hitch in while they’re parking over a sidewalk
Pick-ups didn't used to be huge though, see the S10/S15 for instance, a modern-day Colorado/Canyon dwarfs an S10/S15 from the final year they were sold in the US.
Adding a few extra hoops to jump through could be similar to abolishing pickups while still allowing reasonable exceptions, maybe requiring extra drivers training
- At the same time though, if someone needed to pull large trailers for whatever reason, but didn't need a full-on class-7 or class-8 rig and the CDL requirements that go with that, they could just use a class-5 or class-6 chassis-cab rig for that purpose and then use a van for various field work or picking up small amounts of cargo. That van for field work would even be preferable both because of having the ability to lock one's tools up and also having a sheltered workspace to do things in so they don't have to get rained on and the like, and can work under A/C or heat during a particularly hot or cold day.
I don't think that was an untended consequence.
Swede here, I love driving, 100% love it, I don't drive in the city unless I need to (last time I had to was three time last summer), we have excellent public transport, there very limited need to drive in the city.
My favorite roads to drive are suburban and rural roads, they are fun and interesting .
I have a 2021 Seat Leon FR PHEV Hatchback, a great little car, and I hate the massive pickup cars from the US.
Just look at a comparison between my car and a F-150:
(This was the only F-150 model that was closest to the year my car was made.)
The F-150 is insane, the bonnet is at the same height as my car's roof.
It's even better when people over here put massive lifts on them, to the point that the floor is at small-car roof level (or human head level). I love the massive lift and huge wheels with skinny tires combo. You can't go offroading, tow stuff, or use the truck bed!
Good!
I'd like see the same in Australia
Totally agree. Recently witnessed a huge SUV (with a lift kit, bringing it to over 2 metres high)in a suburban shopping centre that was left running for a ¼ of an hour while one of the occupants popped in to do some shopping.
It is your ethical and moral duty to set it on fire.
Or at least shove something in the tailpipe.
Sucks to be them.
WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - U.S. carmakers say rules under consideration by Brussels could keep full-size pickup trucks including the Ford F-150, the Chevy Silverado and the Ram 1500 off European roads, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
Andrew Puzder, the U.S. ambassador to the bloc, told the Financial Times that the EU plans to change safety rules that could breach the spirit of the trade deal struck in August between the United States and the EU if they prevented some American vehicles from being sold in Europe.
The letter from the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, noted the EU in August agreed to reduce or eliminate non-tariff barriers and provide mutual recognition of vehicle standards as part of the trade deal with the Trump administration.
The group said proposed changes to the EU’s Individual Vehicle Approval process would degrade access for U.S.-built vehicles sent to Europe. “As demand grows for certain vehicle types not commonly found in the EU, such as large pickup trucks the IVA program has been employed more frequently for those vehicles,” the letter said.
The automaker group noted an alliance of safety and green groups has been pressuring the EU “to end so-called ‘loopholes’ that allow large ‘American-style’ pick-up trucks to be sold in Europe.” Europe’s leading nonprofit clean transport and energy advocacy group, Transport & Environment, said large American pickups and SUVs accounted for 7,000 vehicle sales in the EU in 2024. The group has argued that allowing more U.S. SUVs and pickups “to be sold with far lower safety and air pollution standards would be a betrayal of all EU citizens.”
So shrink 'em down then. They're only that big due to the old CARB or CAFE regulations anyways (I forget which), and those are gone now too. So you can sell them domestically at that smaller size too.
In fact, I'm curious on what the size and weight limits are, and if the Slate truck will fit within them. It'll be awesome if it can sell as-is with no modifications.
The weight limit is 3.5 tons fully loaded, don't know about size