Quote:
Originally Posted by jyl
A commuter car for the daily freeway miles, and a separate truck for the occasions when you haul or tow. The second vehicle will probably last forever, at maybe 5K miles/yr, and doesn't need to be new or look beautiful or have every luxury feature - you can buy a 10 year old F150 that has fully depreciated.
I think it is weird to see all the pickup trucks and big SUVs being driven on the freeway by a single driver, dragging around all that metal and burning up all that gas, just so they can tow something someday.
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You are right. It would never happen elsewhere but it's a function of cheap fuel and and a weird preference we have for driving PU trucks. Most PU owners could rent one from Enterprise for the few times a year they actually need it, (sometimes only for a matter of hours), and be way, waaaay ahead of the game.
What is truly insane is how much of the family/household budget goes to buying/fueling/maintaining a massive vehicle. Huge tires cost a lot, etc.
Full disclosure is that I own a full-size PU truck and use it quite a bit for towing and hauling but I drive a much smaller car when I don't need the truck. It's stupid as an in town run-about. People who live in rural areas have a different equation with trucks but still a lot of them are just a waste of resources most of the time.