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Jake Landau's avatar

According to a survey of F-150 owners, it seems most of you don't do that either!

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Alan Nisbet's avatar

I drive a 2002 Chevy 2500 Suburban, and before that a 1991 1500 Suburban, and I deal with the wonders a north-eastern Ontario climate provides on a daily basis. From blizzards and ice storms to torrential rains and heat waves, you name it.

My SUV’s bumper is lower than almost every pickup truck out there, and the blind spots, both front and back, less than a pickup.

The cargo area is always full of tools, the trailer hitch receiver regularly greased, and often enough 10 or 12 foot long lumber is stashed into the back when the trailer is parked off site somewhere.

Yet it is dwarfed in size when a new model pickup pulls up beside me.

Through my own non-scientific parking lot observations gathered over these past few years, my conclusion is these larger pickups are favoured by oversized drivers.

The hypothesis I’ve come up with is the oversized driver/passenger finds it easier to fall out or heave up into to the cab of a pickup than try to stand up and out of or bend down and slide into the seat of a sedan.

Plus, as for winter driving, the backend of a rear wheel drive pickup is so light as to make them useless, unless they are stuffed with several hundred pounds worth of 50/50 sand/ salt mix.

Which explains why most pickups have a 4x4 drivetrain, although they too get stuck or spin out like a top if care is not taken driving them in adverse winter conditions -again because of the light backend.

So I too am befuddled as to why the pickup is as favoured as it is. Mind you, the other day while driving from one job site to the next, I quipped to my fellow traveller, it would be great to have one of those smaller Japanese style trucks to bomb around in.

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