In case you were curious, I asked a salesman at my dealership (Chevy) what percentage of buyers who bought trucks actually used them for their intended utility rather than just as a showpiece or because they "only drive trucks," similar to how many Europeans would only ever drive a small car.
He guessed something along the lines of about 50% of people (in the area where the dealer is located which is somewhat rural) that buy Silverados probably will never see a trailer, an ATV, that sort of thing. They just drive trucks because they would never own anything else.
I get that it's a common culture thing here in America like small, sporty cars in Japan (Type R) or overbuilt cruisers (Mercedes, BMW, etc) like Germany, but it seems so incredibly wasteful to me. Not to mention that trucks are EXPENSIVE. A very, very base model 1500 at my dealer is like 35 grand with no features aside from A/C and an AM/FM radio. To spend that much money on something and then not use any of its utility seems odd to me.
- ScratchCat and Tech_Dreamer
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Because they got money. It's simple as that honestly. Some people like power which is V6 or V8 trucks. Some people like making their own power E.G Japanese cars, Civics, Accords, Integras, Lancers. And its not like you pay 35K upfront its overtime so it essentially not a big deal.
I personally like Japanese Cars because they're reliable and easy to fix for the most part because of how easy parts you can acquire sure they dont get much HP unless you're lucky to find VTEC one or purchase a second hand or third hand modded cars. My car doesn't get a whole lot of HP maybe 100HP or 115 due to old age.
But it's usually better to drive a slow car fast than a fast car fast. -
In Europe, you have many more engine options to choose from so it's not exactly wasteful to be buying a S-Class over there for example. You have Inline 6s, V6s, heck even Hybrid 4 cylinder models of the flagship S-Class. But in North America, it's pretty much a V8 or no S-Class for you. Which is my biggest dilemma with getting European vehicles here in North America. I love the W204 C-Class, but I don't want or need the V6, why can't I just have the 4 cylinder? Answer? I guess it's to make it more worthwhile to ship cars over here. It's expensive to import cars so only bring over the middle trim models and above. Models that bring more in terms of revenue per unit but people can still accept.
