Most people who drive pickups don't actually need them. Financially they'd be better off renting one on the rare occasion they actually use the bed or towing capacity.
This applies to all the vehicles. Most of the people own cars that they actually need, and 95% of the time, their needs would be satisfied with much smaller, simpler and cheaper cars.
> Most people who drive pickups don't actually need them.
On threads like this, that gets repeated often. There are probably dozens of nearly identical posts here already. It's just about as common as insinuating the people who drive trucks must have small genitalia. Awful lot of projection going on.
So, can you back that up with something other than your intuition? All of my neighbors have pickups. and we all use them routinely for things only pickups can do. Please don't suggest that it would be financially better for me to rent a pickup every two weeks to tow my RV. I've already done the math.
“ 75 percent of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never). Nearly 70 percent of truck owners go off-road one time a year or less. And a full 35 percent of truck owners use their truck for hauling—putting something in the bed, its ostensible raison d’être—once a year or less.”
Screw the math. Renting a truck twice a month, even if cheaper than owning, is a huge hassle.
In other words, you probably are fine paying a little more to not have to get a ride to the rental yard, fill out the paperwork, decline the damage waiver add-on, etc. Then have to do that all again when you're done with the truck.
I don't own a truck, and it sucks sometimes when I want to do some yard work, or buy a large appliance/furniture on craigslist. If I add just one more use case to my life (more frequent camping, or larger projects), I'm going to go buy a truck and eliminate another hassle.
Uhaul allows pickup via app now. Not as smooth as Zipcar, but it does work. The added $1/mile adds up super quick though, and seems antiquated compared to all other types of car rental.