[JumpCrisscross]

> Especially most trucks

I'd argue not. Many trucks are driven by folks in the trades. If I were to guess, I'd put my money on SUVs having the largest fraction of users who rarely if ever push the vehicle to its limits. That or sports cars.

[TaylorAlexander]

I looked it up and the top 3 most selling vehicles this year were big trucks. A total of 1.3 million trucks just from the top 3 vehicles this year.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g43553191/bestselling-cars...

I doubt all these new trucks are for trades people. Honestly most tradespeople I see drive older trucks because they are beating them up anyway. There's a LOT of people driving trucks who are not trades people.

[wharvle]

I’ve noticed large regional differences in truck prevalence (vs. more jeeps and even more SUVs, it seemed to my eye, in the relatively-low-truck regions) so that may be account for difference in perception.

In my part of the Midwest, the vast majority of trucks aren’t seeing truck-like use more than a countable-on-fingers number of days per year. A relatively small proportion are owned by tradespeople, who are at least as likely to drive a van-body vehicle as a normal truck, from what I’ve seen. Most are owned as status symbols, in-group signaling consumption, and (no joke, many owners will tell you this) so they’re more likely to “win” in a crash and/or so they feel bigger on the road (again, not mean-spirited speculation, I’ve repeatedly heard that cited as a reason to favor trucks, from truck owners)

Some of these folks will say they really need them for that handful of times a year they tow or haul, but the price and gas consumption difference vs a sedan would likely cover years and years of delivery fees, paid towing, lake slip fees, et c, so that’s not really what’s getting them to sign on the dotted line for these things.

[mrep]

My boat slip fee is $5,000 a summer.

I could pay for a decent amount of gas if I upgraded my car to a truck to be able to tow my boat.

[rainsford]

> Many trucks are driven by folks in the trades.

It's a little hard to believe that's the primary market given the design trends in trucks that seemingly make them less attractive and useful to tradespeople while being more appealing to folks in the fashion accessory market.

For example, the trend of trucks getting more and more expensive with luxury features and interiors or the increasing popularity of short beds with giant cabins or the higher ride height that makes it more of a pain if you actually lift things in and out of the bed. Or even the enormous tall fronts that make it a lot more likely you're going to run over stuff you can't see. I'm not sure why anyone with an actual job related need for a truck would be driving those trends.

[philwelch]

The ride height is useful for road visibility; you can actually see over the top of smaller vehicles. There are also unintended consequences from how a lot of car regulations are written.

[rascul]

Luxury features and interiors and giant cabins can be great for those tradespeople who have to ride in the truck every day.

[acdha]

I’d have agreed around the turn of the century but it’s really hard to believe that’s driving the current sales boom. I see new trucks all the time - as part of the morning commute, loaded with frills which wouldn’t hold up in a work environment, and in pristine condition. The actual tradesmen are driving vans and older trucks because those cost half as much. There’s a huge construction sight near me, and the actual workers are arriving on bike, bus, or carpool in a sedan – except for two fancy trucks parked near the foreman’s office, which are pristine (not even mud) and always parked in the same spot morning, lunch, or afternoon.

Now, I live in a city so I’d discount that except that we’ve spent a lot of time driving through rural areas (my son loves railroads) and the same trend holds there, although less intense. You see the pretty rancher cosplay trucks in the rich exurbs, and then when you cross into actual farm or mining country you see a lot fewer of the $70+k new ones and more beat up old trucks which are clearly heavily used, and almost 90s levels of smaller cars because they’re so much cheaper.