[otterley]

Unfortunately, to Americans, that really doesn't matter. Even if they're not as fit for purpose, they prefer pickup trucks to minivans. It's a cultural thing.

(I realize you're probably being responsive to the word "need" - it's more what they claim they need than actually need. They could use a Japanese kei truck.)

[Ichthypresbyter]

>They could use a Japanese kei truck.

I was hearing elsenet from someone who was planning to buy a Japanese kei truck until he borrowed one. Apparently with more than about 300 lb in the bed they feel dangerous to drive- combination of instability and poor braking performance.

[otterley]

At what speed, I wonder? In Japan I don’t think I ever saw one fully laden that was going faster than 40km/h (25mph).

[Ichthypresbyter]

He was saying 35-40 mph on small rural roads.

[ssl-3]

Am American. Need work vehicle that can move some stuff that might be fairly big. Minivan is solution. It does the job very well.

If I needed to move more stuff, then the best answer still isn't a pickup truck. It is instead a full-size van (Transit/Express/Sprinter/ProMaster).

Kei trucks seem cool, but they're still trucks. Whatever's in the back is open to the elements, looky-loos, and thieves. Those concerns are greatly diminished with vans.

(A pickup truck with a cap on it that never comes off is a lot like a minivan is, but with more steps.)

[rascul]

Depends on what you're hauling also. I'm not interested in doing my regular trash or recycling runs with a minivan, for example, but most of what I do haul would be fine with a minivan.

[ssl-3]

I do that, too.

The recycling is in inexpensive stacking totes that have lids; the same kind of totes I sometimes pack in tight for cross-country jaunts. They stay stacked and they don't leak.

Food waste gets composted outside ("it's old, get rid of it"), or goes down the garbage disposal ("i'm just trying to prep dinner here, not save the world"), or frozen in a grocery bag for later trash runs (meat and grease that doesn't want to go down the drain or be composted).

The bagged trash that accumulates here is essentially just non-recyclable plastics that are dry, and an occasional small bag of frozen food waste. This stuff does not leak between home and the dumpster at the shop.

And, I mean: Why not? It's just a car, and before being in the car these things were inside of my house (which is a far more valuable and permanent thing to me).