So did I, many times. And although I did rent a pickup to carry the really grungy bush and branch detritus from my massive trimming efforts, back in the day when we had a house where we frequently used the fireplace, I would lay down protective sheeting the back of my first-generation Dodge minivan and load it up with massive amounts of firewood. I’m sure I greatly exceeded its load capacity because the poor thing was canted upward from all the weight. But we didn’t have far to go, and the faithful minivan made it just fine.
On another occasion, I built quite a large deck, and all of the many support posts and lumber and concrete needed for it were all transported in the minivan. It was a long time ago but I suspect it probably took at least two or three trips, but nevertheless, once again the faithful minivan did the job. Meanwhile, on other occasions, it was ideal for taking the family plus supplies and large dog to country cottages, which a pickup would never have been able to do. I remember the adventure of one such occasion, where at the end of our stay there was huge thunderstorm that cut the power to the area, and we drove out in howling winds and torrential rain, with all of us, our luggage, and the dog, all safe and snug inside. You can’t do that when you have limited enclosed space and a huge amount of outside space (and have paid through the nose for it!).
Again, pickups have their uses, but they’re not for everybody, and certainly not for many of the current owners, IMHO.
But why would you want to have a load of passengers at the same time that you’re moving sheets of plywood? You would, of course, if you own a construction company, but those are the ideal customers for pickups. Families are the ideal customers for minivans.
My first, first-generation, minivan was the regular sized one and I’m pretty sure had to have the rear seats removed to fit in a sheet of plywood. The newer one was a Grand Caravan with three rows of seats, and I usually had the rearmost bench seat out. Don’t remember if it would accommodate a sheet of plywood without removing the second row of seats, too, or at least folding them down, but no big deal either way.
Huh? I just did this this weekend. Two dogs (250 pounds of dog) four people and our luggage for two days at Great Sanddune’s national park. The dogs got to ride in their crates which is much safer than allowing them to be unsecured inside a vehicle.
Because the entire family enjoys recreational window-shopping at the home improvement store, and taking them along with when I go pick up the lumber is a perfectly cromulent use case?
It’s like you refuse to imagine any scenario besides yours.
And really, the overriding answer to the (probably rhetorical, GQ notwithstanding) question is: arguments from utility are pointless. People do what they do because they want to, for reasons that are not required to satisfy anyone else’s expectations.
Absolutely no idea.
The only thing I can say that when my parents had a Beetle it could tow a 4,5- 5m caravan, and after scrimping and scraping for years they bought a Cherokee and a 10m caravan.
Thanks for explaining that a a car that fits a family might not have the capacity to tow the boat / caravan that best suits that specific family.
Pfffft… I don’t know whom you are addressing sir, but I assure you that my Toyota Yaris is fully rated to tow up to one (1) Just Married sign and up to ten (10) tin cans on ribbons!
Because its easier to drag the kids along and let the wife get to choose the paint color she wants to use on the plywood then make a seperate trip to select paint.
Home repair/renovation was an ongoing feature of my childhood: I spent many a Saturday morning at the lumberyard with Mom & Dad while they picked out the stuff for the current project, then hauled it home (in the station wagon, back then). While I have no small kids of my own, I still see plenty of families out at the home center, the garden store, or the farm supply loading up large bulky items while simultaneously hauling kids too young to stay at home unattended.
I drive an SUV and have no towing needs. I keep the back seats folded down and a cage up between the back and front, all set up for my dogs. They are my only passengers 90% of the time and I rarely un-do this setup unless I need to, so basically I have a 2-passenger car.
Lemme tell you - it sucks! I can’t take my nieces anywhere because they have to sit in the back until a certain age. I gotta keep my passenger side clean because there’s no back seat in which to throw my junk. I can only be the Designated Driver for one person at a time. If I do want to drive more than one person I gotta undo the whole setup, then re-do it again before the dogs get in.
One time I offered to take some drunk friends home from a Halloween party. It was late and I didn’t feel like taking the back apart so I had to toss my buddy back there in his KISS makeup and platform boots. Luckilly it was a short drive.
If you have kids or are even kid-adjacent like me, having a two-seater sucks. And no, you can’t just leave the kids at home every time you want to buy something big, so deconstructing the mini van doesn’t quite work either.
Yeah it’s probably a status symbol for most people but if you’re going to get one, it’s waaaaay more practical than buying a 2-seater. It probably sells more trucks, since now a family can still have 2 “family cars.” And car companies are in the business of selling cars so…yeah, they’re going to push those extended cabs.
My parents’ neighbor just bought himself a new extended cab truck, trading in his SUV. I told him he’s our new “guy with a truck.” Sure enough he has already done us a solid by going to Costco and picking up a big patio swing for my parents. I don’t knock the Guy With a Truck!
My wife’s weekend is Monday and Tuesday while I have the traditional Saturday, Sunday. My weekends for the last 3 weeks have involved building 500 feet of 3-rail fence. In the coming weeks I will be forming and pouring a concrete lawn curb. I will lime wash the brick on my house, take my kids camping and put the boat in the water at the lake. This summer I will take multiple loads of green waste to the dump and I’ll probably also need to take a load of trash. I’ll need to borrow the tractor for when I get rock delivered. I need to paint the playhouse I built last year. I’m going to rent a trencher for running electrical to my shop.
Everything will be done with my 2 kids. I can’t leave a 6 and a 4 year old at home alone.
That was my childhood as well. But my parents often went home with plywood, fake-wood paneling, mattresses, lumber or other stuff strapped to the roof of the sedan or station wagon. (Although I noticed a U-Haul-type truck outside Home Depot with a big sign on the side saying it was available for short-term rental, so the Home Depot people know that lots of customers aren’t prepared for suddenly needing to carry a bunch of stuff.)
Nah, plywood and lumber in the back of the Pontiac Grand Safari, back seat down, my brother and I riding on top of the plywood. Seat belts? Oh, those things stuck down inside the seats…
This is something that’s confused me somewhat now that I live in the US. Back in South Africa my parents towed a caravan (something like this: caravette 6 - Google Search) that probably weighed about 2000 pounds fully loaded. We towed it behind a Ford Sierra station wagon; essentially a 2.0L regular car. That was a perfectly common thing to do. Yet here in the US I don’t think I’ve seen anything that substantial towed behind anything less than a pickup truck. I actually drive a 2.4L station wagon here in the US and I can’t even get a 2" trailer hitch fitted for a 3 bike rack, let alone towing anything of substance. Best I can do is a 1" hitch for a 2 bike rack.
So were we just living in crazy times, taking extraordinary risks on our family vacations by towing this thing behind a regular car? Or are the US requirements and guidelines for cars overly cautious? Or somewhere in-inbetween?
I’m curious. The 2000 pound caravan behind a normal car certainly was mainstream in South Africa. I haven’t lived in Europe but have watched enough Top Gear to suggest that normal cars towing similar looking caravans are enough of a thing to annoy Clarkson in the UK…
I saw one of those in traffic once. It baffled me.
I don’t think that four door trucks should not exist. I was possibly in the market for a new truck and found that new two door trucks are no longer available. I drive a two door Jeep Wrangler now. An hour after I bought it I took the rear seat out and wrapped it in a tarp and it sits on a shelf in my garage for when I sell the Jeep.
I would suspect, barring any evidence to the contrary, that they discontinued selling their regular cab because of low sales. As a general rule, carmakers don’t discontinue things that are popular and sell well.
As others have already mentioned, there is a big market in the U.S. for, shall we say, “working” pickup trucks – ones in which the bed is actually used for things like hauling construction materials, and as a vehicle for people who have a need for that big bed as part of their jobs (as opposed to being the family “car”). It would not surprise me to learn that many of the people who use their pickups in that way also have a strong preference for American badges, and would be relatively unlikely to consider a Toyota.
On the other hand, we also have people who want a pickup truck for things like towing a camper or boat, or just because they like the image of a pickup, but not only do they not have need for a full bed, but they also want to be able to use it as a vehicle that the whole family can fit in. Hence, the popularity of the second row of seats.
There definitely seem to be differences in what US and European car manufacturers recommend. Part of that may be due to different driving conditions: from what I understand, the speed limit while towing a trailer in the UK or EU countries is generally 80 to 100 kilometers per hour (50 to 62 mph), while in the US it’s pretty common to be going 75 mph on the highway with the boat or camper. The minimum speed on US interstates is 40 mph, and anybody going even close to that is probably themselves a hazard. Add on that Americans are probably travelling further (towing the boat a couple of hundred miles to the lake is no big deal) and through what’s often more mountainous terrain, and that adds to higher towing demands and hence lower capacity.
It’s not a question of what’s allowed, it’s what the car can manage. Front wheel drive cars have very limited towing capacity. Larger RWD and AWD vehicles can tow more, but the extra weight of the roof and back seats and all that cuts down on what they can tow. You have the weight of the vehicle, the weight of what’s in the vehicle and the weight of what’s being towed and that is a finite number. Less vehicle weight along with less payload weight (passengers are usually figured at 150 lbs each so those two back seats are figured as removing 300 lbs from the overall equation even if nobody’s sitting in them) means more you can pull. Add to that the gooseneck “5th wheel” style trailer that can ONLY be towed by a pickup and you can see why the pickup truck is overall the better vehicle for towing.
Also, for what it’s worth, it looks like Honda and Nissan are in the same camp as Toyota – their pickup models are only sold as king cabs or crew cabs in the U.S.
Sure thing, just keep in ming I did say generally in my post. I was thinking Big Three specifically and am aware that Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Subaru and others have NA plants. Honda builds Civics in Alliston, Ontario. Sports cars are a completely different use case.
I was thinking specifically about 4 door sedans per the OP and what used to be their associates, station wagons. I understand why as droves of families abandon them for utility vehicles of all sorts as they sit higher, tow more generally, and of course make you feel invulnerable (until you’re in a ditch wondering why your 4WD didn’t save you). I had a Subaru Legacy wagon,not an Outback, and it did everything I needed it to including hauling a trailer. I had an XJ Cherokee once and traded it because the gas mileage sucked. That was more important than the utility it offered and I traded for a Focus ZX5.