Feels like a truck until…..

[Kthklaw]

You're getting 35+ mpg on an EcoBoost? Impressive! I've been bouncing back and forth between an EcoBoost or hybrid. I do mostly long freeway trips since I don't have to drive to work.

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[notfast]

It's that I think that certain guys who are afraid that they have small packages buy big trucks when all they really need is either a compact truck (or more often than not a minivan) because they're scared of not looking tough. They think they'll look weak buying a Honda Odyssey when it's what they actually need.

I had a minivan...was my favorite vehicle ever. I ended up selling it because I got an offer for $3k more than what I paid for it a few months later (this was pre-pandemic).

Feels like a truck until ...

You need just a single 8 ft 2x4.
Tailgate down need to secure it - tailgate up it doesn't appear secure bouncing around - so probably should too.

And while taking the time to wrap strap it down - you recall being able to fit it in your small Rav4 by merely aiming it to the passenger footwell - didn't rub or bounce on anything and rear door closed.

My 1st truck - maybe needing to take that extra time to strap something small down is part of it.

I would consider strapping down the load to be part of it for sure. Yes a 2x4 can fit in a RAV4, but now you have cargo traversing the passenger compartment, which is not great if you were to get into a wreck or even if the cargo were to shift positions.

I keep a variety of tie-down straps in a tool bag in the bed. Since they are at the ready, I am sure I could strap down a 2x4 in a pickup bed just as fast as you could thread a 2x4 through a RAV4.

I love watching the duallies that have never haled anything beside their owners egos flying down the highway at 90 getting 5mpg..
This truck is great, hauled a 10' butcher block table to my daughters house. Hauls my 16' step ladder.
If i needed to haul around a horse trailer i would have bought something else

Never know what someone's situation is. I had a crew cab long bed Super Duty that I daily drove for a while even though I hauled nothing but sailboat fuel and a lunch bag.

My former racing partner hasn't gotten around to getting a commuter, so he still commutes with his Super Duty. Way he figures is that commuting costs him maybe $3,000 a year in extra fuel compared to a 35mpg commuter, but buying a commuter would barely save money unless the commuter was very cheap and needed no repairs.

 

[cyberdog]

Just follow your neighbor to the gas station, pull up on the opposite side of the pump, when he's filling up.....then act shocked when his bill is $60, $70, or higher depending upon the price per gallon, while you're less than half that.

I don't understand why so many 'commuters' need the biggest truck they can buy, when they never tow, carrying anything of substance in the bed, and yet need that huge truck as a status system or ego booster. There's somebody here at work who has an extended Crew-Cab with an extended length bed. (This thing is positively huge, probably averages 10-12 mpg on a good day.) Never has anything in the bed, sticks out a good 3 feet from the back of whatever parking spot he/she's in, and finally resorted to parking sideways across 4 parking spots. You have to ask yourself why, when they're an office worker, and the truck looks like it's likely a mall cruiser, unless they're over compensating.

 

[dochawk]

You need just a single 8 ft 2x4.
Tailgate down need to secure it - tailgate up it doesn't appear secure bouncing around - so probably should too.

I bought some 4 foot boards and, I think, a 3'x4' panel of plywood for making drawers last weekend.

I put them in the bed, pulled a couple of tiedowns from the back seat . . . and saw that I didn't have anywhere low enough to fasten the tiedowns!

I could have gone in and bought something else to make a bigger pile, I suppose, but I was only about 5 miles form home without freeways, and just drove.

 

[Pete Sheppard]

No matter what size truck you roll with, there’s just something about pulling up to a job site and dropping the tailgate…

 

[urwatuis]

Every time I see a shiny F150 that's clearly never towed or hauled anything, I wonder what small thing it's owner is trying to compensate for.

the size of the truck is inversely proportional to the size of the ....................

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

the size of the truck is inversely proportional to the size of the ....................

Urwatuis,
Really, how does this fit in with your analogy and people's physique.

My old F350 and my smart

My newer 350 working.

 

[urwatuis]

Yeah...the big truck brodozer comments about little winkies is REALLY getting old. So if I drive my F-250 to pull my 20 foot utility trailer I've got a little winkie?? But I get home after work and switch to my Mav and head to Wal-Mart I'm Long Dong Silver??? LOL....doesn't work that way. Man...that cliche' is just so old and overused. Bottom line....you can't pull a Bobcat with a Mav....and your F-350 is not going to get 45 mpg at the end of the week of driving. Let's leave it at that.

once again it's not ALL men but it's enough to make it into a meme and it's not irrelevant when I am having dinner at a favorite restaurants outdoor seating and some jerk in a lifted RAM diesel revs his engine to blow black smoke from the tail pipe and ruin the good time I was having with friends. If you're a nice guy who happens to drive a big truck, cool. If don't want the stereotype then talk to your bros who do stupid things like that because we got lots of them in VT.

 

[urwatuis]

For 3 decades, I've been mostly happy with "Good value reliable hatchback with decent gas mileage" ... apart from that class has gone functionally extinct.... and a couple of minivans thrown in when we had more people around... and those have got fat and underimproved... far far away from ye olde T-115 magic wagon... So yeah best game in town is the Ford Atkinson/eCVT drivetrain, and if I had to still pinch pennies tight enough to leave fingernail marks, I might be in a used C-Max, but buying new, in 2025 (also having watched them since announcement/release) I decided to treat myself to a Maverick, and 90% of the time, I could have been driving a hatch still but hoping to lean into the 10% and get a camper and expand leisure activities.

A number of things add into that, like admiring 20th century mini/compact trucks... but it's super weird the car market of today has made the best alternative to a decent hatchback a small truck, even though I am pretty okay with it. I rarely ever considered a truck as a practical option, the RAM ecodiesels piqued my interest until they started having expensive problems.

I had a 2013 C Max before the Maverick. I should have kept it and used them both.

 

[MaverickDragon]

In hindsight to the original post back 9 months ago, the trucklett on the left seems like a better option than the oversized on the right that also doesn't require a mortgage approval to fill the tank.

My 12 mile round trip run into town is a consistent 55 ish mpg's.
I don't need a two to three ton behemoth that would likely use twice the fuel to pick up a couple of letters and maybe a small package or two.

I've owned a number of trucks over the years and have a long bed bow tie out in the driveway that is no longer driven because I seldom, if ever, need more capacity than the Maverick provides.

 

[dochawk]

My old F350 and my smart

shouldn't it simply be in the bed?

 

[Cherokee]

The trucklet,
The oversized,
Mines bigger than yours ~~~
All a needless pissing contest.

My little Maverick rides like a much larger sedan.

35 mpg in an Ecoboost, I call bullshit !

 

[Cancunbadlands]

I'd been there

 

[Darryl]

The trucklet,
The oversized,
Mines bigger than yours ~~~
All a needless pissing contest.

My little Maverick rides like a much larger sedan.

35 mpg in an Ecoboost, I call bullshit !

I've found that certain people seem to naturally drive in a vehicles sweet spot and extract maximum mpg. They don't block traffic or otherwise aggravate other drivers. They just have the natural gift of driving a vehicle more efficiently. I can be on an extended drive alternating with my sister. We both keep up with traffic, but she will almost always get noticably further on a tank than I will. So I won't necessarily call BS. He might simply be one of those people

 

[Cherokee]

I've found that certain people seem to naturally drive in a vehicles sweet spot and extract maximum mpg. They don't block traffic or otherwise aggravate other drivers. They just have the natural gift of driving a vehicle more efficiently. I can be on an extended drive alternating with my sister. We both keep up with traffic, but she will almost always get noticably further on a tank than I will. So I won't necessarily call BS. He might simply be one of those people

True, my wife averaged 25-26 mpg in her 2010 4.0 L V-6 Mustang on the interstate commute,
With its 225 Hp.

Most I could do was 22 mpg’s. My foot when placed on a Mustang throttle moves more than hers I guess :’P

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