Americans Have Gone Pickup CRAZY - When Will It Stop?

Please correct the title from Amercians to Americans.

Why do you ask?

Pickups are eminently practical and look great. Your question is specious and has no basis.

Pickups are practical and look great if you're hauling something (something cool in the case of the latter).

If you're not, then it's just really expensive cosplay that blocks me from seeing traffic ahead.

Trucks are great for farmers or moving companies. Otherwise they are just useless and for people who want to pretend they need one to boost their small ego.

Pick-ups are just another form of Transportation today - and LOTS of them are not designed to be used primarily for Companies, farms, and movers.

Today - people - if they have the money - can buy many different forms of transportation - the fact is - most of them are overkill when a used Yugo will get you where you want to go.

Yes, people will spend more to get something above the bare minimum.

However, looking at the areas of improvement as prices go up, people are generally paying to get better comfort, more convenience features, better fuel economy, better useable power, etc.

That's different from buying a vehicle built for the express purpose of doing something that you've never going to do. It's no different than buying an off-roader or a supercar/sports car and never taking it to a trail or a track, respectively. Maybe with a high-performance car, you can have some fun on an open highway or a good backroad in your area, but that's about it.

Thus, pickups are not just another form of transportation. They are specific form of transportation with a specific form factor for specific uses and purposes. That's why it has a bed, and not a trunk.

So, it comes back to the same thing. If you have the money and you buy a pickup, and you never put stuff in the bed, then what's it for? It's expensive cosplay to make you feel like a big boy, that's what it is. Normally I don't mind (other than complaining on the internet), except now these people are blocking my view of traffic and are impossible to park next to.

I like mine for its multi-faceted ability. Comfortable for long journeys, has all the latest technology, can throw stuff in the bed and not worry about getting the vehicle dirty, use it for towing two different trailers, great in the colder weather and snow etc.
I agree that higher gas prices would dramatically alter buying habits.

At least you put stuff in it and let it get dirty.

You're not one of those people who keeps the bed covered and thinks its an S-Class.

As 80Ho said >> when gas prices rise

The facts of the matter is that gas prices have very little to do with the sales of large vehicles. In fact, large vehicles often continue to sell just fine in a gas spike because people want them. The last time we had a large gasoline price spike the F150s, Expeditions, Navigators, Silverados, Tahoes, Suburbans, Escalades, Sierras, and Yukons continued to sell.

What happened was that a lot of people ALSO bought a "during the week" car i.e. like a Fiesta or Sonic.

@MD Correct. If you have the means, it doesn't matter. I can remember asking someone with a Range Rover about gas mileage. He stated he never thought about it, ever.

People without "means" continued to buy those products minus the Escalade and Navigator.

i once had someone ask me years ago if i was going to sell my Land Cruiser because gas was so expensive, i told him i wasn't so stupid as to buy a $60k truck and then not be able to fill it up with gas just because gas went up $1. people buy these products and at the high end, don't care about gas. people keep talking about gas prices like they make or break a family. the cable bill is much more of an issue.