this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
1177 points (84.2% liked)

Fuck Cars

9682 readers
1561 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Hey, German here. What the f*** are Americans doing at the other side of the Atlantic? Some of you already know this monstrosity. I did'nt. This is a Ford F650 Truck and when I stepped out of my Youtube Bubble I realized, it was marketed as the "biggest, baddest Truck on the road" for the everyday American. Are you guys serious?! Is the end goal really to drive a Monster Truck to McDs to get a McFlurry? Americas bloodiest wars have been fought in the middle east to secure oil, bombing nations to rubble. And all, for this bullshit? The excess, waste and decadence is mind boggling to me and people on Reddit seriously justifying this by "you know dude I'm 6,4ft. I don't fit in any other vehicle" makes me go up the wall.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 239 points 11 months ago (4 children)

If you want to be even more outraged by American stupidity, look up “rolling coal”. In short, morons buy large trucks like this and purposely detune their emissions systems to run poorly, decreasing fuel efficiency and spewing soot laden exhaust. The only purpose to do this is to piss off liberals, apparently.

[–] [email protected] 140 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

You're joking? Oh my,... you're not.

[–] [email protected] 120 points 11 months ago (5 children)

The best part (/s) is when they purposefully drive in front of people with a 'wimpy' car, like a hybrid or EV or a car that isn't fuckhuge, and intentionally spews smog behind them.

Very mature folk, very stable, very safe to be around, as I'm sure you can tell.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Where I live, you get up to two years in jail for brake-checking someone, and a potentially life-altering fine if you cut off a pedestrian. Cops are extremely strict about cars endangering others because they're very easy charges. I'd love to see their reaction to rolling coal.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago

Sadly they are not, the people that do it are the worst kind of asshole. They generally like to "roll coal" while passing electric or hybrid cars, covering them with soot. The spend thousands of dollars to be as obnoxious and wasteful as possible, all to spite "the liberals".

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 140 points 11 months ago (20 children)

You know this is by no means a common vehicle right? I’ve never seen one outside of a few pictures only found on anti-car posts. F350s are even rare to see on the roads, F150s are more common than grass and F250s are a daily sight unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

This isn't even a 350

This is a heavily modified F650(750?). They took a commercial truck and slapped a pickup truck body on it. It's comically useless, and costs 150 thousand dollars.

Here's a video where a guy reviews it.

https://youtu.be/JrHDeSMvnt4?si=bNlcS9prXg3J_Q0W

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (5 children)

150k is about how much you'll pay for a RAM here in Australia - and dickheads are still buying them.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago

You actually probably see a lot of F250s and F350s, but they are used as commercial vehicles, often with stuff bolted to the bed (or in the case of the F350, sold without a bed and have aftermarket attachments).

Many tow trucks are F350s/F450s (and bigger for towing bigger vehicles), ambulances are often F550s, bucket trucks are F650s/F750s, etc.

load more comments (18 replies)
[–] [email protected] 112 points 11 months ago (6 children)

The F650 is a commercial vehicle. You can't buy one from Ford without a commercial account with them. You need a CDL to drive it. They're uncommon to see, and when you do, they're invariably used to do actual work.

No, they're not used just to drive to McDonald's.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 101 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (47 children)

This is a really braindead and disingenuous take. The F650 is a commercial vehicle. Attempting to pretend that "Americans" drive these is moronic, because the number of private citizens who drive one of these as a personal vehicle is probably in the triple digits in a country with a population of 332,000,000.

I know it's fasionable to farm for upvotes these days by blaring AMERICANS BIG TRUCKS BAD. But no one is "driving these to McD's to get a McFlurry." Very, very few people own one of these just to be "decadent."

You may as well get on your high horse about Americans driving big rigs all the time while you're at it. Because they totally do!!!!! (It's true!) Ones who are truck drivers, you know, delivering the goods you rely on every day.

On the very outside edge of the graph, there are probably a few outliers who own one of these to tow something enormous: A big horse trailer or a box trailer with their airplane in it or something. I have never seen one of these on the road that wasn't an actual commercial vehicle like a tow truck or similar.

The problem with obviously ridiculous whinging like this is that it dilutes the actual useful message, which is that America's transportation infrastructure is fucked up, and our reliance on fossil fuels (not just trucks) is Too Damn High.

load more comments (47 replies)
[–] [email protected] 98 points 11 months ago (37 children)
load more comments (37 replies)
[–] [email protected] 85 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The year is 2068. Everyone takes the bus to work. Their own personal bus.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 76 points 11 months ago (12 children)

Ok, see to put thin in context a little bit, this truck is not for, nor is it even marketed towards regular people. This is a modular truck, so this is going to be converted into ambulances, tow trucks, bucket trucks, etc. This one does have a bed on it, but they had to get one from like an F-350 and modify it to get it to fit. And while you can buy this truck, it's not really a thing on roads here.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Just to add to this, and affirm that it's not intended to be a "go to McDonald's" truck, here is the actual product page for this model where it is marketed as a commercial vehicle.

https://www.ford.com/commercial-trucks/f650-f750/

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Btw... German car companies built those monstrosities...

The Unimog U500 was more or less just a marketing gag, but the G63 was a real thing...

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
[–] [email protected] 75 points 11 months ago (6 children)

This is custom made by a shop. Ford sells the front end and cab, and a small shop builds the rest.

It's prohibitively expensive to the point of being a non issue. U need to calm down bro.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 73 points 11 months ago (4 children)

These are novelty vehicles for the ultra wealthy. "Normal" pickups are already comically large and ripe for mockery, no need to hyperbolize

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 66 points 11 months ago (12 children)

Do you just search the internet for vague American shit to get mad about? Been all over this country and I’ve never seen one of these outside commercial use.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 60 points 11 months ago

I used to drive an F650

In the military

For my job

It was a truck to refuel aircraft.

People don't drive these on the roads, but our trucks are too big.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 11 months ago (12 children)

I’m not defending the truck or America but I don’t think that one is common outside of industry. I live in the South and have never seen one. F150’s are very common, you see F250’s here and there, and F350s are basically exclusively work trucks. I didn’t even know it went up to F650 (the F750 apparently exists but seems like it’s really only for industry).

Ford’s web site has them “starting at” $80k but without a bed or any consumer features. It seems like they’re more the base for order things like fleets of tow trucks or dump trucks. I’m sure a mega rich person can buy one but it’s probably a weird custom thing that costs $200,000 and is missing whatever creature comforts go into vanity trucks.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 49 points 11 months ago (5 children)

I work in the US auto industry. I'm not happy about this shit either.

Also, F650 is a rare vehicle so it really isn't a good one to be mad about. F150's and F250's are everywhere though

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 45 points 11 months ago (2 children)

American here. I've never seen this truck before. 🤷

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 45 points 11 months ago (4 children)

This isn't really something you see on US roads, unless you replace the bed with a flatbed or box. No normal person owns one of these as a pickup truck.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 43 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

the biggest baddest truck

They certainly know their target audience: 6 year olds

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (6 children)

Can confirm, the United States has lost it's mind. And yes, you have it down. The US goes abroad to secure resources for capitalist industry and has been promoting upsell and excess for some time now. Verhoeven's satirical advertising blurbs in Robocop (1987) were right on the mark.

Making us stupid and wanting to spend our money on $200 K-Pop bobble heads is exactly the world our corporations strive for, and the means to regulate them by a public-serving government was gutted in the 1980s by the Reagan administration. George W. Bush and Donald Trump (and the minimal pushback during the Clinton and Obama eras) are the natural result.

And in the next two decades you might get to see how the US does civil war and fascism. Every election lost by a Republican is challenged for legitimacy in an effort to neuter elections and create an autocratic one-party regime. Hopefully, this kind of shenanigan should sound dangerously familiar.

You got it right in one. We are out of our fucking minds, no small part to some willful efforts to turn the people of the US into mindless obedient consumers, but an epidemic of intergenerational mental illness has also contributed to Florida-Man-like conduct and truckers re-configuring their cars to belch soot as rolling coal.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago (2 children)

i live in the south, you never see these things in real life, and i'm deep in truck country.

these things are comically impractical. like you couldn't pull into a parking garage, or much of anything with this. you'd be parking and walking to wherever you were trying to go. they would likely hit the limit sign and overhang on a typical McDonald's.

the much more common trucks would be F150/250's.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Can you name the truck with four wheel drive, smells like steak and seats thirty five?

Canyonero!

12 yards long, two lanes wide, 65 tones of American Pride!

Canyonero!!!

https://youtu.be/PI_Jl5WFQkA?si=Ly_7PhJ2IOzFXTDB

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (5 children)

This size of truck isn't common. Coal rolling is both far more egregious and common than this.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I'm 6'4, 250 lbs. Canadian

I drive an 02 golf. Before this, a Toyota 4runner (1st gen).

I'm not trying to brag... But I think it's not a "I'm too big for anything smaller" it's a "I'm too insecure for anything smaller", aka "my dick is too small for anything smaller" syndrome.

I've recently made friends with a group of Germans who have come to Canada. I'm astonished by the practicality and industriousness I've noticed in contrast to the idiocy of most Canadians. I'm not saying you don't have any idiots in Germany. I'm just saying culturally, there seem to be some big differences.

Remember, don't let the dumbest of the world ruin your happiness.

Prost

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (4 children)
  1. Agree this is a stupid vehicle
  2. To everyone outside the US, I don't believe I've ever actually seen one of these on the road. FWIW, I've lived in two US states and traveled the whole country regularly for work.

The unofficial tagline for these things is, "if you weren't born with a BIG something... Why not buy a BIG something? That'll show em all..."

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago (6 children)

Also can we stop blaming the average american for the shit corperations or the government is doing? We don't like it either, they don't listen to us

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is the end goal really to drive a Monster Truck to McDs to get a McFlurry?

The end goal is to drive a Monster Truck right OVER THE FUCKING TOP OF McDs HELL YEAH BROTHA CAN I GET AN AMEN WITH A SIDE OF FRIES?!?!?!!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You're Wrong. We don't get a McFlurry; the machine is almost always broken due to fucked up patent law and corporate greed. Merica.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago

You can say "fucking" here. It's in the name. 😘

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Lived in the US my entire life. Never seen one of these in person once.

Chill.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago

I drive a Ford F-550 every day. To drive 20 special needs people to work and back. Because it's a bus.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago

Nowadays normal people are driving cars meant for psychopaths. Real psychopaths have to one up this. It is just natural.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I read this article recently, which describes this sort of ridiculous behavior perfectly. "Oh, we can't drive big gas guzzling children killing trucks? I'm gonna buy an even bigger one! How about that?" These people are behaving like children being taught they can't have everything, and they're having a big tantrum about it.

https://www.okdoomer.io/its-an-extinction-burst/

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

And then the owner bitches about fuel prices.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (2 children)

As an American, I agree, shit is ridiculous. I'd say about 80% of these big ass trucks on the road aren't even being used as trucks.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

These exist but are very rare. This is a commercial truck meant for things like small dump beds, bucket trucks, etc. There are a few shops that specialize in doing these types of custom builds for people who have way too much money and too little sense. There is a shop in my town that does this sort of work and they have something like this as a promotional tool but kost if their customers don't get anything this extreme.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (4 children)

This is a modified commercial truck. It's designed for heavy work, large construction, towing ridiculously large things, etc. Someone did custom work on it to make it look like a consumer vehicle.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This is aftermarket. The F650 is a Commercial truck which is sold by Ford incomplete (without a bed). You'll frequently see them built out for specific purposes like dump truck, tow truck, specific hauling, etc. (see Ford's page for some examples). I believe in most jurisdictions you need a commercial air-brakes driver's license to be able to drive one of these.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I promise, you're unlikely to see an "everyday American" driving an F650. There might be a literal handful of exceptions out there somewhere, but most people will only ever see this in industrial applications. Most often you'll see a 650 outfitted with a cargo bed or a (extra large, for towing big rigs) wrecker setup, or something large, robust, and industrial like that. This is just a publicity/marketing stunt. 99% of Ford F350 and larger trucks you will ever see will be industrial/cargo/heavy equipment moving/etc. industrial job vehicles. It's even relatively common to buy the truck, and buy the bed you need for your industrial application, custom. This is not something you'll see set up like a pickup truck in very many American driveways. The handful of those exceptions are the same sort of enthusiast niche that will hot rod customize to a ridiculous impractical degree a regular car, just to say they can. Very small group.

Reacting as if this is real is just as insane as thinking it's really common for somebody to trick out their excavator and drive it to McDonald's.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (11 children)

I'm 6'5" and I don't fit in any of this garbage. These trucks are built for short men with mental stability issues

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

load more comments
view more: next ›