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Originally Posted by twinair
It doesn't have to be an Iveco Daily. I just wanted to say that an Iveco Daily type pick-up would be more practical. An American company (Tesla) could also produce a truck without a gigantic snout/grille. This has no influence on price.
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Agreed.
There are more practical options, but people are influenced to varying degrees by things that are not practical. Regarding the large front end and overall length of vehicles in the US; the cities are built to accommodate them. I've parallel parked my truck in downtown Portland many times, and also fit the truck into every car park I have attempted.
Perhaps, the length is a safety feature offering a longer zone of deceleration during an accident? Just throwing out another possible reason for the differences in trend.
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Switzerland has a significantly higher GDP per capita than the US. Yet, I don't see many pick up trucks.
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Differences in culture has something to do with that trend, but a US gallon of diesel is $8.55 in Switzerland. 2 miles from my house I can purchase a gallon of diesel for $3.13. That's 2.7x more expensive! Given the Swiss average annual per capita income of $79k compared to the US $52k, they earn roughly 1.5x the US citizen.
Certainly fuel prices affect the purchasing decisions of the Swiss more than the Americans, even given the higher relative earning power.
Please don't think I am directing this comment at you, but the idea I want to convey is that Americans are motivated by the same basic things all humans are. The cause of the relatively inefficient vehicles in the US is most attributable to relatively cheap fuel; and less attributable to the citizens being uninformed, unintelligent, evil, or any other deficiency of character.
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Originally Posted by euromodder
Usually we tend to repeat the US's errors in Europe.This is your chance NOT to repeat ours : don't buy into the clean-diesel lies !
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Thank you for sharing. Count me as one that was previously uninformed. I have something new to read up on now.