this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2026
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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I bet you in Indiana it's still 50% (or more) stupid sized trucks or SUVs. Higher gas prices will:
And then the very small minority who can't do those things, they pay the higher prices for their gas guzzlers.
Why do you think monster pickup trucks only exist in the USA? Pickups exist in other counties, but they're sensibly sized with smaller engines. Other counties figured out many decades ago that it's the most efficient (cost-wise and emission-wise) to use a vehicle appropriate to the job, instead of getting the biggest extended-bed, 4 door crew cab, 5.8 litre 8 cylinder truck with oversized offroading tires to pickup the damn groceries.
The F150 comes in a WIDE range of engine options. The most fuel efficient is close to an average ICE car.
You're pulling the typical lemmy bullshit where you assume every pavement princess you see isn't a working truck. Working at Lowe's dispelled that nonsense for me.
Living in Canada and having travelled to the US frequently (before covid), I see that 90+% of trucks on the road are unnecessary. Most jobs that people use trucks for can be accomplished using more fuel efficient vehicles. And if necessary, get a trailer.
The vast majority of trucks and SUVs are in cities, because that's where most people live. And most of those are pavement princesses.
So one of a handful of places where people who actually use their trucks for the actual thing they are literally built for would congregate to use their trucks for truck things. And that's not a biased perspective how?
The most sold F150 engine is the 3.5L EcoBoost v6. It gets a rated 12.4 L/100 km, which means in reality it gets closer to 14 or 15.
Your average car is going to be under 10 L/100 km, with many cars getting under 8. That's a very big difference and not at all "close".
Hybrid cars do even better with many getting well under 5 L/100 km.
Edit: and for those people who "need" a truck that one or two times a year can rent a truck. Plenty of people do. I do it and I save a ton on the insurance and gas. The rental cost is the same as maybe one or two fill-ups with a truck.
You've deemed 90% of trucks are unnecessary by simply observing the use you saw in the moment? Brilliant. Sure wish science worked on "common sense" and "I think". They'd get a lot more done that way!
So a truck in a city can't be a legitimate work truck?
I said the most fuel efficient, nothing about the most common. Not all trucks are the same, despite outward appearances.
I clearly said "ICE engine", but let's bring in more efficient examples to blur the arguement.
And yes, I need a truck and I'm not going to justify that to you or anyone else.
90% was hyperbole. But my point was that most pickup drivers don't need a pickup for what they do.
https://www.americantrucks.com/pickup-truck-owner-demographics.html
https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/you-dont-need-a-full-size-pickup-truck-you-need-a-cowboy-costume
Literally nowhere did I say that.
I said the most common, because that's the stat that matters.
We absolutely should include other kinds of engines, lol. Why wouldn't that always be part of the discussion? That's so disingenuous, but taking out non-ICE engines doesn't change the validity of my argument.
There it is! It's been about you this whole time. Just a minute ago you were complaining about the scope of my argument, and here you are using yourself as the one and only example.
Didn't I say "and those who genuinely need a truck can pay the higher gas prices"?
If you actually need a truck, then use a truck. My argument was that the major of pickup truck drivers do not need a truck, and then another significant portion of those people can manage perfectly fine with rentals or trailers.