OK, but the car skin would need some crappy bumper sticker bragging about their stupid kid being on some school's honor roll. Or maybe a stick family on the back window.
Yeah! Plus ever tried to run over game animals in an Audi?........
In 2002, I built my kids a half pipe. A big one. Took up the whole damned back yard. When you do things like that, you kinda need a truck. That little exercise had two some times during its construction.
Oh yeah. We're into kayaking. I know it's possible to do so with car, but really.... ever try to transport Kayaks, two twelve footers, on the roof of a car? I would think there's all sorts of places to do that over there.
Katrina... more nonsense. The Army Corps of Engineers told NOLA that they really needed to fix their existing dams and levees for years. The federal government even gave them money in the late 1990's to do just that. What did they do with the money? They blew it on building fancy roads to casinos with padded contracts to brother-in-laws. The mayor at the time of Katrina didn't do too bad for himself after the hurricane. He basically got rid of all his defects by shipping them to Texas and he made a killing in kickbacks and bribes. Too bad he got caught. Now he's in Texas with the rest of the crooks he sent over - only he's in a federal prison doing 10 years. I could go on for days about Katrina and none of it would be nice.
If you knew half of what you think you did about Katrina, it's aftermath or the crap that happened before, you wouldn't even bring that up dude.
Was thinking..... In the late 1960's a company - I think it's name was Chance manufaturing - marketed a gas powered pogo stick. I'm not making this up. There really is such a thing. What about having THOSE in LFS?
My ride has 6 cylinders and weighs 800 pounds. I can lean any which way I want, but if I don't initiate the turn, it'll still go straight.
It's hard for my uneducated @ss to explain how this works out.
Oh and when I was talking about shifting weight, I really meant the effects from leaning forward and back on the bike. Not just sitting up and hunching down but actually shifting forward and back. Sorry. I'm just not smart enough to put this into words, but I'm fixing to go out and do it though
As someone that had both a Beemer and a pick up, I would say about the same thing, yet the other way around..
Sure the little beemer corners better. But could it corner as good carrying the same amount of lumber as being carried in said pick up? You can't carry that lumber in the BMW? How do you carry it?
I could also go on and on and on about how Beemers are over engineered - not for performance, but apparently for job security.
I would rather rebuild a block on a truck than try to deal with changing the oil pan on a bmw.
And this oversized tractor nonsense.... At an intersection, I saw a mercedes 4 door and a Nissan Pick-up. Guess which one was bigger? Now THAT's an impractical vehicle. That oversized sedan. What is something like that good for? And by the way, what good is handling when you're stuck in gridlock or on a road full of potholes? Your justification is falling a little short.
I don't know about any of that but I do know this about 911. In July of 2001, Al Queda sent out a communique stating they were going to do something really spectacular in September. I saw this broadcast on CBS news - after we got back from Vegas. Here's where things get weird....
We were in Vegas the same time as the hijackers were. They were staying in the motel across the street from the Stratosphere casino, where my friends had a store and we were hanging out at. I don't remember the name of the motel they were staying at. I think I opened a door for one of these guys. The Attas one - I think. At least he looked familiar when they showed his picture. Something about his expression. OK the day it happened. My wife was on a plane heading to New England when they took over those planes and her flight was diverted to a whole other state/time zone from where she needed to be.
Actually, as you read this, Hopefully Racer X is scouring the net for any information pertaining to the conspiracy behind the almost complete absence of a type of vehicle over such a large land mass.
If I were a citizen of an EU nation, I'd be real concerned as to why the government of that nation feels the need to deny me access to a certain type of vehicle. That's some spooky sh!t man.
THe only thing I would consider coming from Volkswagen as being a "baby Porsche" would be the Karman Ghia. I think I spelled it right. The Beetle is simple a car in its own right. You can make something as fast as a porsche with it, but it would really be a fast VW.
You Think it'll be bikes? LOL I had a demo of some Moto GP sim that I don't think got off the ground. You think Tire physics holds up things? ROFL wait til Scawen decides to get obsessed with shifting body weight.
If anyone could pull it off though, it'd be Scawen. Besides, I don't really whine for a particular model of car. Well ok, a 1968 version of an RB4.
If he did bikes? I'd probably get banned for constantly bringing up some sort of motorcycle or another. Me and probably fifty or sixty more of us.
No they are superior everywhere but the United States, Here they are the revolving doorway of death.
Holdens.... Holden looks like they made - or did they start up again?, made some pretty good vehicles.
I know they made the last of the el camino style cars/trucks. Which to me was the perfect vehicle. And I think it's a Holden suspension or some sort of design that is used on the Camaro. ....See Aussies and Kiwis have Pickups too!
You know... I can walk out the front door, go out to my driveway and look to the left. My next door neighbor has two trucks. Across the street are these people I don't know. They have a truck, Back on my side of the street, past my next door neighbor, a guy has a little truck and an Escalade. Further still across the street there are like four more trucks to the end of the block. On my side? Three or four more. One has Eddie from Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind painted on it. That's more pickups than Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Germany, France and Belgium has combined. I haven't looked to the right and counted those. And I live on the middle of the block.
ROFL You know, If I said there was some sort of state law saying you had to have a pick up truck or access to one in case of an emergency and y'all hit google maps and did a street view of this neighborhood, you would believe me. LOL you could post" WHAT the **** is wrong with your neighborhood?... Way too many trucks here.
Yeah Luxembourg vs Monaco ... wow. Monaco is smaller than some parking lots, isn't it? You couldn't drive that truck there at all. It's so big and they're so small, it would disrupt their economy. You gotta remember though. I'm an American. I don't really know this about Monaco and Luxembourg and I don't really care. Now if they'd make a mini series about it, not only would I watch it, but I would be able to talk about it with co-workers as well. Until then? The conversation "revolves" around how "foreigners in them other kuntrees" can build those dangerous round things and not use common sense and have stupid cross roads with 4 stop signs. Trump will put a stop to that nonsense. (Don't worry. No one I work with likes that nut case)
Stupid crossroads with 4 stop signs... perfect description, sinbad.
Hasn't Bernie raked in more money than her though? poor Bernie. He's about to be Crash and Burnie. maybe him and Ted Cruz can do commercials for Cialis after all this? Kasich? Yeah... he'll still be running for the nomination in 2017. I don't think he realizes the party's over and was over for him before it even started.
Immigration. I was a big fan of NAFTA. I realized it's potentials. Illegal immigration would from Latin America would have been virtually nonexistent. You had three big things working against it though. Cartels and "the Bite" from Mexico. Right wing Xenophobes and racists from the south US of A and Left wing pro Union labor organizations from Canada and the northern US. Then of course Bin Laden and 911 came along and made the US paranoid. And that finally killed it.
It appears to be a Trump/Clinton showdown. I still think Trump was in it to win it - for Hillary Clinton. But who knows? if that's so, then this might just be a real life example of Frankenstein.
One of these days maybe I can get a video to properly describe the dangers of roundabouts in the USofA.
Yeah Wenom, If I ever win the lottery, I'll buy one like that and move to Monaco. I would say Luxembourg,
but that truck is so big if you park the truck there, the back end will stick out into Belgium.
I've been leaving something out. And it was one of the reasons I started this thread. Yeah. A couple a weeks ago this girl ran a red light and nailed me. Luckily I was driving and not riding or I'd be in the RIP posts instead. No it wasn't a crippling wreck. Not much more than a fender bender wreck actually. Well the Blue Book value of the suburban is only 1900something dollars. The body shop repair estimate was $3500. So the truck is considered "totaled" - junk. Aside from the cosmetic damage and the loss of the left side rear door it runs fine. No bent frame. But the running boards and the door and the rear quarter panel are ruined. I'm getting a salvage title and and eventually may fix the door. But with it slightly mangled, I get the right of way at all those "stupid cross roads with the 4 stop signs". Anyways, we made jokes about the girl that hit me buying us a new truck. We got into a conversation that somehow lead to when we saw these people working on a dodge ram truck on an island in Belize. Which is a thread subject in itself. And that's when we realized that there really isn't very many pick up trucks in Europe. At least in Western Europe. So the thread gets started.
I think I've figure out the real secret to this phenomenon. The real reason they don't want anythng to do with redneck ferraris. See with a pick-up you run into the dreaded reality of people constantly wanting to borrow it - or borrow you if they're moving something that's really heavy. And of course that horrific late night phone call from the guy with four drunk driving convictions....
"dude. my old lady's throwing me out again. Can I borrow your truck?". "She said I was drunk again, so I hit her". "She's getting her gun and calling 911. Can you hook me up?" I'm leaving out all the cuss words and her pilled out ass going off in the background about you, your mom and some dude from back in High School. Yeah, they don't have to worry about that too much in places like Stockholm or Genoa or LOL Luxembourg.
Four way stops. To make a long story short, cause we're just too damned stupid to figure out a roundabout.
We have them, I have to drive through one. When there's no traffic, no problem. That's NO traffic. It can be a nightmare at times. Roundabouts.... Everyone else can figure it out. Not us.
Guess again. Women, obviously not all, associate things like fancy cars with money, they associate money with security and stability. They associate someone driving a fast vehicle or a customized ride as having confidence. Something a lot of women like to see in a man. And speaking from experience, know how many times I've been hit on pumping gas in my bike? Especially a girl that's been stuck on the back of her boyfriend's crotch rocket for a while. But I think that's for different reasons. She's not checking out my butt. She's much more interested in what I put my butt on. Yeah... it feels kinda creepy when the girls are 20 somethings. And of course you have loser guys that buy things specifically to enhance their sexual attractivness factor.
Personally, even if I wasn't married, I really wouldn't want much to do with people that are that materialistic, but they're out there and their numbers are increasing. Besides, you've heard the saying sex sells. And a lot of these vehicles we drive fall under the category of Sex Appeal. How much sex appeal certain vehicle models have or doesn't have determines if it even gets manufactured.
But back to the subject.
OK my eurotype buddies. Thanks for your posts. What I've been given from all of you so far really doesn't show a single reason for this phenomenon. Most of your reasons point to why YOU PERSONALLY don't have one, not so much as to why they aren't popular continent wide. But add up all your reasons together and it would show that trying to market pick up trucks in Europe is a risky business venture. It would take one hell of a media blitz to get that to change. Add that in with various government regulations and vehicle standards and you've got yourself one big headache. I guess the bottom line is how much is the profits from doing so versus the costs of getting that to happen? Practicality? LOL gotta appreciate the Irony. The impracticability of marketing a practical vehicle. You can buy something as impractical as a classic vintage musclecar or a Supra twin turbo, two of the most impractical car types out there, yet selling S-10s or Sierras are a bad idea....
I dunno. It's still weird.
like:
Cars... Europe? check. Rest of the world? check
airplanes....Europe? check. Rest of the world? check
Buses.... Europe? Check. Rest of the world? check
Motorcycles... Europe? Check. Rest of the world? check
Pick up trucks... Europe? HUH? Rest of the world? What's up with Europe?
A ford Ranger? Really? Well. Now that explains things. Having a ranger versus just walking and dragging whatever it is you need to move? Make sure you have good shoes.
Also read somewhere that Mitsubishi is working with Fiat to market a truck designed by them and GM for European markets.
Well. That sucks. That means this could very well be a spam thread instead of something worth reading now, doesn't it?
Yes. at first. It does that, but what with consistency? After they prove to the public as a whole to be a viable candidate with an agreeable stance? They won't be spoilers so much as a real contender if that happens.
Until now third parties were considered fringe elements that pander to a select few of the population. Well look at the two party system right now. They're really not all that in touch with the population either. If these third parties can expand their vote bases by just a little bit more and have committed voters in the parties, I think they have the potential to spoil things in both parties. The popularity of Trump and Sanders in their parties isn't a fluke. They are a reflection of a growing part of the nation sick to death of these two parties. For every moronic fool at a Trump convention, there are about fifty normal people that are just tired of what's being offered and are settling for Trump. Same with Sanders. Not everyone that likes him are the gun grabbing tree hugger types he's associated with. The thrid parties need to market themselves to these supporters. Especially the Libertarians. One of the big things Trump and Sanders both have that appeals to their supporters is their financial independence from big money lobbyists and super-pacs, Which are the meat and potatoes of the Republican and Democratic parties. Libertarians? LOL the guy in their party running for congress had to get a part-time job and a second mortgage and his youngest kid ain't going to college (I'm making that up to prove a point) They really aren't bought and paid for like the other guys which what my cousin X seems to realize but doesn't quite understand how it works.
so if Third parties get their act together, they can go from fringe to mainstream and give us a viable alternative. It would put a dent in PAC run governments and limit big money influence and influence peddling just by increasing the number of people needing to get paid to get what you want.
Another thing that Trump and Sanders supporters seem to have a lot in common is really weird seeing that both of these candidates are big government. That is that those supporters aren't so much left wing or right wing but instead want to see the wings of government clipped altogether. But I think the strangest thing of all is with all that they have in common, you put a Trump supporter in room with a Sanders supporter and you'll see two people trying to kill each other.
That all being said, I still think Trump is nothing more than a spoiler - for Hillary Clinton. He's split the Republican party up so bad they can't really unify behind anyone and through his antics makes independent voters stay away from that party in general. Our house hold is.... Spanglish. And don't vote single party. Do you know how likely we are to vote for a GOP candidate much less that Trump moron if he gets the nomination? There's enough of us population wise to insure a GOP failure in 2016 because of Trump and the hyper xenophobia their anti-immigration attitude puts out.
If the libertarians would take advantage of all this though, it would be well worth it for them. They might even have a serious Presidential candidate in '20.
Dude... you really need to get away from these losers. Morons spinning things all sorts of ways. This "rigging" has been that way for a long time. That link? it's probably the dummest one yet. Looks like a bunch of disgruntled Sanders supporters realizing how the party machine works. And their still too stupid to figure it out. And that whiny chick's voice? How can you listen to that crap? I like how these clowns throw up screens to look like they're some sort of news network when they're really just unemployed millenials living with their parents. Remember that stupid truther movie, Zietgiest? Remember all the goofy crap those morons did?
You'd think people would learn to spin their nonsense stories a little better than that by now. Not this girl. Maybe I should post them a link to Zietgiest so they can learn what NOT to do when trying to manipulate a story.
The problem isn't our votes not counting - believe it or not they do. Just not directly. Remember, it's ultimately the electoral college that decides whose President. So if that's the case to begin with then how does making a voter's vote not count do anything?
No the problem isn't that. All that nonsense this video and others like itis one group of losers jealous of the other scumbags winning and they broadcast these catchy conspiracy videos to who? Low information voters. Look that up. Low info votes. That's the name of the game, herding them around.
The real problem is the complete lack of qualified candidates. Another are the third parties out there (libertarians and greens) aren't putting themselves forward and lack the ability to think strategically.
Another problem is flat out partisan politics. Used to be the guy that won the election became president and second place became vice-president.
Going back to that might be a good idea.
You do realize Toyota is a Japanese brand - right? And coming from the folks that brought us the TR7 and Jaguars (crappy rebuilt ford) in general? You live in a glass house dude.
Gasoline prices.... I didn't ask how come Europe doesn't have big giant monster trucks. Just Pick-up trucks in general. Like an Izuzu 4cyl. diesel?
And the autobahn argument? LOLOLOL cross winds affect vans worse than pick-ups. A lot worse. That's one of the reasons why there's not a NASCAR van series.
And those pretty van pics. Yeah, try hauling a couple a hundred pounds of compost for about fifty miles in one of those a couple of hours before date night and tell me how that went.
But some things Y'all posted could be looked at. Someone posted about a truck being considered a commercial vehicle?. That makes sense as y'all over regulate everything to death. And then another reason was sort of hinted at. And kinda weird. But I've heard this before. That it's a class thing with y'all. You don't want to look like a lower class and you associate people that drives pick-ups as lower class. Really? It's 2016. Wake up. But I wouldn't think that feeling would be strong enough to kill off pick-up trucks for a continent. In fact, that line of thought should mean you'd have trucks coming out your ears instead. Chicks do like bad boys... counter culture rebellion... looking like a proletariat tough guy...those sorts of things.
I bet it has more to do with laws. Dimwits in your respective governments decided that since it has a bed it's automatically a commercial vehicle. That would make sense. I mean it doesn't... but it makes sense as far as it being something that would be done there - legal wise. Yeah. Stupid Bureaucrats and crooked pin head politicians and their incompetent knee jerk response to law making... And I gotta vote for one in November.
I dunno. It's a pretty interesting phenomenon though. And going by the responses, one that won't be figured out very easily.
Someone else posted something funny. They posted that about the only idiots that have trucks over there are making up for "inadequacies". LOLOLOLOL yeah. We got those types here too. A lot of them. We say it's cause they couldn't afford a porsche to make up for their inadequacy. Yeah. They'll have this hand stitched Italian leather with Walnut trim interior, state of the art entertainment system, $5k paint job and 300 plus horsepower. Yet you'll never see the owner of said truck putting so much as a bag of groceries in that bed.
Vans? Dad had a hippie van in the '70s. Couldn't see Sh!t out of them, sucked to drive on windy days and a complete pain in the butt to work on.
I have a truck with a roof on it. It's called a Chevy suburban. But there are things you need to haul that you really don't want to be cooped up with in a closed spaced too. And I've pulled trailers with it too.
Trailers? I have seen where y'all drive. Trailers? I know it's not all the twisted narrow street medieval enclaves hollywood likes to show, but still. I dunno. I would think a pickup would be as much of an in demand vehicle there as it is everywhere else.
Seriously though. I have even seen low-riders from Europe. Why didn't pickup trucks catch on?
I did see a dodge ram for sale in the UK on some sort of car website a few years ago. LOL it probably belonged to an ex-pat, huh? I wonder if he sold it?
You know we hear quite a bit about Euroland lately. From Immigration waves to E.U. stability to Austerity measures to fears of Russian Expansionism. But one glaringly obvious detail is always overlooked or ignored.
It seems it's an elephant in the room that no one talks about and pretends isn't there.
Unlike my cousin Racer X, I don't look for obscure news stories to find out about this dreaded phenomenon, I prefer to go directly to the source for information.
So what gives? Why don't you people have any pickup trucks? Yes pick up trucks. Don't you people move? Don't you have garage bands? Broken motorcycles that need to go to the shop? I understand in France when people moe from house to house, they take their kitchen with them. You cram that into a Renault?
GO anywhere on the planet. North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Australia and you'll see them just about everywhere. But not in Europe. I know Volkswagen made a model back in the 70's and it sucked, but you shouldn't let that stop you. Hell. if Porsche can make a four door and an SUV, why can't Mercedes make a stepside or ferrari make an extended cab 4x4?
And no one talks about this. This is something important and should be looked at. And maybe Racer X SHOULD look for obscure conspiracy theories on this cause it's just that ominous.
We have strange seasons here. Winter starts around the last of November and it goes away around the the start of Lent in February. Spring and Fall are very short periods.
Winter is really weird here. one day it's a light freeze, the next day is perfect beach weather. Where I live, in Houston is even more bizarre. Houston sits on the border of two climate zones. Sub Tropical and Continental zones. It can be 3 Celsius on the north part of town and 20c on the south side. The saying in Texas about Winter is if you don't like the weather wait 15 minutes and it will change. Summer? Summer is hot all the time. Nice nasty sticky humid hot.
You know Ant, you could do what the other Canadians do in the winter. Leave. They increase the Anglo population of Central America by like 400% between October and April.
OK. But what are your thoughts on vaccines? It is a serious thing to look at. I'm sort of playing devil's advocate with the thought and pointing out other things that I think can also be involved in this.
Not just bad kid and bad doctor. No. Actual events of some sort helping this along.
You know. Even third world countries laugh at our healthcare system. You know why our health care industry sucks so bad? I think because it's an INDUSTRY.
Ever watch those prescription medicine commercials on TV? You know the ones that all say, "Ask your doctor about_____" with "but _____isn't for everyone" in them? Those commercials? They also have one more thing in common. No matter any malady they claim to deal with, liver damage is a side effect. Watch those weird commercials where some woman is running around with a bunch of people made out of paper selling irritable bowel syndrome medicine and then one with the single middle aged guy driving a muscle car in the middle of nowhere selling erectile dysfunction medicine. What the hell would a middle aged guy all by himself in the middle of nowhere need to think about erectile dysfunction? That's creepy. Anyhow, they'll say the same damned thing. Liver damage. I had a friend that was a pill head.
He died two years ago from pancreatic cancer that had spread from the tumors he had in his liver. What killed him. What gave him that cancer wasn't the narcotic in the pill. It was the candy coating they put on just about all of those pills now days. And he ate a lot of them. Seriously. Taking aspirin, anti-allergy medicine, anti-psychotics - doesn't matter. May as well smoke cigarettes and drive without a seat belt on.