The new trade deal between the European Union and the U.S. means that pedestrians from Lisbon to Helsinki will be endangered by big, American-made trucks.
Well, it’s not final. I remember a time - in Belgium I think - when a utility vehicle was defined as having no backseats for passengers. Scores of people registered Porsches and other obviously passenger cars with the backseats removed as tax-exempt minivans.
Belgium put a stop to that and suddenly, all those backseat-less sportscars got taxed like they ought to be. Just like that, retroactively.
The same thing can happen with your vroom-vroom-loving neighbor very quickly.
It was similar in Germany. I owned a pickup truck campervan a few years ago (really old ford ranger which was tiny compared to current models) and they suddenly taxed the vehicle as a commercial truck instead of an RV, this made it really expensive. Taxes are the way to go to discourage people from driving these cars.
A few years ago, seeing a US style pickup truck in Germany was very rare. Those that were around were usually genuine work vehicles. But now you see more and more douchemobiles that clearly serve no other purpose than to boost their owners’ fragile egos.
They are extremely impractical. With the typicallly sized American pick-up, You get virtually no loading space on the footprint of a decently sized van, powered by an engine that guzzles fuel like no tomorrow. Unless you absolutely need 4x4 and low overall vehicle height in combination, you’re better off with a van. If you need that combination of features to do some actual work, better get a Hilux, because that’s a seriously mass produced vehicle for which you’ll easily get spare parts and that can be repaired with metric tools. If you actually need a pick-up with dead serious off-road capabilities, get the pick-up version of the Land Rover Defender. Instead of one of those extremely large pick-ups with twin tyres on the rear axle, as you see over in the US, you can simply get a proper truck, which offers better visibility, far superior loading space to footprint ratio, and, thanks to European workplace safety regulations, more comfort, because it has mandatory air suspension in the driver’s seat.
You can vote for yourself only, not for your imbecile neighbour who “Biggy car. Wanna-wanna-wanna!”
You can’t expect Europe to not have that contingent.
Yup. This is the best argument for regulations because voting with your wallet isn‘t as democratic as it sounds.
Well, it’s not final. I remember a time - in Belgium I think - when a utility vehicle was defined as having no backseats for passengers. Scores of people registered Porsches and other obviously passenger cars with the backseats removed as tax-exempt minivans.
Belgium put a stop to that and suddenly, all those backseat-less sportscars got taxed like they ought to be. Just like that, retroactively.
The same thing can happen with your vroom-vroom-loving neighbor very quickly.
Depends on what’s actually in the trade deal.
But yeah, hopefully we can tax the yank tanks out of Europe if we can’t ban them outright.
It was similar in Germany. I owned a pickup truck campervan a few years ago (really old ford ranger which was tiny compared to current models) and they suddenly taxed the vehicle as a commercial truck instead of an RV, this made it really expensive. Taxes are the way to go to discourage people from driving these cars.
A few years ago, seeing a US style pickup truck in Germany was very rare. Those that were around were usually genuine work vehicles. But now you see more and more douchemobiles that clearly serve no other purpose than to boost their owners’ fragile egos.
They are extremely impractical. With the typicallly sized American pick-up, You get virtually no loading space on the footprint of a decently sized van, powered by an engine that guzzles fuel like no tomorrow. Unless you absolutely need 4x4 and low overall vehicle height in combination, you’re better off with a van. If you need that combination of features to do some actual work, better get a Hilux, because that’s a seriously mass produced vehicle for which you’ll easily get spare parts and that can be repaired with metric tools. If you actually need a pick-up with dead serious off-road capabilities, get the pick-up version of the Land Rover Defender. Instead of one of those extremely large pick-ups with twin tyres on the rear axle, as you see over in the US, you can simply get a proper truck, which offers better visibility, far superior loading space to footprint ratio, and, thanks to European workplace safety regulations, more comfort, because it has mandatory air suspension in the driver’s seat.
I seriously hope people start vandalizing these things, I think that would go further than voting with their wallets.
You could shame them for being a stupid asshole buying it.