I think it might have something to do with the mpg of a tiny van vs a huge pick up = and the cost of gas in France

"a tiny van vs a huge pick up"

OK, then, how about small pickups, those produced by Nissan or Toyota, for example? They're very economical and very popular in the US and elsewhere. I didn't see pickups of any size or manufacture. Could Citroen, Renault and Peugot be missing the proverbial boat?

I don't think there's a market for American-style pick-ups in France. I don't recall ever seeing one in the country. The closest I've seen is small Japanese or French utility vehicles.

It isn't just France - in three weeks in rural UK you will see maybe one or two pick ups the whole time.

On my last trip I was surprised to see a pick up at one of the farmhouse B&Bs.

And the market is artificially skewed in the States because pick ups are classified/taxed at cheaper rates than passenger cars. So all those pick ups doing the school run or commuting to downtown offices or at the mall -- are "really" just farm/general transport vehicles.

'And the market is artificially skewed in the States because pick ups are classified/taxed at cheaper rates than passenger cars'

Not here in Arizona, they're not, unless they qualify for the special 'farm vehicle' plate. Otherwise they're licensed and taxed just the same as passenger cars.

My sister has very close friends who live in the UK and visit France often. When they visited her in Texas they were in awe at the number of pickup trucks on the road on a daily basis. They apparently just couldn't get over it and were snapping photos left and right.

I'm not surprised. European farms are so small that you simply don't need to carry that much stuff around. My dad ranches/farms in West Texas, and his pickup bed (during plowing season) would contain:

1. 50 gallon diesel tank

2. "Old" toolbox (WWI surplus)

3. "New" toolbox (WWII surplus)

4. Barbed wire, bailing wire, stretchers, and other fencing tools for needed repairs

5. Shovels

6. Jack and block to set same on (for use on tractor)

7. Saddles and tack

On a European farm, you keep all that stuff in the barn, and go the 500 meters or so to pick it up when you need it. Not the same as having to cover several thousand acres, located 10 miles from your home.

In 2005 we traveled for three weeks in Germany, Austria & Switzerland. We never saw a pick-up truck during our entire trip.

I recall a piece in the Toronto Star where an automotive writer said that North America is missing out on some practical working trucks from Europe because the pick up truck is so dominant here.

JefferyJ: I wasn't talking about state/local taxes etc. Different states handle trucks differently, but by Federal regs, a pick up is not a passenger vehicle so they are taxed differently (and also don't have to meet the same emissions/mileage rules)

Maybe it's a cultural thing and the product of marketing. One of my favorite "damn Yankee" anecdotes happened a few years ago after I had moved back to South Texas. A transplant from New England whom I met at a party confided that he could not wait to get out of here. When I inquired if it was the summer heat and humidity that was the problem, he replied "No - it's just all this competition to see who can drive the biggest vehicle - where I come from one apologizes for driving a truck"

I took nine Spanish visitors on business to California. They were amazed with the pick-up trucks. Those that are tricked-out, they wanted to ask what they're for used. The bed was never used and it was really useless space to haul around.

There are some pick-ups in Spain, France, and England. Mostly are Land Rovers. The same vehicles are spotted all of Africa too.

I do see a few pick-ups from Citroen lately. Mostly, the owners need the place to put their equipment which can be stored overnight without growing legs. The white small vans throughout Europe take the place of the pick-ups.

Blackduff

pwk may have a point about distances.

Pickups, konwn as "utes" here, are very common in Australia, especially in the country - qwhere they are used a lot for farm work, or just hooning around.

But the Australian "ute" (utility truck) is a more modest, low-profile (in both senses) beast than the American pickup - imagine a standard sedan with the rear half turned into a truck bed.

you're right, Neil. I'd forgotten that!

The Australian UTE is also different as each one comes with its own dog.

An American colleague who sits next to me, had a pickup in the US because it was cheaper than a normal car to buy.

I just find them ugly and impractical, you wouldn't want to leave anything in the open back due to the threat of stealing and what happens when it rains.

I can understand farmers using them, but in Europe most farmers use tractors or Land Rovers to move things.

For the first time in the UK, I've noticed TV adverts for Dodge but not for pickups, for saloons, their main selling point is that while they may not look very stylish they are cheap

Don't know if it'll work.

Geordie

Well spotted, Geordie. But a cattle dog is offered as an option only in the bush. Urban ute drivers opt for a big sound system.

Dodges in the UK? Well, there you go - I haven't seem one in the Land of Oz for donkeys' years.

Janisj, in our suburban UK neighborhood, there are more than half a dozen pickups--including Mitsubishis, Toyotas and Ford Rangers. Plus a good number of SUVs. There's a Ford pickup parked out on the street right now. The Mitsubishi pickup down the street is one of the uglier vehicles we've seen. And yes, we've seen pick-ups in France, but only a couple.

"...imagine a standard sedan with the rear half turned into a truck bed."

Sounds eerily like the old Ford Ranchero to me.

Since Renault owns 44% of Nissan I suspect they have missed few boats of late.

If you were to get one, then it would have to be the Toyota as they are indestructible, literally.

Top Gear, a BBC UK motoring programme put it to the test each week with the same vehicle.

Week 1 - tied it to a pier and was submerged by the tide for 4 hours, came loose and they found it 1/2 a mile from shore, removed sand from the exhaust system, it still started

Week 2 - Hit it a few times with a demolition ball, still started first tim

Week 3 - Put it on top of a 30 storey apartment block and detonated the building - found it in the rubble and it started first time.

Week 4 - Soaked it in petrol and set fire to it, it blew up and was left to burn. Started first time

It must have been Toyota's best unpaid advertisement ever.

Geordie

I was going to turn this round and say why are these awful things so popular in the US, but I think Janis ansered that.

And yes, sadly, they are getting more popular here - God knows why.

go out to places like surrey and it is not uncommon to see some "proper" pickup trucks like F150s. i believe thay are all left hand drives. they are extremely expensive and usually driven by footballers or footballer types.

i also saw the new dodge adverts. they are very poorly done. anyway "dodge" sounds too much like "dodgy" to do well in the UK.

Tradesmen in the UK & most of Europe tend to use White Ford Transit vans for their business (look up "white van man").

For most UK tradesmen using a pickup truck would result in their goods ether a) going walkies or b) turning into a rusty puddle/soggy mass.

Also have you tried getting a band into the back of a pickup - doesn't work too well

We have a plethora of any type of pick-up you can think of here in Charlotte, the only thing in the back of any of them is a bed liner...I know because they drive w/the tailgate down....I guess that is 'cool' ?!?

Oh to be in France....so I could actaully see over or around the cars instead of being behind the Earnhart, Jr. edition, double-hemi, turbo-diesel, dually, super-cab Ford F950...

>..you wouldn't want to leave anything in the open back due to the threat of stealing...<

Friend of mine has a small farm. Bought himself a new chain saw when the old one died.

Put the old saw in the back of his pickup truck.

Brought it into town.

Kept it sitting in his driveway for 2 weeks.

Still has the old chainsaw.

My friend whose brother has a working farm in France said the most common choice of vehicles are the real farm tractors (like the ones made by New Holland/CNH) and a Renault van.

You'll spot occasional "Chelsea Tractors" in London--though dunno if the London Mayer, Red Ken, manages to raise the congestion charges.
Actually, I've spotted TWO Hummers in a very wealthy street in NW London. Though I doubt the owner drivers them as they're permanently at the same parking lot.

I have seen a few rare pickups in France, generally of the flimsy Toyota variety that one sees in Asia (probably imported to Europe from North Africa). Ford Transit vans, as well as the Renault, Peugeot-Citroën, Mercedes similar products are what people use as utility vehicles. And I don't think that anybody would dream of driving around in a truck just because it was cheaper than a car.

There are plenty of US-type pickups which are driven by city dwellers because they are as much a "toy" as they are useful when hauling stuff home from Home Depot and such.

As to driving them with the tailgate lowered...that decreases drag and theoretically anyway increases fuel efficiency.

They don;t call these "Cowboy Cadillacs" for nothing in some places.

"Oh to be in France....so I could actaully see over or around the cars instead of being behind the Earnhart, Jr. edition, double-hemi, turbo-diesel, dually, super-cab Ford F950.."

Amen.

When you are probably topping out @ 9mpg, I seriously doubt that the 'drag' of a tailgate will have a significant impact. You've been watching too much NASCAR, methinks.

< Actually, I've spotted TWO Hummers in a very wealthy street in NW London. Though I doubt the owner drivers them as they're permanently at the same parking lot. >

Probably too wide to get down the street - or they ran out of petrol getting out of the parking bay.

Well - as a New Yorker I don;t get pick ups either - unless you actually have a large working farm and need to haul all sorts of stuff around.

Did drive into the mountains north of Atlanta on an extra day of a business trip and every other vehicle was a pick up - and all seemed equipped with a plethora of extra baseball caps - presumably in case one came across a poor capless person - and some actually had rifles attached to the back of the cab (isn't this illegal?)

You NEVER see them in Manhattan (perhaps once a year with out of state plates) since

1) There no place to park them (they take up 2 car spaces on the street and are too big/tall for most commercial garages)
'
2) If you could find a spot on the street overnight not only would anything in it be stolen you would find a homeless person living in it when you returned (This actually happened to a friend of mine with a soft top jeep wrangler she parked on the street overnight. She had call the police to have him removed - he was still drunk or ? - and then she had to have it fumigated as well as swilled out.)

Never mind the gas - how much does it cost to fill the tank at $3.50 per gallon?

But then my neighborhood is full of Porsches and Mercedes sports cars instead - never mind the rare Bentley or Ferrari.

Could it be that Frenchmen have other ways to assert their masculinity besides driving large farm vehicles?

I didn't read all the posts, but my Texan aunt noticed the lack of pickups on our vacation in France. She was so excited when she saw it that she wanted to pose for a photo with it!

" '...imagine a standard sedan with the rear half turned into a truck bed.'

- Sounds eerily like the old Ford Ranchero to me."

Dukey, I just looked up a photo of the 1957 Ford Ranchero at dearbornclassics.com and that's the idea all right, but the website's claim that "This unique vehicle was the first of its kind being the first car with a truck bed" is incorrect.

In fact the first such vehicle was designed and put into production by Ford Australia in 1934, after a farmer's wife wrote to the company's Melbourne office asking "Can you build me a vehicle that we can go to church in on Sunday without getting wet, and my husband can use it to take the pigs to market on Monday?" A young designer named Lew Bandt responded by taking the 1933 model Ford coupe, building a truckbed on the back and strengthening the chassis. The result went into production 23 years before the Ranchero was introduced. Article and pix at www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_
future/Transcripts/s779287.htm

Pickups are widely used in Australia too, but they're mostly the lighter Japanese products. The beefier American models are much less common.

What type of vehicles do European construction contractors or subcontractors, for either small or large jobs, use?

>>>>>
What type of vehicles do European construction contractors or subcontractors, for either small or large jobs, use?
>>>>>

white vans...see above

Many of the trucks we see around Maidenhead are being used for "dirty" work...they're holding cement mixers, dirt, bricks, etc. They're a lot easier to clean than vans...You stand in the bed with a hose and spray. Also good for hauling tall plants around (trees, shrubs, etc.).
Surprised you don't see more of them in Switzerland...wouldn't have to worry about stuff getting nicked there...

I see pickups in Manhattan all the time and many have Jersey or NY license plates. The reason I notice them is because I have a brother and a brother-in-law who ONLY drive trucks. They would never drive a car.

I can remember seeing a family sitting in the back of a pickup at a routier somewhere near Lyon. I didn't think anything of it, but there were others who were actually taking pictures of it. It was a blue and white Chevy, probably from the 70's.

I have an amusing anecdote about a pickup in Naples, Italy. I was driving behind a white Chevy pickup with a bride and groom sitting on dinette chairs in the back. She was wearing a white gown with veil blowing in the wind; he was wearing a brown suit with white socks and black shoes. They were both waving and smiling to all the passing cars. It is an image that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

For bigger jobs in Europe, there are all of the other types of trucks -- flatbed, dumptruck, etc. But a small contractor will always use a van.

The reason they use the little white vans is that they're little - much smaller than most American vans - and get like 30 to 35 mpg.

After all - if you're a plumber doing a minor job in someone's house you relly don't need tons of equipment - why drag all that extra - and expensive - truck around with you?

What's illegal? The truck? The ballcaps? The rifles?

Actually, the answer is none of the above.

Yep, it's "normal" to have a shotgun or two in the truck.

What IS illegal is to have a HIDDEN firearm...unless of course you have a permit to carry it that way.

Texan visiting an Aussie "ranch" (called "station" Down Under): "So how big is your property?" "From that tree to the hilltop up there to the riverbank back there".
Texan: "On my ranch, I start my pickup in the morning, drive in a straight line and have not reached the far boundary by nightfall!" Aussie: "Yes mate, I know what you mean, I had a ute like that once."