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.

((I))

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?

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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...