Information about pick-up trucks

_HighVoltage_

Captain Volvo
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!Please do not judge what I attempt to do!
I am taking a college speech class and for some odd reason I decided to do a speech on the topic "Ban pick-up trucks for personal use". I know some of you will disagree with me and that's ok. My current problem is that I can't find any valid information about the pros and cons of pick-up trucks. We all know their problems and why people still buy them but I can't find a single reliable web site that I can cite facts from. Can anyone help me find one?

I expected that there will be tons of "Hate pickup trucks" websites and there aren't!
 
might be worth mentioning utes in your speech as well as kinda of a hybrid combination of car/pickup
 
People hate SUVs, but most do not hate pickup trucks. They are cheap, they are utilitarian, and people use them to make money.
 
I don't like how SUV's are demonized. My lifted Toyota gets better fuel economy then most cars.
 
Yeah, my dad drives our V6 Explorer to work 'cause it beats the old Chevy Corsica V6 in mileage.
 
You basically suck HighVoltage. I'm sorry I am being so truthful but I think it is better that you know the truth so you can change your mistaken ways. The only people who hate pickups are the ignorant.
 
I think thats a terrible topic to choose personally, but heres where i can help you!

Don't ban something (thats ghey and hitlerish!!), just show that its supposed advantage is infact a disadvantage: I.E. safety!

Ill post the links if i don't fall asleep looking for them, but anyways i did some research on this before (and have the sites bookmarked on my main computer, which currently is broken), anyways you'll find the SUVs in particular are not only much more dangerous to other road users, but more dangerous to the drivers themselves. You'll also find that in any vehicular accident crumple zones (or the engineering of) are much much more important then bulk and weight, Fifth gear for once actually had a good segment on this,

http://www.finalgear.com/shows/fifthgear/12/2/

I would not go totally anti-SUV, as such a attitude will only create more hostility towards yourself, instead respect the reasons why people like SUVs, but make it a point to inform them where they are mislead and hugely wrong (the issue of safety)

EDIT:Keep a eye on this, i may add some credible links in few minutes if i don't get tired and drool all over my keyboard

http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1927

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E5DE103FF934A2575BC0A9629C8B63

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/suv_highway.html

http://www.forbes.com/vehicles/2007/10/25/cars-suvs-safe-forbeslife-cx_bh_1025cars.html

for starters!

theres alot of controversy still, so read it all and make your own judgement
 
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He's going anti-pickup, not anti-SUV.

Pickups are not SUVs.
 
Dumb topic.

Pickups come in handy if you'd actually take the time and effort to own one.
 
He's going anti-pickup, not anti-SUV.

Pickups are not SUVs.

well he should switch to SUVs, much better information on it
 
Dumb topic IMO, it's cliched and overplayed. How can generalizing about pickup usage in Bulgaria represent the massive and diverse global market of trucks all around the world? If this topic wasn't assigned to you (presumably by your lentil-eating teacher with a pissed-off agenda to cram down your throat), then you should definitely change it lest you sound like a clueless hippy yourself.
 
HighVoltage =
http://img380.imageshack.**/img380/2882/owned9wz.jpg
 
considering trucks are more useful than cars

not gonna happen
 
Big trucks and duallies are fine in the country, but they're just too big in the city and other tighter areas. Driving downtown where I live is pretty scary, so many people have these big wide duallies and heavy-duty 3500 trucks, they can hardly manage to stay in their own lane during the tighter bends. They must live out in the country and have to drive into town.

I don't really wish malice against them, they're just trying to get around, but I wish they could be made to realise how hard they make it to drive in the city for others.

My main issue rests with pick-up drivers who get this sense they just own the road. They weave around other motorists like an old granny, sewing a scarf, they show complete disregard for others. This usually happens with younger men, in their early-mid 20s or so.
 
considering trucks are more useful than cars

not gonna happen

They are more useful if you are gonna move your house, but for everyday use - what's the point?

"OMG, fcking europeans - you don't have a fcking clue"

Well, no.
 
They are more useful if you are gonna move your house, but for everyday use - what's the point?

"OMG, fcking europeans - you don't have a fcking clue"

Well, no.

In general Americans have more land and more stuff than Europeans. Motorcycles, ATVs, boats, etc all have to be pulled. Dirt, rocks, bricks, etc have to be carried. And quite a few people do use their truck for these purposes. When you buy a truck you can do all of that and drive around, so you don't need a car.
 
Vette Boss and ahpadt got my point exactly. The rest of you started judging me right from the sentence "ban pick-up trucks".
Pick-up trucks are meant to be commercial vehicles - used for businesses who really need them. My problem is with people who only drive a pick-up truck "because it is big and I know I am safe on the road". Others, mainly 16 year old football players, drive them jusut to show off. I hate seeing empty pick-up trucks. They say, they buy them to move stuff. Any regular car is perfectly capable of doing this, especially a station wagon. I've carried a big fridge in a station wagon. The times you need to carry really big stuff (1-2 times a year) you can go to U-Haul.
I'm doing this topic because literally every family in West Virginia (where I study) owns a pick-up truck. How come we don't use them in Europe, how do we manage without them? And will people continue to drive empty big pick-up trucks when gas gets to European levels of 8$/gallon?

Thanks to Ottobon! Some of those links helped a lot. In the end if I don't find enough information about trucks I will have to switch to SUV's.
 
So you're writing from a very Euro-centric point of view, where it IS stupid to parade around in a Ram 3500 Dualie through those tiny city streets. Fine, that's true, but don't forget that there's a whole other world out there that uses trucks for what they're intended for: towing and hauling huge shit.

And the whole "I'm big so I'm safe" is one of the major points against SUVs, so there's a parallel there.
 
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