Judging by the increase in F150 trucks on European roads… yes.
They are not officially sold here but there are ways to import them legally and “affordably”.
There is a subset of the population that will import these cars regardless of whether they are suitable for the environment.
The Ford F150 is a work truck. It was designed for (prototyped with) hauling duty in construction and mining ops. It’s meant to carry lots of big things that won’t reliably fit in a van.
However, using an F150 as your daily driver / shop runner is ridiculous, and you need money to support that fuel economy it doesn’t get.
This coming from an American, in a state where it’s culturally required to drive monster trucks as commuter cars.
Cool. I’ll think of that when another F150 is parked both on the sidewalk and bikepath because it can’t fit the parking spot.
These things are simply too large for European roads. And that is not even mentioning the road safety concerns.
A work truck does not have to be such a behemoth of a vehicle in order to be a practical work vehicle. You can get safer and smaller pickup trucks that can haul the same amount
(Or at the very least those used to exist)
It’s all about what fits the job. Minitrucks are super popular in the USA now, and the Toyota Tacoma (a little smaller than the Hilux) is worth so much used it has almost no depreciation even at 200,000 mi. Though the kind of work the F150 is meant for involves large things (wood beams, bulky equipment, looooong items, and so on) that are probably sized differently in Europe or are trailered instead, which makes it overkill over there to have an F150 if your stuff fits in a small van.
To my knowledge those are not road legal, since they are too large/heavy to be driven with a regular driver’s licence
The F150 is just shy of the maximum allowed size/weight-limit
They’re quite common in Belgium (from what I’ve seen), and I’m seeing them a lot in the Netherlands as well.
To my knowledge, in the case of the Netherlands, people are using a tax-loophole to import them into the country without paying the appropriate vehicle import tax. This is done by importing and registering the vehicle as a company vehicle, but using it as a personal vehicle as well
Importing an American pickup truck this way is still expensive, but not nearly as expensive as if they had to pay that tax.
Judging by the increase in F150 trucks on European roads… yes.
They are not officially sold here but there are ways to import them legally and “affordably”.
There is a subset of the population that will import these cars regardless of whether they are suitable for the environment.
The Ford F150 is a work truck. It was designed for (prototyped with) hauling duty in construction and mining ops. It’s meant to carry lots of big things that won’t reliably fit in a van.
However, using an F150 as your daily driver / shop runner is ridiculous, and you need money to support that fuel economy it doesn’t get.
This coming from an American, in a state where it’s culturally required to drive monster trucks as commuter cars.
Cool. I’ll think of that when another F150 is parked both on the sidewalk and bikepath because it can’t fit the parking spot.
These things are simply too large for European roads. And that is not even mentioning the road safety concerns.
A work truck does not have to be such a behemoth of a vehicle in order to be a practical work vehicle. You can get safer and smaller pickup trucks that can haul the same amount
(Or at the very least those used to exist)
It’s all about what fits the job. Minitrucks are super popular in the USA now, and the Toyota Tacoma (a little smaller than the Hilux) is worth so much used it has almost no depreciation even at 200,000 mi. Though the kind of work the F150 is meant for involves large things (wood beams, bulky equipment, looooong items, and so on) that are probably sized differently in Europe or are trailered instead, which makes it overkill over there to have an F150 if your stuff fits in a small van.
For that stuff we usually use Ford Transits which are massive as fuck
Luckily, they are a small subset. It’s still annoying when they take their monster for shopping and block three parking lots.
Interesting. Have you seen a F250 or an F350?
To my knowledge those are not road legal, since they are too large/heavy to be driven with a regular driver’s licence
The F150 is just shy of the maximum allowed size/weight-limit
Thank you for your input. I appreciate it.
I’ve yet to see to see one. Where have you seen them? Is it Germany or the Netherlands?
They’re quite common in Belgium (from what I’ve seen), and I’m seeing them a lot in the Netherlands as well.
To my knowledge, in the case of the Netherlands, people are using a tax-loophole to import them into the country without paying the appropriate vehicle import tax. This is done by importing and registering the vehicle as a company vehicle, but using it as a personal vehicle as well
Importing an American pickup truck this way is still expensive, but not nearly as expensive as if they had to pay that tax.
The road in front of my house isn’t getting any bigger, 2 big trucks are not going to fit and I will sit and laugh as they try.