e
The best-selling car in the world (uh-oh)
Our planet may be in trouble: according to Top Gear, the best-selling car in the world is the Ford F-150 pickup truck. They are sold at an astonishing rate of 107 every hour of every day of the year, which means two or three went while I was composing this paragraph. Getting only 14/20 mpg, that's not good news for anyone except Exxon and several dozen lucky Sheiks.
What's even more astonishing is the bulk of these sales are in North America alone. Thank goodness for that--if the Chinese started driving and buying these behemoths at the rate Americans do, well, it would be like a global-environmental version of when everyone flushes their toilets at the same time and the water mains all explode.
In the amusing video below, TG's Jeremy Clarkson asks the question "Why don't Brits buy or drive the best-selling car in the world?" And despite his assertions that rural Americans practice incest and are in regular danger of being eaten by bears, he's got some spot-on points.
One more thing you need to see, particularly if you think pickup trucks are safer than cars. As Clarkson points out in the above video, pickups aren't beholden to the same safety standards as cars, as the frightening crash test of the F-150 shows, below.
-
oFavorite This
-
Q17Comment
Directory Company Profiles
Core77
Industrial Design
Resources
Industrial Design
Resources
-
Core77 Directory
Find the Best Industrial Design CompaniesGo -
Studio Redeye, LLC.
Our goal as a full service industrial design studio is to create designs that emotionally connect wi...
-
Mighty Studios
Mighty Studios is a business-savvy product design consultancy. We believe that good design should be...
-
Spanner
Spanner, a creative engineering and product development design studio, enables the world’s leading b...
-
FLUID Design
FLUID (former LUNAR Europe) is an award-winning creative design and innovation agency located in Mun...
-
Spitfire Industry
WHO WE ARE Spitfire is a design studio headquartered in Brooklyn. Our founder, Isis Shiffer, an awa...
-
Cardboard Helicopter Product Design
We are a boutique product development studio in Cleveland, Ohio, and we make ideas fly. Drop us a l...
-
Sundberg-Ferar | Product Innovation Studio
Sundberg-Ferar, a product design firm, helps the world's leading durable product companies to turn c...
K
{Welcome
Create a Core77 Account
Already have an account? Sign In
By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use
K
Reset Password
Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.
Comments
In major city limits, you won't see many pickup trucks, usually too big to mess with. Rural areas outside cities, a truck is almost a requirement. I generally know this as I work in D.C. but live my weekends in West Virginia.
Top Gear plays fast and loose with reality and doesn't give much regard to actual facts.
To put that in perspective, that's one single car model outselling ALL of the Ford F trucks ever made.
And for what I use it for, its quite practical, economical, and the right tool for the job.
Of course, its not my "car". I use it as a commercial vehicle, and frequently carry 20 foot lengths of steel, 1 ton of gravel, or 4x8 sheets of plywood with mine.
And I also let mine sit, undriven, sometimes for a week or two at a time, until the use justifies the vehicle.
It is true, however, that many many americans spend a lot of money to drive around in big, gas guzzling trucks, SUV's, and luxury cars, because they like it.
I know many single individuals who drive every day in 1 ton dually 4 door diesel pickup trucks.
And gas, where I live, has not gone below $3.25 a gallon in a year or so.
The whole bear and guns thoery is dumb. There are so many folks that drive it and don't even live near the country. It's almost a cultural icon of the modern cowboy. In my home state of Texas, it is even endorsed during truck month and the #1 choice vehicle. We even have a catchy sond adapted from artist Little Texas that sings 'Ford is the best in Texas.' How about America's diverse terrains, unlike the UK's homomorphic landscape. The popularity of this truck is based on a whole lot more than just the 'rubbish' the host presents.
I just wish I could import my own Texas Edition F-150 here in Switzerland or find a hybrid version.
Rather than cast stones because some construction worker cant practically use a Prius to carry all of the tools and equipment to the job...why dont we put this in the proper scope of the target audience.
Yes, there are some people that use large vehicles to commute all by themselves, but you cant possibly lump all drivers of these vehicles into the "your an environmental sinner!" category.
The largest part of this country is still rural and not accessible by public transport. Whether or not you want to believe it, outside of the major cities we all live in are roads that are not suitable for a Prius to drive down, loads that no Prius would be able to handle, and situations where it doesn't make sense.
I will agree that automakers have not done all that they can to help attain better fuel mileage, but to cast stones at all users is a travesty.
Who is to blame?
The auto manufacturers for not giving people an option for a hybrid pickup with as much power as the current models?
Or do we blame the people that buy the pickups for their needs.
For all that reads this that have a problem with my country... Quit bashing America. This is the best place in the world to live. Complaining will not help anything. Do something. It is not cool to bash your own country. Stand up for it you cowards.
To be honest, I disliked how you used the 10th generation 1997 f-150 truck for the crash test video and not the most recent model, in which Ford actually shows the crash test on their commercials as a selling point (it has a 5 star crash rating and a 4 star roll over.)
I'm not a truck guy rooting for pollution here, but there's a difference between being informative and being misleading.
Either way, people who buy trucks rarely use them to their full potential and it looks like rising gas prices is the only way to stop the senseless buying.
Posting from the UK here. Don't take Clarkson too seriously...we don't all feel the need to bash our friends across the pond'.
Old Jeremy is notorious for his (often rude and offensive) comments, and takes it out on anyone he can think of, from the Welsh to cyclists. It's just his way of standing out from other TV presenters.
And as for British cars, sadly the no. of British manufacturers left (ie. nil) is a good indication of how successful the industry was here. Still... we've got some pretty good designers, so it's not all doom and gloom!
I also wanted to point out that there was a lot of America bashing in this clip. Making comments around it being "rubbish," Americans needing a gun rack so they don't get eaten by bears, and that the UK is "more sophisticated with their espressos and zinc counter tops". This is ludicrous and extremely cocky. I believe if we look back in time the UK has no grounds to be criticizing when it comes to cars being that they never seemed to run properly.