What maniac thinks this is a good idea??
Yahoo! News – US commercial truck maker touts “extreme” passenger truck
Modeled after commercial haulage trucks and dump trucks, the CXT will be the world’s biggest production pick-up truck when it goes on sale later this year, its makers said Monday.
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Insane maniacs like “landscapers, carpenters, and brick or stone contractors, and home builders”.
It sounds smarter than having the landscaper use a dump truck w/even *worse* mileage than this thing, if they could get by w/ something smaller.
lowering myself to their level, I can only say “Take it out back and shoot it”
I wondered when it would get to this. My ’95 Ford Pickup seems pathetically emasculated. Is that how I’m supposed to feel? Who can afford the gas this?
Wait ’til you see it as an SUV.
I know some people with egos this big who WILL go out and buy one to pull their boat. Okay, maybe that was over the top, but there are people who will buy this thing because it is *unique*. Can’t wait to see it as an SUV though.
This thing has “I have a very small penis” written all over it.
This truck is awork of art. It will probably send the company broke – but isn’t wonderful that somebody built it. Enjoy.
Phar
Nice huh?
I bet someone’s already welding a frame for the limo version
The thing has a 6-ton capacity, and they slap a pickup-sized bed on it?
Look at the gap between the top of the rear tires, and the bottom of the wheel-well! The wheel-wells are so useless, they also have mud-flaps installed. That strikes me as the automotive equivalent of wearing a belt and suspenders. 🙂
Actually, they’re just taking an existing truck model and placing a pickup box on the back. 95% of the folks they’re going to end up selling this to — already are potential customers.
Instead of a pickup box, this critter usually rolls down the road with a 5th-wheel rig behind the crew cab. For large horse trailers, like someone heading to a rodeo or polo match, with a few folks who attend to the horses ensconced in the crew cab — this is not uncommon. There are a number of different equestrian events where long horse trailers and vehicles like this to pull ’em aren’t unusual.
I’ll bet most anyone who buys this with the pickup box will still stash a 5th-wheel rig inside the box — ahead of a notched tailgate for the gooseneck.
There’ll be rich farmers in southern Missouri who buy this as a status symbol. A Hummer is useless to them; this they can kinda-sorta justify, and finance it as a tax write-off.
And then there’ll be people who can afford it (or think they can) who buy it just to bully other drivers. And then justify it because it seats four.
So it’s a terrible idea from a public safety standpoint and from an environmental standpoint, but from a marketing standpoint, it’s something that was bound to happen eventually.
Ed wrote:
Instead of a pickup box, this critter usually rolls down the road with a 5th-wheel rig behind the crew cab. For large horse trailers, like someone heading to a rodeo or polo match, with a few folks who attend to the horses ensconced in the crew cab – this is not uncommon. There are a number of different equestrian events where long horse trailers and vehicles like this to pull ‘em aren’t unusual.
I’ve seen some of those rigs, at the Oregon state fair – and they make perfect sense for that market. But most seemed to be “normal” 1-ton crew-cab “duelies”. The story for this beast talks about a dump/tilt bed! That is the part I don’t understand – putting a pickup bed on such a large dump-truck frame.
From the link:
The CXT combines towing, dumping and tilt bed capability with 220 hp and 540 lb.-ft. of torque. At six tons, its hauling capability is three times the payload of consumer pick-up trucks.
Cool truck. Get a truck and get out there and do some work or starve punching away at your keyboard trying to scratch out a buck on the internet. Forget about it. I have an old Dodge Ram. 600 bucks, 318 V8, longbed beater that works. I get more done with it than I could with a laptop for two grand. The elitist techno crowd seems to hate trucks and loves imported cars. Keep on truckin, because bloggin don’t pay. Why are we doing this?
First, there will be a number (100?) of buyers that find this thing to be great and genuinely needed. Granted, that’s 20% or so.
Second? For the rest of the buyers, it’s great to live in a country (or next door to one) where there’s the freedom to be silly. And good for the first 20% that the final 80% subsidize them so.
Does anyone *need* that fancy Geforce 6800 card? Or that 64 bit processor?
As for public safety, I’m going to go out on a limb, and speculate that the average buyer of a 100k vehicle is actually going to be extremely careful how s/he drives it. Paint me wrong if its involved in a disproportionate number of accidents/fatalities.
(and no, I won’t be buying. Perfectly happy with my aging sedan for the city, and ancient truck for hauling stuff in the country. But for those who want it, more power to them.).
Holmwood
A bit judgmental, aren’t we? So here’s a question for you… ever tried hauling a 40,000 lb boat with a Ford F150? It doesn’t work too well. There are lots of people who need to move big stuff, and this is a great vehicle for doing that. Maybe some fools will drive this for pure macho value, but so what? I say, bigger is better. Get over it!
Richard B. wrote: 1. So here’s a question for you… ever tried hauling a 40,000 lb boat with a Ford F150? It doesn’t work too well.
Of course, the CXT’s capacity is only 6-tons – so it couldn’t pull a 40,000 lb (20-ton?) boat, either. 🙂
I don’t mind people buying expensive toys, as long as they are honest about why they are buying them – whether it is a big truck, or a $600 video card.
This is a utilitarian special purpose vehicle for those who can afford to haul in luxury, such as a boat, horse trailer or racecar trailer. Its no Hummer H2, wth its faux-military bling street creds. No ones gonna pick up chicks in this thing, even if he could park it. It wont be much fun to drive in the city, and diesel clatter will cancel out any cool pretensions. C,mon its Ford F-650 chasis cab, with a misfit pickup bed. I could do better myself.