Pickup truck/SUV owners intentionally blocking electric charging spaces in parking lots

[mnrose]

I actually have a Prius v, and I love it! I traded in a Ford Focus wagon for it. The Focus and the Prius v have about the same cargo space, but the v gets much better mileage. I looked at SUV’s before I bought the v and just couldn’t get past the poor mileage on the best rated SUV’s. I am hoping by the time I am ready to trade in the v, that will have changed.

I haven’t really been harassed by anyone because I am driving a hybrid but then the v doesn’t scream Prius since the shape is slightly different.

The V can swallow an amazing amount of stuff! And, it gets great gas mileage. For us, it's the perfect vehicle. My DH does own a 1987 Toyota Pickup too...and we only need to bring that out occasionally. Most of the time, we can haul everything we want to haul in the back of the V.

 

[LSUmiss]

Dang. I’m a dude who drives a mini-van. I knew I was sort of lame, but I didn’t realize everyone else knew! It’s just such a great vehicle for student carpooling, dog hauling, and packing and riding during trips. Oh well.

@Jennasis, I used to have an F-250 with the old 7.3 liter turbo diesel. Oh man, what a great truck! I never blasted cyclists with smoke, but I did haul bikes and pretty much everything you could imagine for myself and friends. It could pull anything. Stupidly, I did not get the crew cab, and it became too impractical for my growing family.

And @LSUmiss, I went to grad school at UF. I remember the LSU fans rolling into Gainesville and setting up tailgate parties. They were great! And that was a road game! I went to several of the parties while scalping my student tickets. Good times!

lol! I went to one UF game on the road but didn’t like it b/c at that time UF wouldn’t let you tailgate on campus. We were like this is crazy!

 

[Klayfish]

Depends. A lot of the smaller SUVs are more efficient yet have cargo room that minivans don't have unless you can take out seats. Still - the modern compact SUVs are really more like the modern equivalent of the station wagon. The Subaru Forester essentially got taller with about the same utility factor.

The Forester is a station wagon, not an SUV...no matter what Subaru wants you to believe. You really can't compare a minivan to a RAV4, they're apples and oranges. The RAV4 is a station wagon replacement, because wagons disappeared after they were stigmatized. The minivan is much bigger.

Yes & no. Aside from the lack of sliding doors and a slightly reduced cargo area (complimented by a slightly reduced rear overhang), our Acadia is pretty much exactly a minivan inside. More importantly, unlike most minivan models, it’s AWD.

I'd have to look it up, but I'd bet a minivan has more interior room than the Acadia/Explorer/Durango/Pilot type things. Unless you are going offroading, AWD is unnecessary anyway. FWD with proper tires is more than sufficient. Not that AWD is bad, it's not, it's just overkill for 99.9% of peoples' needs. Or even worse, people think that because they have AWD, they can just put any crappy tires on and drive like it's dry out. I can't count how many wrecked AWD vehicles I've dealt with because people get overconfident.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We’ve been looking for a new bigger car for our family. I was really surprised to learn the Prius V has roughly the same storage capacity as a Ford Escape. I look at how much some people I know pay for gas to drive around in their giant trucks and suv’s and it boggles my mind. And they all say the same thing, ‘I need my truck.’
99% of the time they are using it as a basic commuter but they ‘need’ it. Makes little sense to me.

To be fair, a Ford Escape is hardly a hulking “truck”. In fact it’s not a truck at all, but rather a car-based Crossover. It’s considered a compact, most are sold as fwd rather than AWD, and it’s only available with 4-cylinder engines. Its advantage over the V is that it IS available in AWD, and if you have small children, the taller doors make life much easier.

I consider myself one who “needs” my truck even if 99% of the time it’s used as a single passenger commuter. Let’s face it, that 1% of the time it’s towing my boat, hauling bikes or firewood, hauling my tractor or mowers in for service, hauling pallets of product at work, or whatever “truck” chore I need, a car simply couldn’t get it done. And back when I had a longer commute, I also had a compact car to drive on days I wouldn’t “need” a truck. Even now, I swipe DD’s Focus every chance I get.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I'd have to look it up, but I'd bet a minivan has more interior room than the Acadia/Explorer/Durango/Pilot type things. Unless you are going offroading, AWD is unnecessary anyway. FWD with proper tires is more than sufficient. Not that AWD is bad, it's not, it's just overkill for 99.9% of peoples' needs. Or even worse, people think that because they have AWD, they can just put any crappy tires on and drive like it's dry out. I can't count how many wrecked AWD vehicles I've dealt with because people get overconfident.

The only real difference inside is the space behind the 3rd row. Now, a Tahoe gives up a lot of space due to the frame, but unibody vehicles like the Acadia are essentially built on the same platform as a minivan. As for fwd vs AWD, we’ve had numerous occasions when it meant the difference between getting where we needed to be or not getting there.

And sure, I see all the upside down Jeeps when it snows too from over-confident clods driving too fast for conditions. But, all other things being equal, AWD is absolutely superior in snow compared to fwd. And, it’s not even close.

 

[JaxDad]

To be fair, a Ford Escape is hardly a hulking “truck”. In fact it’s not a truck at all, but rather a car-based Crossover. It’s considered a compact, most are sold as fwd rather than AWD, and it’s only available with 4-cylinder engines. Its advantage over the V is that it IS available in AWD, and if you have small children, the taller doors make life much easier.

I consider myself one who “needs” my truck even if 99% of the time it’s used as a single passenger commuter. Let’s face it, that 1% of the time it’s towing my boat, hauling bikes or firewood, hauling my tractor or mowers in for service, hauling pallets of product at work, or whatever “truck” chore I need, a car simply couldn’t get it done. And back when I had a longer commute, I also had a compact car to drive on days I wouldn’t “need” a truck. Even now, I swipe DD’s Focus every chance I get.

The Ford Escape discussion reminded me of the Arrested Development scene when a Ford salesman tells George Bluth that the Bronco's been discontinued due to bad publicity from the O.J. Simpson chase and has been replaced with the Escape.

 

[Klayfish]

The only real difference inside is the space behind the 3rd row. Now, a Tahoe gives up a lot of space due to the frame, but unibody vehicles like the Acadia are essentially built on the same platform as a minivan. As for fwd vs AWD, we’ve had numerous occasions when it meant the difference between getting where we needed to be or not getting there.

And sure, I see all the upside down Jeeps when it snows too from over-confident clods driving too fast for conditions. But, all other things being equal, AWD is absolutely superior in snow compared to fwd. And, it’s not even close.

OK, so I was curious and had to look. I looked at the Acadia and Kia Sedona as a minivan example. The Sedona has more passenger room pretty much all around. The other advantage minivans have is ease of access to the third row and flexibility with seating/cargo. Trust me, I'm looking forward to the day we can be done with minivans, as they're not the transportation of choice for DW or I. But they are what they are, which is the most family friendly vehicle on the market, bar none (assuming you have less kids than Philip Rivers...LOL ).

Sure, I agree that all things being equal, AWD gives better traction than FWD. That's indisputable. But the reality is that for people who just drive on public roads, AWD is simply not a necessity. FWD and proper tires will do just fine. Subaru has done a masterful job in making people think they need something they really don't.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

OK, so I was curious and had to look. I looked at the Acadia and Kia Sedona as a minivan example. The Sedona has more passenger room pretty much all around. The other advantage minivans have is ease of access to the third row and flexibility with seating/cargo. Trust me, I'm looking forward to the day we can be done with minivans, as they're not the transportation of choice for DW or I. But they are what they are, which is the most family friendly vehicle on the market, bar none (assuming you have less kids than Philip Rivers...LOL ).

Sure, I agree that all things being equal, AWD gives better traction than FWD. That's indisputable. But the reality is that for people who just drive on public roads, AWD is simply not a necessity. FWD and proper tires will do just fine. Subaru has done a masterful job in making people think they need something they really don't.

Access to the 3rd row is pretty much identical to the Caravan. The only real access advantage to a minivan is the sliding door (which, admittedly is a HUGE deal in tight parking spaces).

And public roads are simply not maintained at equal levels. If all you’re doing is city driving, sure. Here in the sticks where the roads are often unplowed and there are significant hills to deal with, AWD is a legitimate safety feature that can mean the difference between arriving at your destination or not. Shoot, just a few weeks ago, DD got her Focus stuck in our driveway. DW did the same many years back with her fwd Plymouth, ditched her fwd Malibu, and just flat out called in to work on numerous occasions when conditions called for AWD or 4WD. Not one single issue in the 11 years she’s had the AWD though.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I find the minivan-suv talk interesting. Personally I just don't like the looks of minivans but that also means I don't like the looks of all suvs or crossovers. I don't really care what others think (I'm driving a 2002 Ford Escort ZX2 with a ragged looking car bra that was on the car when I bought it---I know I'm not trying to show off lol) but the next car we get won't be a minivan it'll be an suv or a crossover. Bigger part of that decision is fitting it in the garage too.

 

[LSUmiss]

OK, so I was curious and had to look. I looked at the Acadia and Kia Sedona as a minivan example. The Sedona has more passenger room pretty much all around. The other advantage minivans have is ease of access to the third row and flexibility with seating/cargo. Trust me, I'm looking forward to the day we can be done with minivans, as they're not the transportation of choice for DW or I. But they are what they are, which is the most family friendly vehicle on the market, bar none (assuming you have less kids than Philip Rivers...LOL ).

Sure, I agree that all things being equal, AWD gives better traction than FWD. That's indisputable. But the reality is that for people who just drive on public roads, AWD is simply not a necessity. FWD and proper tires will do just fine. Subaru has done a masterful job in making people think they need something they really don't.

I’ll give you that compared to midsize SUV’s, but to DH the Tahoe or suburban (if you need more space) is much more palatable.

 

[fla4fun]

I think the people parking in the Tesla charging stations and Coal Rollers are also people who are in denial about climate change and are doing their stupidest to show they hate people who are trying to do better for the environment, because if it was real, they'd have to change their lifestyle and not drive their big trucks anymore.......or something

I thought Tesla was working on electric trucks . . .unless it’s what I call the noisy muffler mentality. I don’t understand why people want their car to sound like it needs a trip to the mechanic. My dad was a noisy muffler fan. He thought they sounded so good, and I would be thinking what? I would think truck drivers would be all over an electric truck.

 

[PerfessorZ]

Who cares? Pretty much EVERYONE stuck behind the jerk who doesn’t care he or she is impeding the flow of traffic. If a farmer who NEEDS the road to transport equipment from field to filed during his 17th consecutive 16-hour work day can have the decency to pull over for faster traffic, a cyclist who is only out there for their own enjoyment can damn well do the same.

With the exception that if a tractor drives over some gravel by the side of the road, he’ll never notice it. If a cyclist hits some gravel, he becomes a speedbump for the vehicle tailgating him.

 

[Klayfish]

And public roads are simply not maintained at equal levels. If all you’re doing is city driving, sure. Here in the sticks where the roads are often unplowed and there are significant hills to deal with, AWD is a legitimate safety feature that can mean the difference between arriving at your destination or not. Shoot, just a few weeks ago, DD got her Focus stuck in our driveway. DW did the same many years back with her fwd Plymouth, ditched her fwd Malibu, and just flat out called in to work on numerous occasions when conditions called for AWD or 4WD. Not one single issue in the 11 years she’s had the AWD though.

Well, all I can say is you need to move. Plenty of rural areas in nice and warm climates. After over 4 decades of dealing with it, snow is truly a four letter word to me.

 

[Hikergirl]

Yes, that's by far the main factor of the SUV craze. Minivans have a stereotype and nobody wants to be caught dead in one. SUVs are inferior to minivans in pretty much every practicality measure, and really don't do anything particularly well. Even if a buyer doesn't have kids to haul around, they want to portray an active lifestyle image and look that a minivan or sedan just doesn't have. It's all about image.

You need to preface that with an IMO.
My SUV is far superior to my minivan in the ways I need it to be for my life (or lifestyle) now.
I loved my minivan because it fit my needs 10 years ago, but it wouldn't get me up the mountain road every weekend the way my SUV does without any issue now. I'm not portraying an image, I have an SUV because it is more practical for me than a mini-van or a car.

 

[ChrisFL]

I thought Tesla was working on electric trucks . . .unless it’s what I call the noisy muffler mentality. I don’t understand why people want their car to sound like it needs a trip to the mechanic. My dad was a noisy muffler fan. He thought they sounded so good, and I would be thinking what? I would think truck drivers would be all over an electric truck.

They are working on electric trucks....what's worse is that they're going to be making automated ones....just imagine what current truck drivers will try to do to those!!

 

[AustinMommyofThree]

They are working on electric trucks....what's worse is that they're going to be making automated ones....just imagine what current truck drivers will try to do to those!!

Yes, I suspect most truck drivers will be obsolete (along with most cabbies) in less than twenty years. As self-driving technology comes online, self-driving trucks will be able to drive 24 hours a day, will be much safer, and much more cost-efficient.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

With the exception that if a tractor drives over some gravel by the side of the road, he’ll never notice it. If a cyclist hits some gravel, he becomes a speedbump for the vehicle tailgating him.

Then pull into the nearest driveway and stop. Honestly, all the lame excuses in the world simply do not justify deliberately holding up significantly faster moving traffic.

Besides, as previously mentioned, there usually IS a cyclist riding right in that so-called “danger zone”. The problem is typically the 3 or more riders directly to his or her left.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes, I suspect most truck drivers will be obsolete (along with most cabbies) in less than twenty years. As self-driving technology comes online, self-driving trucks will be able to drive 24 hours a day, will be much safer, and much more cost-efficient.

I don't think we're quite there yet-speaking towards less than 20 years.

We don't yet have a full infrastruction much less the insurance industry, etc. That stuff takes time. Technology tends to be years ahead of actual full practicality usage.

 

[Fleuristic]

Yes, I suspect most truck drivers will be obsolete (along with most cabbies) in less than twenty years. As self-driving technology comes online, self-driving trucks will be able to drive 24 hours a day, will be much safer, and much more cost-efficient.

Speaking from someone who drives a Tesla, is a truck driver and has experience with the current level of automation I would be surprised. There are simply too many variables to consider. Without substantial advances in sensor technologies no amount of machine learning will be able to handle all scenarios. They still cannot identify basic safety situations like potholes or knowing the difference between a rock vs a plastic bag. Construction zones confuse the algorithms. Driving into bright sunlight, dirt, heavy rain, ice, snow can blind the cameras. Even something so erroneous as a slight variation in pavement texture/color can send a car on autopilot into a barrier. They are nowhere near ready. Passenger cars and OTR loads perhaps but not local or city deliveries on class 8.

I expect the method to change from large trucks to individual package level movements via autonomous drone networks and small vehicles. When a driver isn't needed and the cost of running multiple units collapses then the entire operating model changes.

 

[AustinMommyofThree]

Speaking from someone who drives a Tesla, is a truck driver and has experience with the current level of automation I would be surprised. There are simply too many variables to consider. Without substantial advances in sensor technologies no amount of machine learning will be able to handle all scenarios. They still cannot identify basic safety situations like potholes or knowing the difference between a rock vs a plastic bag. Construction zones confuse the algorithms. Driving into bright sunlight, dirt, heavy rain, ice, snow can blind the cameras. Even something so erroneous as a slight variation in pavement texture/color can send a car on autopilot into a barrier. They are nowhere near ready. Passenger cars and OTR loads perhaps but not local or city deliveries on class 8.

I expect the method to change from large trucks to individual package level movements via autonomous drone networks and small vehicles. When a driver isn't needed and the cost of running multiple units collapses then the entire operating model changes.

Speaking as somebody who drives a Tesla and works in the automation field, I think we’ll see preliminary adoption much sooner than that. Five years ago the technology didn’t even exist, now it’s quite advanced and every mile driven by a Tesla (or any car with semi-autonomous driving capability) feeds the algorithms to make them better. And not just miles driven in “autopilot,” which I agree is currently ANYTHING BUT in the consumer-facing versions, but every mile driven the software is running in the background, learning and improving and improving the algorithms. Millions of miles a week, and soon millions of miles a day, are adding to the body of data. Autonomous driving is still safer than a human driving, and the economics of having a rig that can functionally run 24 hours a day are too good to pass up. Fully electric trucks may, in my opinion, come slower than fully autonomous cars, but in technology, twenty years is ten lifetimes (think Moore’s Law, for example) and barring regulatory opposition (possible because of the strong lobbies involved with the insurance, personal injury lawyers, labor unions, etc.) I think its widespread adoption is coming sooner than most people can fathom.The sensors that Tesla used initially are already generations behind in just a few years and the current ones are barely scratching the surface of the ones they have installed (I believe the current models use three of the twelve or more sensors, cameras, radars, etc. that are installed).