The engines rev, the guitars thrum and a gruff narrator lays out why the vehicle occupying the driveway is more than just a machine. “A truck is a tool,” he says, “but a Ram – a Ram is life.”
So begins an advert for the Ram 1500, a pickup truck slightly bigger than the Panzer I tanks of Nazi Germany and almost as heavy. It is growing in popularity in Europe, with the number of Rams arriving on the continent up 20% in 2023 from the year before, according to registration data from the European Environment Agency. Road safety and environmental campaigners in the UK and Europe are aghast as the latest, most extreme cases of North American car bloat – giant pickup trucks – are increasingly crossing the Atlantic.
“Europe should ban the Ram,” said Dudley Curtis from the European Transport Safety Council. “This type of vehicle is excessively heavy, tall and powerful, making it lethal in collisions with normal-sized vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.”
The truck in the photo is absolutely hilarious and all the wrong ways.
It’s got early 2000s fast and furious rims.
It’s got that 1980s camper thing on the back.
The driver is like sitting halfway back the vehicle. I don’t think the front side of that entire truck could fit in the bed.
That vehicle doesn’t know if it wants to be an SUV, a van, or a truck. Really I think it got them all wrong. Slightly less awful than the Tesla truck.