Aussies love their pickup trucks. It’s the home of the Ute, and, as in the U.S., trucks and SUVs find more buyers than anything sold there. But as Australians embrace our larger full-size trucks just now invading their shores, warnings are being issued over their size. 

Haven’t U.S. full-size trucks and SUVs been in Australia?

Both the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500 have seen sales soar in recent months. Ford is set to begin deliveries of its F-150 pickups later this year, with sales of the new Toyota Tundra beginning in 2024. So the trendline is pointing straight up for anticipated sales of big American trucks in the next few years. 

“Guaranteed left-to-right hand drive conversions has certainly opened up the interest,” CarSales editor Mike Sinclair told Daily Mail Australia. “Another part of the attraction is that they are large with larger tow capacities, although they’re not much fun to park. “I don’t see many fully kitted up as tradie vehicles.” We call them trade or work trucks. “You only have to look at the specification of them and the high level of finishes to suggest that there are other reasons for them being bought.”

Do Australians have safety concerns?

While driver intentions are a bit curious to bring up, the head of the Australian Road Safety Foundation, Russell White, warns, “’The bigger these sorts of vehicles are, there is a bigger risk of blind spots being large enough to hide vulnerable road users, so having things like front-facing cameras should definitely be part of the overall safety envelope.”

“As they become more popular and there are more of them unless something is done to look at the safety rating of them to evolve them with the time, we might potentially see more incidents on the roads.” Now some Aussies are piling on.

“I cringe whenever I see Australians driving these U-haul a** looking, American-designed, compensating for something trucks,” says one vocal respondent. “These vehicles make me irrationally angry,” says another. “I can’t fathom the type of turd who buys these.” “They’re not better at anything than more reasonable tradie cars. They’re totally impractical. They stick the middle finger up at the planet. I hate them so much,” a third replies. 

Why are some Australians so angry?

Yikes, they sure don’t like them. And the barbs keep coming. “This isn’t about utility, it’s just about saying a big aggressive f*** you to everyone else.”  Some insist that American pickups are bigger than the Australian Standard parking spaces designed to accommodate the largest 4WDs around 2004.

So some Down Under really hate full-size American trucks. Be it over pedestrian concerns, driver liability, or how the larger size and fuel consumption might affect the environment, it’s getting similar responses to the past and present (electric) Hummer SUVs here. We can’t say we especially disagree, as we’ve seen truck size grow over the past decade or so. Still, what makes these outspoken Australians so angry? It can’t be only because of seeing a big truck, can it?