It's not just amount of snow but terrain. A fair bit of snow on a flat surface might be fine, but even a little bit on a slope can quickly become problematic if you don't have 4x4.

I wonder how this sounds to people who live in, say, Switzerland, where it is very mountainous, snows frequently, and literally nobody drives a truck, and even the cars are not AWD.

I mean, I _know_ how it sounds because I am one of those people. But I wonder how Americans think this sounds.

European countries are much more compact, which makes public transportation much easier to justify. By contrast, the US is extremely spread out and public transportation yields much less ROI even in many urban areas.

Vehicle ownership in the US is practically a requirement because you have to drive to get anywhere. Therefor, having a versitile vehicle like a truck is more apealing.

Trucks also tend to be more durable than cars so they're more common in the used market, especially in the midwest.

...but for many, a truck is just an aesthetic/lifestyle symbol. The "country" lifestyle is generally associated with independence and work ethic - traits which are highly valued in the US. Trucks are a classic symbol of that lifestyle. That's why country songs stereotypically mention trucks.

The OP wasn't arguing for public transport, so I don't get where your comments on that came from from. I totally get what you mean about "symbols" though.

> Trucks also tend to be more durable than cars

Surely the engine, drivetrain, clutch etc are the same parts you'd find in cars? Curious about what you mean here?

I drive a normal FWD car during winter weather almost nobody will go out in. I drove it cross-country through the worst snowstorm the midwest experienced in the last 10 years where I couldn't see more than 10ft in front of me.

All that said, I would have been much safer in a truck.

> All that said, I would have been much safer in a truck.

A truck specifically, or would any ol' four-wheel driven (4x4, AWD) vehicle do?

It really depends on the depth of the snow.

I'm with you - as long as you don't have a RWD car, winter tyres on a FWD car make a huge difference, and they deal with ice and snow just fine.

Switzerland is about 41000 km^2 in area. The US has about 660,000 km^2 of fresh surface water.

The scales of the US and Switzerland are incomensorable.

Ohio has the same population density as Spain. American exceptionalism is just American ignorance of geography.

Alabama is the size of England. Using individual US states as points of reference for entire European countries is one form of the incomensorability. Columbus, Ohio is as far from San Diego, California as Barcelona is from Moscow. Except there's pretty much nothing but empty plain, mountains, and desert in between. Ohio has 10,000 km^2 of fresh water...about a quarter of Switizerland.

Recognizing the difference of scale is not a claim to exceptionalism. The US's scale makes it more like Russia than any western European country.

Unless you are suggesting that the typical American pickup truck trip is across Lake Michigan and back your comparisons of scale are irrelevant.

Inyo County, California is 1/3 the area of Switzerland. At population 18,000, it has fewer people than any Canton save Appenzell Interhoden (~16,000). Inyo County is surrounded by more Mojave. The Mojave Desert is the size of Portugal...nearly thrice that of Switzerland.

No driving in water.

Yes and nobody lives there. Are you always this obtuse? Ford is not selling 1.5 million trucks per year to the residents of Inyo county.

Sorry, I don’t seem to understand the point you are making.

You also forget that gas is super cheap in the US so buying a truck with its sub 20mpg fuel consumption is a no-brainer.