nobody here is talking about freight vehicles

What are pick-ups used for, then? In my country they're mostly owned by farmers.

They're popular in the US:

1) As status symbols (because they're expensive, and because their "truck = freedom" advertising has been very successful) that still read as blue-collar / "red";

and,

2) Explicitly because of their size—they're perceived (pretty accurately) as being far more likely to "win" a crash than a smaller car, and they also put you up high, so you have better visibility. Not sure if the latter actually translates to more safety, but it's certainly perceived to. This is also a big reason SUVs sell well. There may be some related "I like to intimidate other drivers" factor here, too (not my uncharitable guess, as I've heard it seriously expressed by truck owners, and I'm also not saying this is extremely common—but it's common enough that I've encountered it several times). For that last part, see again: status symbol.

Some portion of the population owns trucks for the same reasons people own trucks in other rich countries, but that's not the reason they're unusually popular here. It's largely a form of class & political signaling ("I'm in your tribe, and also not poor") coupled with some tragedy-of-the-commons personal/family safety concerns.

[EDIT] 3) Aspirational purchases and poor cost/benefit analysis. Think: the lettuce you buy then don't eat before it goes bad. "I really want to get into [x activity that is easier with a truck] and I need to buy a vehicle of some kind, so I should get a truck" -> buys truck -> does not actually use truck-specific functionality anywhere near enough to justify purchase vs. use of paid services or rentals.

Around here they're used to drop kids off at elementary schools.

Definitely depends on where you live. I live on the coast in the south. Tons of people trailer boats. The 'smallest' truck that can tow (actually able to stop) my boat is a Tundra.

Then there's people who own homes in the suburbs. Could I make multiple trips with my car to pick up 2500 pounds of sod for a project I just finished? Sure, I could also pay a lot to have it delivered in a couple weeks. And there's the other things like throwing my surfboard in the back or other 'fun' gear. Then there's trips to the dump, because trash won't pick up certain things.

The reality is, having at least a single truck in the family is useful for anyone not living in a city.

I use mine to transport tools and building materials.

tell me you've never been outside of a city without saying you've never been outside of a city, lmao.

I live in a very rural area with cows on 3 sides. My neighbours have 400 acres of grazing land.

The vehicles that drive down my road are about 30% sedans/crossovers, 30% tractors, and maybe 20% old beater pickup trucks, like your classic 90's Toyota.

But I live somewhere that we don't encourage people to buy gargantuan tanks and use them to take your kids to school.

No one is saying pickup trucks are never used to haul large items. They’re saying the vast majority of pickup trucks purchased are not used for that purpose and even when they are it’s a couple of times a year, a situation where renting a truck ought to make a lot more logical sense.

I'll go talk to some farmers and ranchers and get their take on renting a truck for work. I'm betting they'll see the economic sense in that.

While I generally agree with you, I live in a large metropolitan city, and there are just as many trucks being used for work as there are vanity trucks. The work trucks actually tend to the smaller side, think Chevy s10s and the most common working vehicle is actually a cargo van, mostly Ford transit connects. And then there are tons and tons of lifted wranglers and trucks that never see a day of work. It's laughable, as I grew up in a more rural area and never saw that. Excepting of course the redneck coal rollers with hanging nuts and all. But those were not that common. And I don't think I've ever seen a Hummer actually used on a job site.

Why does this talking point get employed every time this conversation takes place? As I said:

> No one is saying pickup trucks are never used to haul large items

Obviously some people use them for purpose. The majority don’t and are purchased as status symbols in suburbia. The fact that farmer do use them does not invalidate that.

I grew up in rural America. Nobody used their Sierra Denali for farm work, unless it was to take horses to a horse show. Most use their personal trucks for recreation or utility... towing the camper to the camp site, or getting some mulch at Lowes. 1.3% of Americans work in Agriculture.

Farmer I sometimes do some work for pulls the cattle trailer with his Lincoln Mark LT. It's getting old though, not sure what he'll replace it with but he's on the list for the Cybertruck.

1.3% of americans use their sierra denali for farm work, that's just plain fact.

source: i grew up, and live in, rural america.