For non pickup owners, how do you get by without one?

I make do just fine with an SUV, including hauling dirty stuff (tarps!), all of the landscaping stuff for my personal needs (the seats fold down and I have tarps!) and I am happy to either hire delivery or ask for help if stuff won’t fit.
And I can have some people in my car, too! What a concept! We live in communities and help each other!

I rarely move bulky or dirty items around, so it makes no sense to buy a vehicle whose raison d’etre is for stuff I don’t do.

When I moved my son into an apartment at school, it was easier to rent a U Haul van for four hours.

And earlier this week, I called a trash hauling business to take away, in less than half an hour, stuff that would have required at least two pick up truck loads (and two dump load fees!) and probably four hours time in commute traffic.

The SO and I have no vehicle at all. (This is when I’m in the UK with him. In the US, I own a 2-door car with a minute trunk.)

Groceries are ordered online and delivered. We order stuff online including a few furniture/appliance pieces. The cost of delivery or pick-up, if not free, is a fraction of what would be paid for a vehicle, petrol, insurance, and maintenance.

Perfect timing for this question! I just bought a red maple tree that was mostly a 6 foot twig that I put in the back seat of my Honda Accord. I had to roll both windows down and drive on the interstate at a lower speed than I normally would.
I need a truck!

@chyna, maybe your Accord wasn’t appropriate for a small tree, but I put an 8 foot cherry tree into my Honda CRV without any problem. :-)

^I knew I should have called you!

I have an SUV but have on very few occasions needed to put something big in it (like a patio umbrella stand, for example). For me, with a 50 mile each way commute to work 5 days a week, a pickup truck would not be practical or necessary. As it is with the SUV, I’m filling up every other day or every 2½ days, at around 25 bucks each time. With a pickup truck, there’s no telling how much gas would cost. Where I park at work, the spots are narrow so they get as many spots as possible into the small lot behind the building. I don’t think a pickup would fit into the spot, and it would be almost impossible to back it out.

A compact car would be just fine for me except I wanted the SUV for bad weather. For 99% of the people in my area (NY/CT rural and commuting), a car or SUV is just fine.

My neighbor does lots of gardening and she has a tiny compact.

On the rare occasions when I’ve gotten new furniture (IKEA, new mattress, etc.) I have a friend with a small van help or I can always rent something if I needed to. Buying furniture is so infrequent that it wouldn’t pay to keep a pickup. I have a Honda CRV and the back seats fold down, so it’s quite roomy enough for large items.

We have staff for that, drive flat beds y’know.

I’ve had to deal with this situation only once, when I bought a full set of patio furniture and had to get it from the store. There was a large dining table, 6 dining chairs, an umbrella for the table, a couple of chaises, and 2 end tables…many bulky items to move.

My husband went to a vehicle dealership, feigned an interest in buying a pickup truck, and went for a test drive. During the course of this test drive, he happened to stop by the store, get all that furniture, and bring it to our patio.

This isn’t the most ethical thing we’ve ever done. Our rather un-classy behavior has a Yiddish word to describe it – schnorrer.

Until recently I had a an Olds Silhouette. One of the dust-buster look alike minivans. If I removed the rear seats the back was big enough to hold a 4×8 foot sheet of plywood flat on the ground. I could run my motorcycles up in there. Also I’ve winched in my 27 ton wood splutter, generator, tools.

In fact I have had 2 friends with pick ups borrow my minivan when they wanted to move furniture and needed to keep it out of the rain and snow.
I have borrowed theirs when I needed to haul dirt.

Now I use my Tahoe but it is nowhere near as easy to load as the minivan. The back deck is so high.

35 years ago I needed a pick-up, lugging fire firewood around, heating house in part with Maple and Oak, not anymore.
But today if my riding lawn tractor needs service, once a year anyway, the tractor company picks it up and drops it of same price for the service. When I need 100 cubic feet of mulch the Garden Center delivers for free. My walk behind lawnmower fits in the back of my crossover vehicle.

Minivans with the back seats out were a staple for field work for years. We used to load them up with equipment and parts. They’re very easy to load and unload like mentioned. The drawback is you can easily overload the weight specs on them without realizing it.

@ARE_you_kidding_me I’ve seen the same overload on a pickup truck, like Tuesday a half ton pickup filled to overflowing with top soil driving down the interstate. Truck was bouncing on spring stops, no spring travel, so broken springs or twisted frame coming up soon.
You have to know what the weight limits are for the vehicle to have it survive long enough to pay off the loan.

We drive an SUV so we either use that or have stuff delivered.

Well, I’ve only needed one a few times and in that case I borrowed one. Don’t know what we’d do without our flat bed trailer though.

We have a trailer and a tow bar.

Volvo wagon with seats that fold down and not hauling lots of stuff. Have never felt the need or the desire for a pick-up truck.

I would be totally lost without my pickup, and today with something like the Nissan Frontier crew cab (pickup)you have a vehicle that can haul what you want and still comfortably seat five people,and still get great gas economy.

I will say the wife loves her SUV but still misses her pickup from time to time.
And yeah you can haul an amazing amount of stuff in an SUV but even with tarps are a lot more time consuming to clean up after ward than a pick up that only requires a quick sweep or at the most a garden hose to wash the bed out.
Interesting answers and can understand how people can get by without a pickup but I don’t like relying on others to help with with anything that’s why I could never see myself without a pickup.

^^ my frontier is not the crew cab but it’s still nice and plush inside for two. I guess suv haulers have trash pickup. My wife is wanting us to get an suv so we can carry more kids around. I don’t want to give up my truck and she does not want to give up her little sports car.

Simple up grade your Frontier to the crew cab, solution solved, no need to thank me. ^^
And Ssshhhh, you get the new vehicle and she gets what she wants something to haul more rug rats.

We’re looking to buy a 2003 -2005 Escalade to pull our new camper with.

And you feel the big suv would better suit your needs than a pickup , @Dutchess_III ?

No, but a pick up won’t hold 10 grand kids. DON’T SAY A WORD ABOUT NOT HAVING HAD CHILDREN!! ~ ♥

WHO ME!!??????
You have to haul the whole heard when you take the grandkids anywhere??

Not always. Not all of them at once. But it’s nice to have when you suddenly find yourself with 4 kids and you need to go somewhere.

Not enough bed space on the crewcab model

Home Depot will rent you a pickemup truck for $20 a day, for those “I saw this on Craigslist and I just HAD to have it” moments.

I haven’t owned a vehicle of any description for 20 years now. Where I live in the UK they aren’t necessary and I don’t want one.

@ARE_you_kidding_me You’d have enough room if you had a full size pick-up, with crew cab and 8’ bed. Ya gotta look around more…

That thing would be waaay too long.

Your statements echo my own thoughts. I have owned one for so many years that I cannot imagine not having one. I even had trouble adjusting to the 6.5’ bed on my latest. It should be 8’.

I rarely haul anything, mostly haven’t had a yard to work, squeeze things into what is available, use a hatchback and fold down seats, etc. I have rented moving trucks but mainly to move more than could fit in a pickup anyway. I have borrowed pickups a couple of times and they were quite handy as long as rain wasn’t an issue.