The Reason Why Are Trucks Getting Bigger

My truck doesn’t drive near pedestrian areas. A smaller truck cannot trailer my work loads or toys. My modern diesel with high-tech emissions systems intact gets 20+ mpg unloaded.

Perhaps some of you remember trucks of the 80s. Not much has changed dimensionally, without safety improvements. Those did ~8-10 mpg unloaded while making 25% of the power with half the tow rating of a recent truck and none of the modern safety features for collision avoidance, blind spot monitoring, etc. The armchair distortion is real here. Please visit the numbers before making blanket anecdotes—the manufacturer websites have good uptime for their brochures. :)

> My modern diesel

Thank goodness you drive a diesel.

Can somebody explain why people tend to prefer petrol engines for trucks America?

Doesn't diesels haul better, because of all that torque from a lower RPM, from a smaller engine?

Edit: delete, others have answered this better than I.