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Comment by pandaman | Hacker News Reader

Not to mention that the IRS requires a vehicle to be at least 6000 pounds in order to deprecate for business purposes. Buying anything under 6000 pounds for business means paying more taxes.

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Note that a 6000lb minimum rules out the f150, the best selling vehicle in North America. Tax considerations can't be too top of mind.

Not according to a google search for "6000 pounds vehicle list".

Doesn’t look like any of the 2021 F-150s are over 6000 pounds curb weight (1). It’s not particularly close, so I would expect most of the newer model would be under 6000 pounds too (I didn’t easily find the newer brochure)

(1) https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America...

Curb weight is an irrelevant number, interesting only to calculate payload (which many ignore, albeit at their peril). The number of interest for regulators is Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR), as that's the manufacturer's specification of the heaviest the vehicle can be in as-sold configuration and still drive down the road safely.

Thanks for the clarification. The lowest GVWR among the f150s is about 6010 lbs which makes the IRS' apparently minimum weight make more sense.

> Curb weight is an irrelevant number, interesting only to calculate payload (which many ignore, albeit at their peril).

Not just their peril, also any road users or others nearby. If you've ever seen an overloaded pickup, they tend to drift around their lane as all the extra weight in the back reduces the steering authority on the front. Double so if it's pulling a badly loaded trailer that puts a lot of weight on the hitch

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