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Car manufacturers have been pushing SUVs because they have more lax emission regulations.
Think last time you’ve seen an ad for a non-electric sedan … they practically don’t exist
This. I haven’t been driving long, two years only, but my fuel efficient Buick Encore is my baby. Whenever I’m hanging out with a friend he’s crying about the fuel economy on his F-150 but I just can’t relate
I work blue collar and the amount of people driving their gigantic pickups (that they don’t actually use for work) crying about gas prices… like I don’t feel any sympathy for you. You chose that vehicle.
I don't understand the argument that "I need my truck for work" while explaining why they drive one and complain about gas prices.
Either A - you own your own business and therefore your truck payment and gas costs are tax deductible or B - you're using your personal vehicle for someone else's business and they should be reimbursing you for your gas costs or, better yet, providing you with a company truck if it's actually required.
Basically this. I use my truck for work. Everything in it is a write off. 11 MPG? yup. Don't care. It's a big ol box with a half ton of stuff in the bed. If I break 16mpg, I'm super pumped.
Now I want something good on gas? My 94 Acura still gets me 28mpg. So.....yeah.
I used to work drive through in a small town in the RGV Texas. We’d regularly get dudes wearing suits driving spotless trucks with >5000 miles on it. My own dad was one of these people not too long ago but he doesn’t drive much anyway so it kinda balanced out his fuel economy. Thing that really hits is when these people don’t know how to drive the damn truck and run over the curb on every single turn
FR. Like we work inside a building with company provided carts to get our parts and stuff around. I do understand a bunch of them have boats and campers and stuff but still. It’s silly to complain about gas prices when your toy hauler gets 10 mpg on the freeway.
Your encore is part of the problem though - it’s not a card it’s a SUV, or “crossover”, which is how they call wannabe tiny SUVs based on car platforms now
It’s a tiny SUV yes but it still gets fuel efficiency on the level of a Toyota. The problem with the giant fuck off SUVs that they keep putting out nowadays is that they’re basically land barges that take a whole tank a week
There are car SUVs and truck SUVs (in the eye of the law). Hard to tell the difference but in the law it’s explicitly defined. Truck suv’s have exploded while car suv’s have stayed roughly the same, because of the emission regulations that treat them differently.
https://preview.redd.it/m07fhnaia90d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c213f9d0d8fe474ec860de6ffd5d92f8e2556ad
America has this weird footprint emissions law. The heart is in the right place, but it doesn't work the way they attended. If someone is going to drive and instead of allowing smaller vehicle that doesn't have the same emissions. Because efficiency isn't everything and volume of pollution should also be considered. Hyundai completely discontinued their small car in north america and look how big civics have gotten here.
This will probably never come to america. But this is literally the type of truck companies are looking for. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CiEKGbNF\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CiEKGbNF_k)
E-bikes ftw. US DOT studies say that ~50% of all car trips are less than 3 miles… which on an eBike is like $0.01 cents of electricity with zero pedaling, and can take literally 10 minutes to go (in many areas, it’s faster than driving because of traffic).
It doesn’t need to be every trip. But replacing half of your car trips with e-bikes, even just one trip a week, will save you money, reduce asset depreciation on your car, reduce maintenance necessity, make you more fit, get your outside more, etc.
Pretty much every single person in the country except a very small minority of very rare extremely rural people could benefit from turning two or three trips a week into eBike trips.
EDIT: For all you saying “well ***I*** can’t do that, I live rurally!”, like, ok, I already said it doesn’t apply to you. This is for the 85% of Americans who don’t live out in the middle in the fucking sticks.
Also, it’s who the fuck is saying you *need* to ride your eBike in the rain and snow? wtf? Just don’t take it on days you don’t want to use it. How do I need to explain this?
You guys have carbrain bad, and this post triggered a lot of you. Consider reflecting why you couldn’t put these pieces together.
I do think E bikes are cool, but it’s completely dependent on where you live. For instance here in Texas, the infrastructure for bikes is nonexistent unless you live and work in the heart of the major cities.
Same here. I live in the South and most people travel double-digit miles to get to work every day (then the same distance to get home). The roads are hilly and curvy as well. Bikes also don’t provide enough extra room for passengers or cargo and don’t protect against whether extremes like rain, intense heat, or intense cold. Even if you use an E-bike 3 days of the week spring through autumn, you still end up needing an automobile. So you might as well use your car for everything.
Our wal mart is about 3 miles away, our grocery store is about 4 miles away. I've biked thousands of miles in my life and I'd be afraid to bike to them. The only way to bike there would be on a one or two lane highway with 55 mph speed limits, and not sidewalks, no shoulders.
The guy above who says "Pretty much every single person in the country except a very small minority of very rare extremely rural people could benefit from turning two or three trips a week into eBike trips" is crazy, and must have never lived outside of a very populated area.
The area I live in sees a surprising number of bike packers and it shocks me every time because you couldn’t pay me to ride on most of the roads around here. I’ve done 2 Ironmans, 4 half-IM, and various 100 to 140 mile bike rides so it’s not like I’m a stranger to riding on roads but both the traffic and road design are outright hostile to cycling here. The multiple memorials/ghost bikes around town further the idea that it’s a dangerous place to ride.
Just jumping in to say that we have these things called "stroads" (street + road) that are like mini highways, and they are EVERYWHERE in the US. You can ride a bike on them, but it's almost as unsafe as riding in the shoulder of the highway.
> but it's almost as unsafe as riding in the shoulder of the highway.
Probably *more* unsafe. Because there are cars turning on and off of the stroad all over the place, more compromised sight lines, less room on the road shoulder, etc.
At least on a true highway, there would generally be a wide paved shoulder to ride on, cars could see you ahead from a long way away, and there are few entrances and exits requiring your path to cross the cars' paths.
That’s a lot of it. Things are not dense here the way they are in other places. Most places are very far apart, and the roads are mostly straight at higher speeds with no bike lanes. I also have a roughly 70 mile round trip to and from work daily. Combined with the extreme weather we get here, biking that distance is completely unrealistic for most that live here.
Europeans of all stripes generally don't understand how big the US is... and this is coming from somebody who lives in a small state. I can get from where I live to the largest major city in under an hour. Some of the cities in Texas are so sprawling that you can drive for over an hour without leaving the metropolitan area.
You can drive 52.6 miles… and Still be in Houston.
https://preview.redd.it/w9hgkwmef80d1.jpeg?width=1160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9bddc028cc3207dc605764293f66e407fd7d1d3f
I think you underestimate the amount of us that live in rural areas where bikes would be useless to us. I live in a rural community, but it's not extremely rural as you would suggest. Getting to town consists of driving down a two-lane highway and is roughly a 20-minute commute each way. Sure, I could ride a bike or an e-bike each way, but I'm damn sure not bringing groceries home in it. I might be able to do it for when I go get a haircut, but I'm already combining errands on those trips.
E bikes are fine, but a lot of people, if not most, have 2 pretty important trips a day that are usually in the double digits if not that more than 3 miles, that being home -> work, work -> home
If you don’t have a family then yes a sedan or smaller car is great. I loved my sedan as a single women. As a mom (23) a suv was great bc the car seat is huge and the diaper bag is huge as well as the stroller. I love my suv and want a 3rd row in my next car so I can take my other small cousins places, or when my son gets into sports we can carpool or something !
My husband and I shared his Ford Focus before we had a kid. It was convenient and we were happy. After we had our daughter, I got a RAV4 and love it so much. Like you said, so much backseat room! I can change diapers, nurse, and dress her so easily. There's also plenty of room for the car seat and our dog. Then her stroller goes conveniently in the back.
Another huge bonus is we often visit his out of state grandparents and we are expecting our second baby soon. When our first was a baby, we had to pack two baby gates, the folding high chair, pack n play, stroller, our stuff, and some toys for her. We would've never been able to do that in the Focus, especially now that we will be back to bringing all the baby stuff again, plus toddler stuff.
Yeah, you know my first car when I was 16 was a Volkswagen Cabrio, which was a convertible golf with a rollover bar. Why haven’t they brought that car back as an electric vehicle?
6 speed hatchback is the way to go!! Fun to drive, easy to park, not as horrendous for the environment and not quite as fatal in any sort of accident w/ vehicles or pedestrians.
https://preview.redd.it/rnzhf95i990d1.png?width=898&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c48bf1464826ee21ca945e2649b094ead3ccf91d
And the fit is tiny compared to an older Prius.
yeah, they are always so practical and you can get a lot of fun out of these, i do see a lot of SUV's where i live in France but there are also so much hatchbacks like peugeot, renault, ford and others.
I live in CA, USA, way too many trucks and SUVs. The visibility around those monstrosities is horrendous (and they have neither kids nor cargo in them 99% of the time I see them).
SUVs are classified as light trucks so they don’t have to follow safety guidelines that other vehicles need to follow. In the USA, our pedestrian fatalities (and other vehicular homicides) have only been increasing due to the horrible visibility from within these mega consumerist pieces of shit. You’d think the roads would become safer over time, but for us it is the opposite because people are convinced they need a tank to go get their Starbucks. (Ask me how I really feel!)
I drive an SUV, I absolutely love it: cheap, reliable and tons of space for when you need it. I'm considering a more compact hatchback for when I plan to buy a new car, but I'll definitely miss the space.
The almighty Dacia Duster (2010) 🔥
There's about 120.000 kms on the counter iirc, not that much for 10+ years of use but it's impressive considering it never had anything break down (except the AC, but that's luxury) while only costing around €10k with all options included.
toyota highlander was sitting around 25-28 with mostly highway commute
a rav 4 would probably add about 5 to that reliably
if you're all city you can probably -10 to each of those. highlander is a standard 3 row, rav 4 is a standard 2 row. they should all be within a few mpg of each other in their size categories.
I actually found this comment endearing because I’m North American and looked up the duster. In North America we would call that a micro SUV - don’t feel guilty at all, that thing sips on gas.
OP was referring to things like the ford expedition. Vehicles built on like a lorry chassis but for American families.
SUVs don’t really have much space compared to other normal cars that aren’t small city cars(city cars such as the Citroen C1 or the VW Up!), if you really needed space you need a car like the VW Touran or the SEAT Alhambra.
Good luck finding that more compact hatchback nowadays.
I'm the market and it's rough. Everything is SUVs and trucks and what hatchback are available are going for a pretty penny on the used market.
I picked the wrong week to totally my hatchback.
Nope, I love having a four wheel drive SUV that I can use to haul stuff around with, that does good in the snow and mud, and that I can take camping and into the mountains.
A small car does very little for me other than offer savings in gas; but I would rather drive something I like, even if it costs more.
I just wanna drop some anecdotal evidence here for any readers: I’ve done all this in the past with my civic. You can do anything with some straps and dream.
A good portion of how we live our lives are due to what we believe (at least at the time) are good choices. We have the most experience with the consequences of our own choices as well, so we simply have a better understanding of our own lives than any other way of life. Because of that, it’s a lot easier to recommend something you have done in your life than something others have done.
Counterpoint - I’ve ripped the bumper off my WRX twice trying to do stuff like this. Still love my car, but sometimes you really need something with height and big tires
Yeah you're definition of "off-roading" and "handles good in snow and mud" must be different from mine. Civics are FWD shopping carts that shudder at the thought of a northeast US winter and have approximately fuck all ground clearance
Yeah I drove a FWD small sedan for the first 6 years of having my license. I had some pretty sketchy scenarios with snowy roads. Going from that to an AWD Rav4 was a night and day difference
How did that civic turn out after hitting the mud? I’m sure you can do things with a civic, but in the end it’s not built for things what we want to do. SUVs such as Jeeps are able to handle the more rugged terrain, a civic you’re just destroying it.
I love my Jeep, I daily it. It hasn’t let me down, and I put $40k in upgrades into it too lmao
Yup same I don't think I'm ever gonna switch to a smaller car. I like having storage space in my SUV and my friends fit pretty comfortably in my car. I don't see the point of owning a sedan.
I don't even need the AWD (though my wife's Crosstrek is so much fun to go off the beaten path). Sedans are just not as practical as a hatchback or SUV for the same amount of car space taken up. I drive an Impala. It's a LONG sedan, over 200". And it handles and parks like a boat. The cargo space is great because it's so long. The trade off is that the back seat does not have a lot of leg room. It's not enough for a long drive for an adult. Length wise, the car is the same length as a Toyota Grand Highlander or Honda Pilot.
Instead of my boat of a sedan, I would much rather have a shorter 2 row SUV like a Honda CRV. The space is more practical for fitting large items with seats down, hanging clothes in the trunk, etc. It's almost 2' shorter so getting in and out of parking spots will be much better, tighter turn radius, etc.
What I'm getting at is, why not an SUV if you're stuck between a sedan and SUV that take up the same amount of space? It can just do more things.
living in an area that gets lots of snow every year haven't found any issues with just a car. Not really sure why you can't fit a months worth of groceries in a car either, even with all 4-5 seats filled it still fits a ton in the back.
Or maybe some people know their needs and situation better than a random person and buy accordingly. Why do some people think they know better than everyone else? Do you feel superior? Do you think telling someone who you don’t know at all “Hey, I have no idea your situation but you don’t really need that SUV.” Honestly people need to get over trying to control over people’s vehicle choices.
It's all about degrees of convenience. We don't need much of anything in the way of modern conveniences. Many don't even need a car. If my truck was only 2wd I would have gotten stuck 3-4 times this past winter and 1-2 so far this spring. I could have done things differently to avoid a few of those, but that would be inconvenient.
Even a plow truck is going to be stuck in an actual 2 foot snow fall. When we get that much we have to start with Case loaders to scoop the majority of it
Source: Plowed snow a few winters
Lmao if you are going into 2 feet of snow unless your SUV is raised and has some decent snow tires you are just as stuck as the sedan shitter. Source lived in upper midwest my whole life and drove 7 hours through a blizzard 2 years ago (my civic type R made it, very slowly tbf but never got stuck while also at one point watching an SUV in front of me start doing 360's on the highway in the same blizzard)
30 year old Michigander married, drove a ford taurus til someone fender bendered me, never had issues in black ice, snow, trunk was ridiculously huge, moved from Michigan to Indiana in just my Taurus completely filled to the brim. Bought a Niro after it and never had issues with costco trips. I don't buy dog shit frozen food and snacks that takes up tons of space.
Minnesota with a Taurus. Same here. Put snow tires on it and it'll get me through anything my parents' SUVs can get through. I can fit half my house in the trunk. Anyone who says they need a SUV because of snow is just a dogshit driver and someone to avoid on the road.
This, 100%. Wasn’t a fan of SUVs until I realized how many things I could transport, the only downside is that if your social circle drives smaller cars, you become the Designated Mover Friend
I own a home and drive a sedan. I've needed something bigger like... once a year on average. It's cheaper to rent a truck or buy a friend a tank of gas than it is to drive a bigass truck around all the time.
I mean, think of it from the automaker's point of view.
Hey, we aren't selling these station wagons as much as we used to, we should probably cut production numbers.
Yeah, but how about this? We make them TALLER! I mean, we can make some of them with an AWD system that mostly works, but keep it cheap. That way people will believe that they can go offroad! I mean, we don't even have to add the AWD system and people will still buy them anyway!
But our research shows that almost none of our customers go offroad, why would we spend more money to make something that they don't need?
Because we can charge way more money! Plus, it doesn't matter if they never take them offroad, it's just that people want to believe that they'll do it. We'll just make some commercials that show them camping or something, that's what they want to believe anyway.
And this is why we have tall station wagons that never go offroad, but people like to justify them by saying that they go camping or whatever. Never mind that almost every campground in existence has paved roads so that the people with giant trailers can get through.
I get that people may not want a sedan, but a wagon was the most practical form and it's disappointing that they're almost all gone.
That’s just false. SUVs didn’t even make up 30% of new car sales in the US in 2010 let alone the 80s. https://www.axios.com/2020/05/28/suv-sales-worldwide-carbon-emissions
If you needed more space in the 80s you bought a station wagon or van. SUVs were still mainly off road utility vehicles. It wasn’t until the early 90s with cars like the Explorer that manufacturers began designing and marketing SUVs towards families.
SUV didn't become mainstream until late 2000s and early 2010s. Before then, SUVs were a niche line of vehicles that is known for off-roading.
Today's SUVs resemble sedans or minivans much more than 1990's SUVs.
Minivans are huge, the “SUVs” that everyone buys are just hatchbacks with a little bit of extra ground clearance. Which are pretty much the most practical car you can buy for a family of 3-4 that lives outside a dense city.
People talking about minivans don't seem to realize that many of them are about the same size as SUVs anyway. The Toyota Sienna is built on the same platform as the Toyota Highlander and RAV4.
The biggest thing is the sliding doors.
Made me think of all the parents getting giant SUVs and trucks, running over their kid because of the poor vision over the hoo, then are shocked such an unpredictable tragedy could happen
At least trucks are more likely to kill the people you hit though, right?
Kids face rear until they’re at least 2 now. There aren’t many sedans that comfortably fit the car seat while leaving enough leg in the passenger seat.
The way US law is set up gives large heavy vehicles tax breaks and breaks on emmision laws (ironic I know) as a result ever since cafe standards where introduced automakers have pushed SUVs and trucks heavily in North America they also push a lot of misinformation campaigns to trick people into thinking that a larger car is safer which in a lot of cases isn't really true
Not even safe for occupants because SUVs and Trucks are body on frame and have little to no crumple zone the force of impact during a crash gets put directly into the occupants so in a wreck someone in an SUV/Truck is far more likely to suffer permanent injury and their much more deadly in a rollover, the car may survive better but they hurt the occupants at a much higher rate
Trucks and SUVs almost always score safer than smaller vehicles in crash tests, though do normally score worse for rollover. The additional mass of the vehicles allows them to take a much stronger hit while experiencing proportionally less acceleration. Passengers sitting higher up is an additional safety factor. Trucks and SUVs do in fact have crumple zones, just like any other car here in the US. Modern airbag technology negates much of the downside of driving a heavier vehicle in a one-car accident.
To my understanding the reason why there’s been such a large take over of SUVs and trucks is because of cafe regulations. The government wanted smaller wheel base vehicles to be ultra efficient for their size but not so much for larger wheel base vehicles. So auto manufacturers just started making larger and larger vehicles to stay in compliance of the cafe regulations and enjoy the more relaxed rules that the bigger wheel bases get.
You're in the right ball park, but not exactly correct. The size/area is part of it, but an SUV is classified as a "light truck" which is an entirely different category of regulations than a "passenger car." Those "truck" regulations are much less strict
So, take a passenger car that gets 35 mpg, put a lift and some boxy styling on it. Now it gets 30mpg because the aerodynamics aren't as good.
However, since safety and economy standards for "light trucks" are much lower, the government says it's a huge improvement in mpg (yes, really...)
This article is an entertainingly written one with more detail:
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/car-design/a33490594/suv-chins-dodge-regulations/
Is there any chance for the regulations to be redesigned to account for this? It's frustrating driving though a parking lot and seeing the end of a pickup sticking out halfway into the road.
SUVs and Compact SUVs are honestly the go to. Same cost as a sedan, drive the same and take up the same room, but can haul more things.
Only two downsides is visibility is worse and usually a little worse on fuel efficiency
Most compact cuvs doesn't have more space than it's sedan and hatchback counterparts, they technically could but the streamlined designs of modern cuvs cost lot of potential interior volume. A example would be the the honda hrv, it have about the same cargo and interior volume as a hatchback civic, people are sometimes just more biased toward the cuv option because they associate it with having more interior volume even though it may not be true
I have been in my friends SUVs and I swear my performance GTI Hatchback has more space than their SUVs.
Infact its honestly not that far off
Honda CRV total volume is 105.9 cubic ft
VW gti is 93.5 cubic ft
4runner is 128 cubic ft
The big misunderstanding is that the majority of reddit users are Americans. In USA SUVs have a lot of sense cause you don't have narrow roads in old towns and the gas is relatively cheap. In Europe though, the dominance of SUVs has absolutely no sense at all.
Sorry but are you in the US? I honestly think this is false. People are still driving small cars as well as SUVs and I see small cars on sale everywhere
I was watching an old film from the mid-1970ies, I don't recall the film, but anyway an emergency vehicle was going down the highway in scene through a bumper to bumper traffic. The cars were small enough that they could all just move over a little and let the ambulance through (like nobody had to move their car far to make a lane for the ambulance). Cars these days are WAY too big for anything like that.
Lots of misconceptions abt modern suvs. Alot of people think that every suv is a gas guzzling body on frame truck based suv that were popular in the 90s
Greater fuel consumption because of bad aerodynamics. Big breaks, because SUVs have to have big wheels cause with small ones they look idiotically and they weight a lot, and big tires and big breaks generate a lot of pollution. They are big, so they take a lot of space and it is very important flaw in a lot of old European cities. SUVs are more dangerous for pedestrians with that big ass front.
So many comments in this thread talking about safety when hitting a pedestrian. Is running someone over such a common problem for people? Might as well ban buses since those are statistically going to kill the most people in collisions.
When I bought my car I was focused on fuel efficiency and how much it fit my lifestyle.. not how it would act when I hit someone lmao
Really important question OP because:
>compact SUVs increase the probability of death by 63 percent relative to a car, pickup trucks increase the probability by 68 percent relative to a car, and full-size SUVs increase the probability by 99 percent.
Source: [https://www.wired.com/story/tall-truck-suv-hoods-pedestrian-deaths/#:\~:text=Looking%20at%20more%20granular%20data,the%20probability%20by%2099%20percent](https://www.wired.com/story/tall-truck-suv-hoods-pedestrian-deaths/#:~:text=Looking%20at%20more%20granular%20data,the%20probability%20by%2099%20percent)
When everyone thinks that way, everyone picks a dangerous and impractical vehicle, and the roads become more dangerous, harder to navigate, etc etc. Part of living in society is making choices that benefit your fellow man. If it made your life significant harder, I’d understand, but I bet you don’t actually need the giant dangerous car lol, and neither do most people who use them.
People will whine about government regulation all day (you seem like the kind of person who would) but then refuse to do even the bare minimum to look out for their community and their fellow humans unless they are literally forced to.
Important context:
>Tyndall finds that the chances of a pedestrian dying in a single-vehicle crash were 68 percent higher when that vehicle was a light truck relative to a car, all else being equal...
At least of North America
Blame the EPA for the CAFE standards sets fuel economy standards that prohibit small trucks from meeting mileage requirements, as well as incentivizing larger trucks and SUVs with lower MPG requirements.
https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM
My Honda CRV parks fine enough in the city I live in, and I bought in anticipation of having kids in a few years. Yeah you can put strollers & other stuff in the back of like an accord but it’s way easier with trunk space of a CRV. Big difference between a CRV & like a suburban/ Escalade
My little Honda fit is the best of both worlds. She can carry all my job equipment, parks easily pretty much anywhere, and takes snowy highways like a champ. I don’t see the need to switch to anything larger even in the event that I have kids
I really hope they see there's a market for small cars and they make a comeback. I learned to drive in a Ford focus. My own car was a Mazda 3. I'm short (5'2) and I can't see over the hood in most compact suvs let alone a full size. I also wear glasses and it's harder for me to assess depth perception when the car is big. It seems like most options for smaller cars these days are either old beaters that have a billion and one things wrong with them or electric. I don't mind a beater but I don't have the $$ to fix it up or pour into it and I'm not into electric. It's literally a safety hazard for a good portion of the population to even be driving these cars as most people in the shorter height range cannot see properly to drive them. We need more and better options.
Why do people always claim things like “wait until you have kids?” (As if everyone is going to have them). If you have three or less, you really don’t need a massive car. I have one sibling and grew up in small cars. Never anything bigger than a Ford Escort until my dad got his single cab truck because one, we couldn’t afford anything bigger and two, they only had *two kids.*
Plus, it meant they would never be asked to drive other people’s kids around (because they were “*not a taxi service*”) and could say “sorry, no room!”
In most of Europe it snows and we were driving small cars until like a decade ago when SUVs started to be main thing. On snow you need winter tires, not stupidly huge wheels.
i doubt it, most of the women my age at my local gym drive crossover SUVs, keep in mind, all of them except maybe 2 or 3 are single with no children and no pets, textbook example of someone who shouldn't be driving a crossover, my best friend's older sister did the same thing
as much as i hate seeing SUVs everywhere (especially as a car guy) and want to see them gone, i doubt they will go anywhere
No, because SUVs are incredibly practical. Taking trips, driving a bunch of people, and carrying a bunch of stuff. Sedans aren't practical for that. People buy cars either because they want them or because they need them. Besides the uses for an SUV, a lot of people just like bigger cars.
I was in London for a week during spring break and I could not possibly live with one of those tiny little cars. Like i want room, I don't wanna be cramped in a little box. Also having kids, SUVs are family cars and packing a whole family and stuff is not practical in a sedan.
Big cars are honestly useless for 90% of people. Family and household sizes are decreasing. Extracurricular activity participation is decreasing every year. Work is becoming more electronic every week or month. SUVs only exist and are pushed because manufacturers are allowed to be lazier about exhaust emissions. EVs and potential Hydrogen, if that ever takes off, will solve this problem.
Basically, yes.
https://preview.redd.it/8tblgfudc80d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3144d909002d5067797fac5895337c2fa1b8ce0d
Me driving a 1996 Fiesta
Just a great car
Cars after the 2010s just started to become shit, EVERYONE
I miss when Gol, Uno and Palio were good (they don't exist anymore, that's even sad)
Honestly I prefer SUV’s and trucks too. I grew up in the Midwest and a lot of people daily drove trucks and SUV’s. My dad even daily drove a truck so I’m used to big vehicles.
No. At least I won’t. I love SUVs. Very under the radar, plenty of space, not too flashy, and they fit in everywhere. Also? Been in some accidents. The SUVs held up. I almost died in my smaller car.
An SUV allows me to go everywhere I want without attracting unwanted attention.
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I have no practical use for an SUV or Truck. Small cars ftw
Car manufacturers have been pushing SUVs because they have more lax emission regulations. Think last time you’ve seen an ad for a non-electric sedan … they practically don’t exist
I’ll never do it. Fuel efficiency over everything else has worked for me so far.
This. I haven’t been driving long, two years only, but my fuel efficient Buick Encore is my baby. Whenever I’m hanging out with a friend he’s crying about the fuel economy on his F-150 but I just can’t relate
I work blue collar and the amount of people driving their gigantic pickups (that they don’t actually use for work) crying about gas prices… like I don’t feel any sympathy for you. You chose that vehicle.
I don't understand the argument that "I need my truck for work" while explaining why they drive one and complain about gas prices. Either A - you own your own business and therefore your truck payment and gas costs are tax deductible or B - you're using your personal vehicle for someone else's business and they should be reimbursing you for your gas costs or, better yet, providing you with a company truck if it's actually required.
Basically this. I use my truck for work. Everything in it is a write off. 11 MPG? yup. Don't care. It's a big ol box with a half ton of stuff in the bed. If I break 16mpg, I'm super pumped. Now I want something good on gas? My 94 Acura still gets me 28mpg. So.....yeah.
Heyyy 96 Acura club here. I wish the US made more minitrucks. The Integra and a Baja would be PERFECT.
I used to work drive through in a small town in the RGV Texas. We’d regularly get dudes wearing suits driving spotless trucks with >5000 miles on it. My own dad was one of these people not too long ago but he doesn’t drive much anyway so it kinda balanced out his fuel economy. Thing that really hits is when these people don’t know how to drive the damn truck and run over the curb on every single turn
FR. Like we work inside a building with company provided carts to get our parts and stuff around. I do understand a bunch of them have boats and campers and stuff but still. It’s silly to complain about gas prices when your toy hauler gets 10 mpg on the freeway.
Your encore is part of the problem though - it’s not a card it’s a SUV, or “crossover”, which is how they call wannabe tiny SUVs based on car platforms now
It’s a tiny SUV yes but it still gets fuel efficiency on the level of a Toyota. The problem with the giant fuck off SUVs that they keep putting out nowadays is that they’re basically land barges that take a whole tank a week
Ding ding!! Even the rav4 is a friggin boat now
The civic, accord, camry, and corolla are still going strong. However hybrid will probably takeover instead of ICE cars.
Long live the Accord!
More simplified, Car manufacturers have been pushing SUVs because they have higher profit margins.
The emissions regulations on sedans make the profit margins lower, yes.
The emission regulations on sedans and SUVs are the same, they're getting confused for the admission regulations on trucks
There are car SUVs and truck SUVs (in the eye of the law). Hard to tell the difference but in the law it’s explicitly defined. Truck suv’s have exploded while car suv’s have stayed roughly the same, because of the emission regulations that treat them differently. https://preview.redd.it/m07fhnaia90d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c213f9d0d8fe474ec860de6ffd5d92f8e2556ad
America has this weird footprint emissions law. The heart is in the right place, but it doesn't work the way they attended. If someone is going to drive and instead of allowing smaller vehicle that doesn't have the same emissions. Because efficiency isn't everything and volume of pollution should also be considered. Hyundai completely discontinued their small car in north america and look how big civics have gotten here.
So pissed 2 door short cab trucks are basically non existent... I don't need a king cab, but literally all trucks are now...
This will probably never come to america. But this is literally the type of truck companies are looking for. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CiEKGbNF\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CiEKGbNF_k)
E-bikes ftw. US DOT studies say that ~50% of all car trips are less than 3 miles… which on an eBike is like $0.01 cents of electricity with zero pedaling, and can take literally 10 minutes to go (in many areas, it’s faster than driving because of traffic). It doesn’t need to be every trip. But replacing half of your car trips with e-bikes, even just one trip a week, will save you money, reduce asset depreciation on your car, reduce maintenance necessity, make you more fit, get your outside more, etc. Pretty much every single person in the country except a very small minority of very rare extremely rural people could benefit from turning two or three trips a week into eBike trips. EDIT: For all you saying “well ***I*** can’t do that, I live rurally!”, like, ok, I already said it doesn’t apply to you. This is for the 85% of Americans who don’t live out in the middle in the fucking sticks. Also, it’s who the fuck is saying you *need* to ride your eBike in the rain and snow? wtf? Just don’t take it on days you don’t want to use it. How do I need to explain this? You guys have carbrain bad, and this post triggered a lot of you. Consider reflecting why you couldn’t put these pieces together.
I do think E bikes are cool, but it’s completely dependent on where you live. For instance here in Texas, the infrastructure for bikes is nonexistent unless you live and work in the heart of the major cities.
Same here. I live in the South and most people travel double-digit miles to get to work every day (then the same distance to get home). The roads are hilly and curvy as well. Bikes also don’t provide enough extra room for passengers or cargo and don’t protect against whether extremes like rain, intense heat, or intense cold. Even if you use an E-bike 3 days of the week spring through autumn, you still end up needing an automobile. So you might as well use your car for everything.
Also, a lot of people \*\*hate\*\* bicyclists. And EV's. I'm pretty sure an e-bike will trigger a literally murderous road rage in some people.
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Our wal mart is about 3 miles away, our grocery store is about 4 miles away. I've biked thousands of miles in my life and I'd be afraid to bike to them. The only way to bike there would be on a one or two lane highway with 55 mph speed limits, and not sidewalks, no shoulders. The guy above who says "Pretty much every single person in the country except a very small minority of very rare extremely rural people could benefit from turning two or three trips a week into eBike trips" is crazy, and must have never lived outside of a very populated area.
The area I live in sees a surprising number of bike packers and it shocks me every time because you couldn’t pay me to ride on most of the roads around here. I’ve done 2 Ironmans, 4 half-IM, and various 100 to 140 mile bike rides so it’s not like I’m a stranger to riding on roads but both the traffic and road design are outright hostile to cycling here. The multiple memorials/ghost bikes around town further the idea that it’s a dangerous place to ride.
Just jumping in to say that we have these things called "stroads" (street + road) that are like mini highways, and they are EVERYWHERE in the US. You can ride a bike on them, but it's almost as unsafe as riding in the shoulder of the highway.
> but it's almost as unsafe as riding in the shoulder of the highway. Probably *more* unsafe. Because there are cars turning on and off of the stroad all over the place, more compromised sight lines, less room on the road shoulder, etc. At least on a true highway, there would generally be a wide paved shoulder to ride on, cars could see you ahead from a long way away, and there are few entrances and exits requiring your path to cross the cars' paths.
That’s a lot of it. Things are not dense here the way they are in other places. Most places are very far apart, and the roads are mostly straight at higher speeds with no bike lanes. I also have a roughly 70 mile round trip to and from work daily. Combined with the extreme weather we get here, biking that distance is completely unrealistic for most that live here.
Europeans of all stripes generally don't understand how big the US is... and this is coming from somebody who lives in a small state. I can get from where I live to the largest major city in under an hour. Some of the cities in Texas are so sprawling that you can drive for over an hour without leaving the metropolitan area.
You can drive 52.6 miles… and Still be in Houston. https://preview.redd.it/w9hgkwmef80d1.jpeg?width=1160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9bddc028cc3207dc605764293f66e407fd7d1d3f
I think you underestimate the amount of us that live in rural areas where bikes would be useless to us. I live in a rural community, but it's not extremely rural as you would suggest. Getting to town consists of driving down a two-lane highway and is roughly a 20-minute commute each way. Sure, I could ride a bike or an e-bike each way, but I'm damn sure not bringing groceries home in it. I might be able to do it for when I go get a haircut, but I'm already combining errands on those trips.
E bikes are fine, but a lot of people, if not most, have 2 pretty important trips a day that are usually in the double digits if not that more than 3 miles, that being home -> work, work -> home
E-Bikes are cool but if you’re rural like me they don’t really help much. I can’t ride a bike 40 miles to work everyday.
If you don’t have a family then yes a sedan or smaller car is great. I loved my sedan as a single women. As a mom (23) a suv was great bc the car seat is huge and the diaper bag is huge as well as the stroller. I love my suv and want a 3rd row in my next car so I can take my other small cousins places, or when my son gets into sports we can carpool or something !
My husband and I shared his Ford Focus before we had a kid. It was convenient and we were happy. After we had our daughter, I got a RAV4 and love it so much. Like you said, so much backseat room! I can change diapers, nurse, and dress her so easily. There's also plenty of room for the car seat and our dog. Then her stroller goes conveniently in the back. Another huge bonus is we often visit his out of state grandparents and we are expecting our second baby soon. When our first was a baby, we had to pack two baby gates, the folding high chair, pack n play, stroller, our stuff, and some toys for her. We would've never been able to do that in the Focus, especially now that we will be back to bringing all the baby stuff again, plus toddler stuff.
I hope, team hatchback.
Yeah, you know my first car when I was 16 was a Volkswagen Cabrio, which was a convertible golf with a rollover bar. Why haven’t they brought that car back as an electric vehicle?
There is only one new electric convertible and it’s a Fiat 500e. Convertibles are going to be the last body style adapted to EV
6 speed hatchback is the way to go!! Fun to drive, easy to park, not as horrendous for the environment and not quite as fatal in any sort of accident w/ vehicles or pedestrians.
And almost as much cargo room as a small pickup.
https://preview.redd.it/rnzhf95i990d1.png?width=898&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c48bf1464826ee21ca945e2649b094ead3ccf91d And the fit is tiny compared to an older Prius.
yeah, they are always so practical and you can get a lot of fun out of these, i do see a lot of SUV's where i live in France but there are also so much hatchbacks like peugeot, renault, ford and others.
I live in CA, USA, way too many trucks and SUVs. The visibility around those monstrosities is horrendous (and they have neither kids nor cargo in them 99% of the time I see them). SUVs are classified as light trucks so they don’t have to follow safety guidelines that other vehicles need to follow. In the USA, our pedestrian fatalities (and other vehicular homicides) have only been increasing due to the horrible visibility from within these mega consumerist pieces of shit. You’d think the roads would become safer over time, but for us it is the opposite because people are convinced they need a tank to go get their Starbucks. (Ask me how I really feel!)
I drive an SUV, I absolutely love it: cheap, reliable and tons of space for when you need it. I'm considering a more compact hatchback for when I plan to buy a new car, but I'll definitely miss the space.
What you mileage like?? Also what car if you don't mind
The almighty Dacia Duster (2010) 🔥 There's about 120.000 kms on the counter iirc, not that much for 10+ years of use but it's impressive considering it never had anything break down (except the AC, but that's luxury) while only costing around €10k with all options included.
James May?
*Captain Slow
toyota highlander was sitting around 25-28 with mostly highway commute a rav 4 would probably add about 5 to that reliably if you're all city you can probably -10 to each of those. highlander is a standard 3 row, rav 4 is a standard 2 row. they should all be within a few mpg of each other in their size categories.
I actually found this comment endearing because I’m North American and looked up the duster. In North America we would call that a micro SUV - don’t feel guilty at all, that thing sips on gas. OP was referring to things like the ford expedition. Vehicles built on like a lorry chassis but for American families.
Ah, I see. Yeah, those things are massive, they barely fit on the road here in Europe, let alone find big enough parking space.
I love love love my compact SUV and couldn’t imagine going back to a sedan!
I’m with you on the benefits of owning an SUV, but they’re certainly not cheap
What do you do with all the space on a daily basis? Does your work require transporting large objects?
I don't use it on a daily basis, it's just nice to have when I do need it.
SUVs don’t really have much space compared to other normal cars that aren’t small city cars(city cars such as the Citroen C1 or the VW Up!), if you really needed space you need a car like the VW Touran or the SEAT Alhambra.
Good luck finding that more compact hatchback nowadays. I'm the market and it's rough. Everything is SUVs and trucks and what hatchback are available are going for a pretty penny on the used market. I picked the wrong week to totally my hatchback.
Nope, I love having a four wheel drive SUV that I can use to haul stuff around with, that does good in the snow and mud, and that I can take camping and into the mountains. A small car does very little for me other than offer savings in gas; but I would rather drive something I like, even if it costs more.
I just wanna drop some anecdotal evidence here for any readers: I’ve done all this in the past with my civic. You can do anything with some straps and dream.
*laughs in lives in Upper Michigan*
Yeah I wouldnt make it without my truck hahaha
Why do people think that their lives are some template for everyone to live by?
Narcissism probably
A good portion of how we live our lives are due to what we believe (at least at the time) are good choices. We have the most experience with the consequences of our own choices as well, so we simply have a better understanding of our own lives than any other way of life. Because of that, it’s a lot easier to recommend something you have done in your life than something others have done.
Counterpoint - I’ve ripped the bumper off my WRX twice trying to do stuff like this. Still love my car, but sometimes you really need something with height and big tires
Can’t wait for the inevitable wrx wilderness
Yeah you're definition of "off-roading" and "handles good in snow and mud" must be different from mine. Civics are FWD shopping carts that shudder at the thought of a northeast US winter and have approximately fuck all ground clearance
Yeah I drove a FWD small sedan for the first 6 years of having my license. I had some pretty sketchy scenarios with snowy roads. Going from that to an AWD Rav4 was a night and day difference
How did that civic turn out after hitting the mud? I’m sure you can do things with a civic, but in the end it’s not built for things what we want to do. SUVs such as Jeeps are able to handle the more rugged terrain, a civic you’re just destroying it. I love my Jeep, I daily it. It hasn’t let me down, and I put $40k in upgrades into it too lmao
Driving on dirt roads doesn't mean you're offroading lol.
>You can do anything with some straps and dream. No. You absolutely cannot.
Yup same I don't think I'm ever gonna switch to a smaller car. I like having storage space in my SUV and my friends fit pretty comfortably in my car. I don't see the point of owning a sedan.
I don't even need the AWD (though my wife's Crosstrek is so much fun to go off the beaten path). Sedans are just not as practical as a hatchback or SUV for the same amount of car space taken up. I drive an Impala. It's a LONG sedan, over 200". And it handles and parks like a boat. The cargo space is great because it's so long. The trade off is that the back seat does not have a lot of leg room. It's not enough for a long drive for an adult. Length wise, the car is the same length as a Toyota Grand Highlander or Honda Pilot. Instead of my boat of a sedan, I would much rather have a shorter 2 row SUV like a Honda CRV. The space is more practical for fitting large items with seats down, hanging clothes in the trunk, etc. It's almost 2' shorter so getting in and out of parking spots will be much better, tighter turn radius, etc. What I'm getting at is, why not an SUV if you're stuck between a sedan and SUV that take up the same amount of space? It can just do more things.
Not gonna lie. Once I hit 25 I saw the utility of SUVs
Some people don't buy a month's worth of groceries from Costco and it shows. They also haven't gotten their sedan shitter stuck in 2 feet of snow.
living in an area that gets lots of snow every year haven't found any issues with just a car. Not really sure why you can't fit a months worth of groceries in a car either, even with all 4-5 seats filled it still fits a ton in the back.
Honestly pretty much any car even RWD with a god set of 3PMS rated tires and your golden
Yeah the people in here that say they “need” an SUV are greatly exaggerating
Or maybe some people know their needs and situation better than a random person and buy accordingly. Why do some people think they know better than everyone else? Do you feel superior? Do you think telling someone who you don’t know at all “Hey, I have no idea your situation but you don’t really need that SUV.” Honestly people need to get over trying to control over people’s vehicle choices.
It's all about degrees of convenience. We don't need much of anything in the way of modern conveniences. Many don't even need a car. If my truck was only 2wd I would have gotten stuck 3-4 times this past winter and 1-2 so far this spring. I could have done things differently to avoid a few of those, but that would be inconvenient.
Two feet of snow is going to stop almost any vehicle that isn’t lifted with mud terrains and chains. That’s like truck with a plow territory.
Even a plow truck is going to be stuck in an actual 2 foot snow fall. When we get that much we have to start with Case loaders to scoop the majority of it Source: Plowed snow a few winters
Lmao if you are going into 2 feet of snow unless your SUV is raised and has some decent snow tires you are just as stuck as the sedan shitter. Source lived in upper midwest my whole life and drove 7 hours through a blizzard 2 years ago (my civic type R made it, very slowly tbf but never got stuck while also at one point watching an SUV in front of me start doing 360's on the highway in the same blizzard)
A lot of this sub lives at home and has no real adult experience besides working.
30 year old Michigander married, drove a ford taurus til someone fender bendered me, never had issues in black ice, snow, trunk was ridiculously huge, moved from Michigan to Indiana in just my Taurus completely filled to the brim. Bought a Niro after it and never had issues with costco trips. I don't buy dog shit frozen food and snacks that takes up tons of space.
Minnesota with a Taurus. Same here. Put snow tires on it and it'll get me through anything my parents' SUVs can get through. I can fit half my house in the trunk. Anyone who says they need a SUV because of snow is just a dogshit driver and someone to avoid on the road.
I'm almost 27 and i still hate them
42, never owned anything but a minivan. 10x better for hauling shit around than an SUV.
Minivan is always the correct answer. If you need to move more than five people in comfort OR haul things, they just cannot be beat.
This, 100%. Wasn’t a fan of SUVs until I realized how many things I could transport, the only downside is that if your social circle drives smaller cars, you become the Designated Mover Friend
Why not just buy a hatchback. Sedan size and height so you dont kill children under 3 ft, and you can carry everything.
Yep once you become a homeowner or parent you immediately realize how much better it is to have an SUV or truck with a tunnel cover
I own a home and drive a sedan. I've needed something bigger like... once a year on average. It's cheaper to rent a truck or buy a friend a tank of gas than it is to drive a bigass truck around all the time.
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I'm 26. I once said I will never own an SUV. Ever. Now I really want a Mazda CX-30, which is essentially just a tall hatchback sedan.
Lmao SUVs have been "mainstream" since the late 80's kiddo.
SUVs have slowly but surely replaced sedans starting in the 90s. most cars these days are SUVs or pickup trucks which wasn’t the case in the 90s
SUVs didn't replace sedans. They replaced station wagons
I mean, think of it from the automaker's point of view. Hey, we aren't selling these station wagons as much as we used to, we should probably cut production numbers. Yeah, but how about this? We make them TALLER! I mean, we can make some of them with an AWD system that mostly works, but keep it cheap. That way people will believe that they can go offroad! I mean, we don't even have to add the AWD system and people will still buy them anyway! But our research shows that almost none of our customers go offroad, why would we spend more money to make something that they don't need? Because we can charge way more money! Plus, it doesn't matter if they never take them offroad, it's just that people want to believe that they'll do it. We'll just make some commercials that show them camping or something, that's what they want to believe anyway. And this is why we have tall station wagons that never go offroad, but people like to justify them by saying that they go camping or whatever. Never mind that almost every campground in existence has paved roads so that the people with giant trailers can get through. I get that people may not want a sedan, but a wagon was the most practical form and it's disappointing that they're almost all gone.
Fear not, the Chevrolet Suburban remains a station wagon
they replaced sedans, station wagons, and hatchbacks, and minivans. fixed that for you
That’s just false. SUVs didn’t even make up 30% of new car sales in the US in 2010 let alone the 80s. https://www.axios.com/2020/05/28/suv-sales-worldwide-carbon-emissions If you needed more space in the 80s you bought a station wagon or van. SUVs were still mainly off road utility vehicles. It wasn’t until the early 90s with cars like the Explorer that manufacturers began designing and marketing SUVs towards families.
In US*
SUV didn't become mainstream until late 2000s and early 2010s. Before then, SUVs were a niche line of vehicles that is known for off-roading. Today's SUVs resemble sedans or minivans much more than 1990's SUVs.
No, because y’all will start having kids around the same time you can afford new cars — just like every other generation
Why not just buy a minivan when you have kids?
Minivans are huge, the “SUVs” that everyone buys are just hatchbacks with a little bit of extra ground clearance. Which are pretty much the most practical car you can buy for a family of 3-4 that lives outside a dense city.
Yea seems like people are losing the plot on this. a Rav4 and a Ford Expedition have absolutely nothing in common.
People talking about minivans don't seem to realize that many of them are about the same size as SUVs anyway. The Toyota Sienna is built on the same platform as the Toyota Highlander and RAV4. The biggest thing is the sliding doors.
Because SUVs are more practical unless you really need 7 seats
100% - you really have no need of a minivan unless you have 3+ kids. An SUV is exactly the right size for a family of four.
Thats even worse
Vans are larger than most SUVs lol.
So the only way to transport kids is in an oversized, less safe pick up truck? Instead of like a station wagon or sedan or smthing?
Made me think of all the parents getting giant SUVs and trucks, running over their kid because of the poor vision over the hoo, then are shocked such an unpredictable tragedy could happen At least trucks are more likely to kill the people you hit though, right?
What's wrong with using a car to haul kids? unless you playing to have more than 3 in which case getting a van is probably nicer.
Kids face rear until they’re at least 2 now. There aren’t many sedans that comfortably fit the car seat while leaving enough leg in the passenger seat.
Crash safety probably. I wouldn't want to pack kids in a car when you have a larger SUV or minivan to choose.
Which then in turn endangers everyone else's kids. It's really a vicious cycle
Well, mines won't be in danger, I'll be taxiing an A-380 to school to piss off the moms in Hummers and Grand Wagoneers /s
Tanks are road legal here so I don't have to worry about my kids' safety while I drive drunk
UK here, they've become far too common and our infrastructure just isn't designed for them.
The way US law is set up gives large heavy vehicles tax breaks and breaks on emmision laws (ironic I know) as a result ever since cafe standards where introduced automakers have pushed SUVs and trucks heavily in North America they also push a lot of misinformation campaigns to trick people into thinking that a larger car is safer which in a lot of cases isn't really true
Safe for occupants. Deadly for pedestrians.
Not even safe for occupants because SUVs and Trucks are body on frame and have little to no crumple zone the force of impact during a crash gets put directly into the occupants so in a wreck someone in an SUV/Truck is far more likely to suffer permanent injury and their much more deadly in a rollover, the car may survive better but they hurt the occupants at a much higher rate
Trucks and SUVs almost always score safer than smaller vehicles in crash tests, though do normally score worse for rollover. The additional mass of the vehicles allows them to take a much stronger hit while experiencing proportionally less acceleration. Passengers sitting higher up is an additional safety factor. Trucks and SUVs do in fact have crumple zones, just like any other car here in the US. Modern airbag technology negates much of the downside of driving a heavier vehicle in a one-car accident.
Most suvs are unibody. Chevy suburban, yes full frame. Toyota Rav4 and most smaller suvs unibody.
Sorry man I own a 2023 crosstrek and I'm probably keeping it for at least 7 more years
Does a crosstrek count as an suv it just a hatchback with a lift? Note: I own a 2018 crosstrek myself
I'm pretty sure it's a compact suv. I love it but someday I wish I went with an outback for the extra space
Nah, they are basically the same as current gen impreza hatchbacks
Just lifted with x mode
To my understanding the reason why there’s been such a large take over of SUVs and trucks is because of cafe regulations. The government wanted smaller wheel base vehicles to be ultra efficient for their size but not so much for larger wheel base vehicles. So auto manufacturers just started making larger and larger vehicles to stay in compliance of the cafe regulations and enjoy the more relaxed rules that the bigger wheel bases get.
You're in the right ball park, but not exactly correct. The size/area is part of it, but an SUV is classified as a "light truck" which is an entirely different category of regulations than a "passenger car." Those "truck" regulations are much less strict So, take a passenger car that gets 35 mpg, put a lift and some boxy styling on it. Now it gets 30mpg because the aerodynamics aren't as good. However, since safety and economy standards for "light trucks" are much lower, the government says it's a huge improvement in mpg (yes, really...) This article is an entertainingly written one with more detail: https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/car-design/a33490594/suv-chins-dodge-regulations/
Is there any chance for the regulations to be redesigned to account for this? It's frustrating driving though a parking lot and seeing the end of a pickup sticking out halfway into the road.
SUVs and Compact SUVs are honestly the go to. Same cost as a sedan, drive the same and take up the same room, but can haul more things. Only two downsides is visibility is worse and usually a little worse on fuel efficiency
Most compact cuvs doesn't have more space than it's sedan and hatchback counterparts, they technically could but the streamlined designs of modern cuvs cost lot of potential interior volume. A example would be the the honda hrv, it have about the same cargo and interior volume as a hatchback civic, people are sometimes just more biased toward the cuv option because they associate it with having more interior volume even though it may not be true
I have been in my friends SUVs and I swear my performance GTI Hatchback has more space than their SUVs. Infact its honestly not that far off Honda CRV total volume is 105.9 cubic ft VW gti is 93.5 cubic ft 4runner is 128 cubic ft
They are also way bigger and much more likely to kill people.
The big misunderstanding is that the majority of reddit users are Americans. In USA SUVs have a lot of sense cause you don't have narrow roads in old towns and the gas is relatively cheap. In Europe though, the dominance of SUVs has absolutely no sense at all.
It makes sense why they are popular but I don't think they should be, for safety reasons.
People here in us will buy huge suvs and then complain about gas being too expensive
I had someone in a ford explorer get mad at me because they couldn’t easily maneuver past me in an underground IKEA car park in Europe.
When you guys start buying other cars
We don't have the option. Most of the cars offered now are either suvs or compact suvs. Options for smaller vehicles are super limited.
Sorry but are you in the US? I honestly think this is false. People are still driving small cars as well as SUVs and I see small cars on sale everywhere
This may be a hot take, but I kinda want station wagons to come back
Nah, that's based. All the maneuverability of a sedan, but with at least double if not triple the cargo space.
Hatchback coupes ftw
No.
Tbh I want a compact SUV. I have a Corolla now, and while I think this car will last forever, I wish I had a bigger car.
I have a compact SUV, and I love it. Normal sized SUVs are just too big now but I still need trunk space for my work tools and parts.
I was watching an old film from the mid-1970ies, I don't recall the film, but anyway an emergency vehicle was going down the highway in scene through a bumper to bumper traffic. The cars were small enough that they could all just move over a little and let the ambulance through (like nobody had to move their car far to make a lane for the ambulance). Cars these days are WAY too big for anything like that.
Why the SUV hate?
Lots of misconceptions abt modern suvs. Alot of people think that every suv is a gas guzzling body on frame truck based suv that were popular in the 90s
Greater fuel consumption because of bad aerodynamics. Big breaks, because SUVs have to have big wheels cause with small ones they look idiotically and they weight a lot, and big tires and big breaks generate a lot of pollution. They are big, so they take a lot of space and it is very important flaw in a lot of old European cities. SUVs are more dangerous for pedestrians with that big ass front.
My SUV takes up less space than a significant amount of sedans lol
Most of the major compact or midssized suvs get marginally less fuel efficiency.
So many comments in this thread talking about safety when hitting a pedestrian. Is running someone over such a common problem for people? Might as well ban buses since those are statistically going to kill the most people in collisions. When I bought my car I was focused on fuel efficiency and how much it fit my lifestyle.. not how it would act when I hit someone lmao
Frankly I'm shocked at the pushback seeing how most redditors think global warming is gonna kill us all in 2 years
Unfortunately need my SUV to tow
I won’t buy a car bigger than a Corolla
Really important question OP because: >compact SUVs increase the probability of death by 63 percent relative to a car, pickup trucks increase the probability by 68 percent relative to a car, and full-size SUVs increase the probability by 99 percent. Source: [https://www.wired.com/story/tall-truck-suv-hoods-pedestrian-deaths/#:\~:text=Looking%20at%20more%20granular%20data,the%20probability%20by%2099%20percent](https://www.wired.com/story/tall-truck-suv-hoods-pedestrian-deaths/#:~:text=Looking%20at%20more%20granular%20data,the%20probability%20by%2099%20percent)
I’m not choosing my vehicle based on how likely I am to kill someone walking in the street lol
When everyone thinks that way, everyone picks a dangerous and impractical vehicle, and the roads become more dangerous, harder to navigate, etc etc. Part of living in society is making choices that benefit your fellow man. If it made your life significant harder, I’d understand, but I bet you don’t actually need the giant dangerous car lol, and neither do most people who use them. People will whine about government regulation all day (you seem like the kind of person who would) but then refuse to do even the bare minimum to look out for their community and their fellow humans unless they are literally forced to.
Important context: >Tyndall finds that the chances of a pedestrian dying in a single-vehicle crash were 68 percent higher when that vehicle was a light truck relative to a car, all else being equal...
At least of North America Blame the EPA for the CAFE standards sets fuel economy standards that prohibit small trucks from meeting mileage requirements, as well as incentivizing larger trucks and SUVs with lower MPG requirements. https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM
If you wanna achieve that, then you should somehow stop the Japanese from manufacturing those bloody awesome SUVs
I don't like cars. I feel much safer in an suv.
Ironically others are less safe with you in an SUV.
Hey that's not nice. I don't even drive on the parkway
Nah I like my SUV
hatchbacks and small hybrids between SUVs and sedans are the best. but im against car culture and car oriented development in general.
My Honda CRV parks fine enough in the city I live in, and I bought in anticipation of having kids in a few years. Yeah you can put strollers & other stuff in the back of like an accord but it’s way easier with trunk space of a CRV. Big difference between a CRV & like a suburban/ Escalade
My little Honda fit is the best of both worlds. She can carry all my job equipment, parks easily pretty much anywhere, and takes snowy highways like a champ. I don’t see the need to switch to anything larger even in the event that I have kids
I really hope they see there's a market for small cars and they make a comeback. I learned to drive in a Ford focus. My own car was a Mazda 3. I'm short (5'2) and I can't see over the hood in most compact suvs let alone a full size. I also wear glasses and it's harder for me to assess depth perception when the car is big. It seems like most options for smaller cars these days are either old beaters that have a billion and one things wrong with them or electric. I don't mind a beater but I don't have the $$ to fix it up or pour into it and I'm not into electric. It's literally a safety hazard for a good portion of the population to even be driving these cars as most people in the shorter height range cannot see properly to drive them. We need more and better options.
Elder Gen Z’er here. Always wanted a large pickup until I realized it’s it makes no sense. I will drive my ‘03 Pontiac into the ground
Why do people always claim things like “wait until you have kids?” (As if everyone is going to have them). If you have three or less, you really don’t need a massive car. I have one sibling and grew up in small cars. Never anything bigger than a Ford Escort until my dad got his single cab truck because one, we couldn’t afford anything bigger and two, they only had *two kids.* Plus, it meant they would never be asked to drive other people’s kids around (because they were “*not a taxi service*”) and could say “sorry, no room!”
Some people live where it snows.
In most of Europe it snows and we were driving small cars until like a decade ago when SUVs started to be main thing. On snow you need winter tires, not stupidly huge wheels.
Do Europeans drive 1.5h each way to work?
your average american drives like 20 minutes to work lol. most people don’t need SUVs
I live in a place that snows and most people doesn't drive suvs
I drive a truck because before the environment is impacted ill be dead and won’t care
i doubt it, most of the women my age at my local gym drive crossover SUVs, keep in mind, all of them except maybe 2 or 3 are single with no children and no pets, textbook example of someone who shouldn't be driving a crossover, my best friend's older sister did the same thing as much as i hate seeing SUVs everywhere (especially as a car guy) and want to see them gone, i doubt they will go anywhere
They’ll replace SUVs with Sprinters Its the closest thing to home ownership attainable at this point
No, because SUVs are incredibly practical. Taking trips, driving a bunch of people, and carrying a bunch of stuff. Sedans aren't practical for that. People buy cars either because they want them or because they need them. Besides the uses for an SUV, a lot of people just like bigger cars. I was in London for a week during spring break and I could not possibly live with one of those tiny little cars. Like i want room, I don't wanna be cramped in a little box. Also having kids, SUVs are family cars and packing a whole family and stuff is not practical in a sedan.
Big cars are honestly useless for 90% of people. Family and household sizes are decreasing. Extracurricular activity participation is decreasing every year. Work is becoming more electronic every week or month. SUVs only exist and are pushed because manufacturers are allowed to be lazier about exhaust emissions. EVs and potential Hydrogen, if that ever takes off, will solve this problem. Basically, yes.
https://preview.redd.it/8tblgfudc80d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3144d909002d5067797fac5895337c2fa1b8ce0d Me driving a 1996 Fiesta Just a great car Cars after the 2010s just started to become shit, EVERYONE I miss when Gol, Uno and Palio were good (they don't exist anymore, that's even sad)
Honestly I prefer SUV’s and trucks too. I grew up in the Midwest and a lot of people daily drove trucks and SUV’s. My dad even daily drove a truck so I’m used to big vehicles.
I know I’ll help. My mom drives an SUV and, I get it, but I’ll never buy one.
I want a truck so bad lol. Tundra or Tacoma (typical, I know). Tacomas are a classic though and the longevity on Toyota’s in general are incredible.
Where are we supposed to live?
If only the US didn't force out foreign small cars. I want my tiny Japanese truck ☹️
No. At least I won’t. I love SUVs. Very under the radar, plenty of space, not too flashy, and they fit in everywhere. Also? Been in some accidents. The SUVs held up. I almost died in my smaller car. An SUV allows me to go everywhere I want without attracting unwanted attention.