It’s time for Americans to embrace small cars
It’s time for Americans to embrace small cars
Small cars are good for us but bad for business.
Americans need to embrace public transit. We need trains that don't completely suck in both speed and schedule reliability.
We're never going to convince a lot of folks to leave their lifted F-150 or massive Suburban behind for a small car. But quality, affordable public transit that is not only efficient but saves money over owning a car would actually make a difference. We're more likely to be able to get people to just leave the F-150 in the driveway and eventually move away from it.
Much better for the environment, too, and reduces traffic / congestion, etc. I agree smaller cars would be good, but the goalpost should be getting away from the automobile.
Normal sized cars* you mean.
Normal cars aren't small. They're just small if you compare them to the giant ridiculous trucks they have over that.
Bold idea here, but maybe if we stopped fucking subsidizing SUV's, people wouldn't buy so goddamn many of them. Just a thought.
Forget small cars, we should be embracing non-motorized ways of transit. Make things human-sized again and allow us to walk and/or bike to destinations rather than having to have a motorized vehicle to get around.
Public transit is obviously a good thing to have, but I think it’s also important to have alternate forms of transit as well.
So I live in the cousin-fuckingly-deep south where 90% of what's on the road is trying its best to be a monster truck... I drive what looks like a pregnant rollerskate by comparison cuz I don't want to send half my paycheck into the gas tank.
It's funny-sad how the folks in the giant trucks get offended just by seeing my tiny car. Every day there's always at least one asshole in an F-350 or some shit that likes to ride up on my ass cuz I guess it makes them feel powerful? I just drop a mph every couple seconds until either they fuck off or get annoyed enough to pass.
Anyway, moral of the story is that stupid-big vehicles are here to stay in the US, at least in the regions occupied by Y'all Quaeda. Their trucks are one of their few sources of self esteem.
...I'm really tempted to find one of those rubber testicle things that the cowboys like to put between the rear wheels of their trucks, but like a comically tiny one, color it like the trans flag, and hang it on the back of my tiny car just to annoy the rednecks on the road. ...although here, that'd probably get my car or myself shot.
I have a Volt, and I resent how few compact hybrid options there will be when I get a replacement. When I drive around, I literally struggle to see around the giant land boats cruising around. They hold up parking lots trying to stuff themselves into spaces, and if I get hit by one I'm much more likely to be injured. Average car size is kind of a tragedy of the commons. Everyone suffers when the cars get bigger, but the individuals with the dumb land boats suffer little of the cost.
CAFE is killing the smaller vehicle. Vehicles are getting super round and boring for aerodynamics. Wheel base is getting longer. Track is getting wider. There's no such thing as a small truck. Everything is am SUV ("truck") or crossover (hatchback / station wagon). CAFE allows for less fuel efficiency for wider track and longer wheelbase and trucks over everything else.
Remember how VW got caught cheating on the mileage tests? Remember how every other major manufacturer was caught too?
The govt has set far too high of a standard for mileage, so car companies are making giant ass cars to meet (cheat) CAFE standards. The manufacturers have done everything they can but still can't meet the standards.
There was a time back when gas prices got kinda high when I thought Americans would finally shift down to slightly smaller cars, but now it's practically a cultural thing for half the country to burn as much fuel as possible, so I suspect even if gas prices here hit Europe levels it wouldn't cause them to budge much.
It does feel really odd, though, going somewhere like a school and just being absolutely surrounded by huge SUVs and pickup trucks that you know damn well like 90% of the drivers aren't actually utilizing.
Double-sucks because it's becoming more and more difficult to find a small car. Everything new, even most cars, are huge.
In California, America's largest state by population, our #1 selling vehicle is the Honda Civic. And driving on our roads, Civics, Corollas, Accords etc... dominate the roads. And even the biggest selling SUV the CRV gets like 30+ to the gallon.
Small cars sell in places where small cars work.
That is barely even the start of what we need. It would do us better to embrace public transit and densification. If we all just switched to small cars instead it wouldn't solve the underlying issues with car dependent infrastructure. We'd still have wide swaths of useful land buried under miles of concrete and asphalt. We'd still have urban spaces that are hostile to anyone not in a automobile (admittedly somewhat less so). My commute time is nearly doubled simply because all of the parking lots I have to walk through. There's no need (outside of accommodating drivers) for everything to be separated by so much empty space.
the only problem i had when i was driving a small car (i drive a mid-size car now) was my sense of vulnerability when surrounded by stupid massive lifted trucks bearing down on me. it felt really unsafe. and i live in stupid-giant-truck land, they're not an anomaly here.
eta - plus giant truck owners seem to get off on being scary aggressive drivers.
That's going to be a hard job. Cue the ones willing to die for their god given right to drive a car the size of a van to the shops they can see from their front door.
The author notes that he would like to see more people take public transportation, and I’m all for that. There’s one problem for me: In Michigan where I live there is no public transportation that really gets you around Detroit, or gets you from the suburbs to Detroit. There is the joke of a QLine that goes no where and the People Mover that also doesn’t do much, but other than that nothing. Convincing people that have private transportation (read: cars) that they should invest/have their taxes used for public transportation is a no-go. Convincing the rich that they should pay more than $0 a year in taxes is even harder. This is probably the case a in several states around the country, but definitely in Michigan (and believe me, we tried with a bus system). So while I get that smaller cars can be and maybe should be thing, I think public transportation, as the author points out, could also be a thing. However, trying to get anyone, especially millionaires and billionaires, to pay a cent more than they are forced to is like pulling teeth.
I drive a 2015 Chevy Spark, the gas version. The ev version was discontinued in 2016, the gas version was discontinued in 2022. The Chevy Sonic, a similar, but slightly larger model was discontinued in 2020. The Chevy Bolt, an ev and larger, but still compact model and a successor to the Spark and Sonic was discontinued this year. It's become apparent that most Americans do not like small cars. I don't think much can be done to make small cars likable here, I'd love to be able to drive a car like the Honda E, but there's no market for it here.
Or, please, trains.
Same with EV's, this stuff will save the car industry but not the planet.
We need to figure out how to rebuild our infrastructure and our ways of thinking such that we don't need individual hunks of carbon toting us around.How about one of these bad boys?
https://www.motor1.com/news/680166/third-generation-honda-n-box-debut/
They're actually pretty roomy inside. Not aerodynamic, and I wouldn't want to be driving over 55 in one, but they're pretty neat.
Small, pink cars?
I like it. Reminds me of a movie or something.
from the thumbnail, thought it was the Simpsons car haha
Ford F150/Chevy 1500 and bigger just keep getting bigger every style change. I call them pavement tanks.
My husbands 2009 Corolla finally needed replacing (couldn't pass inspection due to rusted frame) and he had the WORST time finding a car anywhere at the nearby dealerships. Everything was trucks and SUVs, finally he found one that had 3 cars and 1 mostly fit the price/criteria he wanted.
We're in the rural north east and the number of big ass trucks is insane, it's getting harder and harder to park between them all and I hate trying to get out of parking spaces when I can't see for shit around them.
or idk.... make real city?
I'm all for smaller more efficient cars, easier to drive too
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Heavier vehicles also wear out roads faster, though the difference between a small sedan and a large electric SUV amounts to very little when compared to the effect of a garbage truck rolling by each morning.
Just this week, Automotive News reported that the Mitsubishi Mirage is on the way out, joining the choir invisible alongside cars like the Chevrolet Sonic, Honda Fit, and Toyota Yaris, all of which were once sold in the US.
The Bolt's biggest problem, from a bean counter's point of view at least, was a battery that cost a lot more per kWh than one made with General Motors' new Ultium cells.
News of the Bolt's cancellation was met with much dismay, and GM recently decided to bring the nameplate back at some unspecified time on a new Ultium-based platform.
But GM CEO Mary Barra has also warned that even with the lower cost of Ultium cells, the company won't make any profit on sub-$40,000 EVs until late in the decade.
In addition to the ever-escalating safety arms race that entices American car buyers, a misplaced obsession with having as much range as possible also factors in here.
The original article contains 493 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 61%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Miata is always the answer!
I'd entertain this much more if getting in a car crash with a bigger vehicle didn't mean death. My dad used to work in the ER and also commute in the snow. It's not that bigger equals safer but sometimes slightly larger means not getting demolished.
There still exist cars in 2023. It's not just SUV's available on the lot.
People just want them, because of grocery trips or a kid in school sports or whatever.
Whether most of them actually need that SUV space is something up for debate, but it's gonna be hard to convince the average American (already in love with full SUV's) to just switch away.
I'm here to embrace physics. Small Car + Big Truck = Death.
Edit: I don't understand why this is getting downvoted. Americans aren't going to give up their gas guzzler for a smaller vehicle (although I agree that they should at least not have a gas guzzler), and even if they did, not everyone would. Sure, you'll probably have points in the replies (once I get some), but I'm going off of an IIHS perspective. If a small vehicle gets into an accident (assuming it's head on/moderate/overlap) with another vehicle (as most American vehicles are either SUVs or Trucks [yes, I know an SUV is technically a truck, but that's not the point]), that person in the smaller vehicle will most likely be dead or seriously injured in that crash. It doesn't have to be particularly fast for a weight problem to show a big impact.
I would love to have smaller cars, but my average size Civic can’t see around the driving billboards that all the people are driving these days, increasing the danger and risk to myself and passenger(s).
I'd be happy enough with a Smart Fortwo style vehicle. I'd be more than happy with good public transportation and non-car dominated urban planning. I'd be over the moon for high speed rail lines covering the country.
A Toyota Pixis Mega/Honda N Van as a daily and a toy on the side, that's ideal for me and maybe it should be for Americans too. But I'm biased because I love driving
The time was in the 60’s. Now it really doesnt matter. We fucked up already and its too late
Great, but they don't sell them here.
And no ones gonna go get a fiat or smart
I'll continue to pay extra for a large truck. Handling, strength, towing, hauling. I'm positive I'll get mostly downvotes but it doesn't make a difference, I'll still be driving my truck dozens of miles commuting every day! 9-12 MPG, pure diesel baby!
- Handling & Enjoyment: I enjoy having something bigger, it handles great.
- Strength: It's not gonna total out going thru a fence or hitting a deer. (Confirmed)
- Towing, Hauling/Payload: No rentals needed. Summer time fun with the boat, coolers, off roading, camping and so forth. Helpful to friends, saves them a buck. Great for work too. Oh and saving all the smaller cars who got stuck in the winter time, literally saving lives.
I love me some power wheels; I'm just too damn big for 'em. 😩
I'm doing my part.
But maybe the one on this photo.
Meanwhile the cars for sale in the US, driven partially by EV range anxiety, are getting bigger on average.
Been driving a Honda civic for years.
