Top Ten Reasons Americans Want Enormous Cars
Top Ten Reasons Americans Want Enormous Cars
One of the sadder reasons: I need a pickup but they stopped making small pickups in the 90's.
I need to take a Pic like that with my 63 ranchero
Meanwhile, I just still own a small pickup built in the '90s in 2025. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I would do this if I could afford it. I was looking a few months ago and somebody locally had a ‘00 Ranger 5 speed 2 seater w/ ~150k mi for $5000 and an ‘01 S10 for $7000.
Don't take this personal, I don't know your specific situation but most people who claim they need a pickup don't really need a pickup.
Why not get a van?
I actually have one! I was generously gifted a Ford E-Transit to transport my wheelchair-bound elderly mother. It's all electric. It's pretty heavy and unwieldy, but doesn't have a massive horizontal profile like a lot of the common pickups these days. The van works great for this purpose, though it only has a 135 mile range. But that's fine for going around the city. (I can't park in parking garages though - it's too tall.)
Before I got this, I was trying to find a small truck or SUV to transport the wheelchair in and it was very hard to find something that was small, not falling apart, cheap, etc. I had almost given up.
You're in luck (maybe?): Telo truck, Slate truck, or even the newer Ford Maverick. The first two aren't in production yet, but Mavericks look like a great size.
I can confirm that the Maverick is pretty much exactly the same size as a '90s Ranger, having parked my Ranger next to one before. The proportions are pretty different though, with the Maverick having a larger cab (four doors) and a proportionally smaller bed. A Maverick (and probably the other two you mentioned) would definitely be a good choice for people who think they need a truck for personal use.
However, there is one problem with all of those vehicles, which is that none of them are actually trucks.
You can tell the difference between a truck and a not-truck (a car-based "ute," like an El Camino) by the fact that there's no gap between the cab and the bed. Real trucks have body-on-frame construction, not a unibody, and can have the pickup bed replaced with custom flatbeds or utility beds or whatever.
In some sense it often doesn't matter because a unibody ute would fit most people's needs just fine. Until you want to do actual truck stuff, and then it matters. For example, the Slate Truck is rated to tow 1000 lbs, the Maverick is rated for 2000 lbs (or 4000 with the tow package), and a '90s Ranger is rated for up to 6000 lbs. (Mine can't do that -- it's an I-4 manual 4x4, which is the worst configuration for towing -- but an appropriately-configured V6 automatic 2WD one can.)
I have actually had my eye on both the Telo and the Slate, very interesting concepts. I also appreciate the slightly smaller Maverick, but wish it had a bit more bed and/or a bit less cabin.
The biggest reason that was never mentioned is ..
They need a vehicle that can accommodate and carry a 300lb human.
I have a friend who is over weight, his wife is over weight and their four teenage children are all overweight.
One of their previous vehicles was a small car and it looked like a clown show to see four of them stuff themselves into an average sized car and watch the suspension dip.
I couldn't believe they got a newer F150 that they paid about $50,000 for ..... a used vehicle! It's a great truck and they got it just to fit four of them comfortably. They parked next to my 2010 F150 and theirs looks like a transport.
And when they step into the truck, they look normal and you no longer notice how big they are because their truck is huge.
Most smaller cars are designed for 150lbs * 5 people plus a little cargo. So around 800-1000lbs.
Four 300lb people = 1,200lbs. The suspension on that little car was fucked.
The F150 is rated between 1800-2300lbs depending on the model. They can even squeeze in a 5th person into that setup.
I was exaggerating about my friends weight .... they aren't 300 lbs but they are pretty close and probably average about 250lbs .... although their oldest son is over 6' and looks long and large and probably does weigh close to 300lbs
Whatever their weight ... they really put a lot of stress in the car
CAFE standards base fleet fuel economy targets on wheelbase. It’s cheaper for manufacturers to produce large trucks and SUVs, which don’t have to meet as stringent a standard due to their large wheelbase.
Those are also classified as light trucks, which means they don’t have to comply with the higher safety standards that “passenger cars” do, another reason they’re cheaper to produce.
How do we sell those? Marketing to make people think they need them.
The government naively assumed the auto makers wouldn't notice the gaping loophole in the CAFE standards and then did nothing while trucks grew to outlandish sizes.
The last one is a significant concern. Huge trucks and SUVs are so prevalent and they're so big it seems like the drivers aren't as aware of their surroundings. I'd love to see us move to taxing based on vehicle weight/mileage since it's the true measure of how much wear a vehicle puts on the roads. You want that insane Hummer EV? You're paying 20x what the guy in a Civic is paying.
The "light truck" exemption is a huge problem, and needs to be repealed.
Big cars also reduce everyone else's visibility.
I feel this so much in my 90s hatchback :'(
The SUV plague is a european phenomenon too.
Probably this effect:
and this https://carbuzz.com/news/the-abrams-m1-tank-has-better-visibility-than-a-ford-super-duty/
Interesting that they referenced the infographic multiple times but couldn't be bothered to put it in the article.
My Subaru Forester is not a tiny SUV. I was parked between two pickup trucks the other day, and my roof was only slightly higher than their hoods. The Simpsons' Canyonero is no longer a parody.
I drive an Outback. Have you seen the
new 1999 Ford Explorer2026 Outback? The things even Subaru is doing are, just, BLEH.I have, and I'm disappointed. It was going to be my next Subaru, now I'm thinking Crosstrek, as long as it doesn't get upsized.
Did Jesus even want to not get caught? Im pretty sure a God cant be worse than a big car in any situation
There's one big one missing, no viable public transit options. America has half a rail system and a tenth of the bussing it actually needs. We're blessed and cursed with an abundance of space, and we sprawled out across the land on the assumption that everyone would have a car.
There isn't an easy fix. It's not just a matter of adding more busses, it's where and how people live and work. It's how highways and neighborhoods are laid out. I'm fortunate to live close to a rail hub, but I still have to drive there from my house, and I would need a car at any destination. We don't even have sidewalks or bike lanes between here and there.
fair enough, but why the ginormous cars? Is this a vestige of the wagon you could live out of when headed west?
PS: I found this website, this is hilarious https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/skoda-citigo-2011-5-door-hatchback-vs-chevrolet-suburban-2020-suv/
A reasonable question, but I wouldn't be able to fit my family in the Skoda. I know, I've tried. Getting two kids, two dogs, and the associated accoutrements around town just isn't possible in a hatchback. The Minivan is an attractive option, but the hills and snowy winters in my neck of the woods suggest an AWD vehicle. The smallest car I considered was the Subaru Outback, and even that's not particularly compact.
If we had viable public transit options, things would be different. We could travel via train on vacations, or take the bus about town for errands and appointments. If we had sidewalks and bike lanes, we could take advantage of good weather and get a little exercise to boot. We would probably still own a large car, but we would drive it less.
Even where there is viable public transport, there's a stigma against using it. The city I live in has a decent and cheap Metro system. It's reasonably clean, mostly runs on time, and you only have to deal with the occasional crazy. I took it for a summer after a car got totaled and it was fine.
Yet I work with a bunch of impoverished young people who spend $30-$40 on Ubers every day getting to work. I've suggested taking the bus to many of them, there's even a stop right outside our workplace, and they are always dismissive and disgusted by the idea.
Speaking as a woman, who works in a dock industrial district, while I could take the bus to work, I often work the late shift, and I really don’t want to be waiting at a bus stop at night in that area.
There’s the added fun that the bus stops running close to my work after a certain hour, so to catch the late bus I’d have to walk almost the full length of the industrial area. Alone.
You can have my Corolla when you pry my cold, dead body from it
FR though the one in the upper right corner is a real thing. When I inherited my grandfather’s truck I swear suddenly everyone in the family needed something moved. I get asked at least once a month to help move something or lend it out lol.
At least once it’s your truck you can say no. When you’re a tall teen and dad/grandpa have pickups, suddenly you’re getting voluntold to be a furniture mover on a Saturday morning.
pecuniary emulation drives consumers to spend more on displays of wealth and status symbols, as opposed to more useful commodities.
aka, Keeping Up With The Joneses, Conspicuous Consumption.
I live in Germany where people usually drive reasonably-sized cars. Something like a Škoda Karoq SUV is already considered unreasonably large.
A while ago I saw someone drive a Ford F-150 past our house. That thing is almost 1m (~3 feet) longer and 30 cm (~1 foot) taller than those SUVs. In its smallest version. How the hell do Americans live like that?
Mate, every time I go into even small suburban areas I see people driving RAM pickups, G-Wagons and other enormous SUVs.
This is a global problem, maybe it's not as bad as it is in the US but it's still there.
Yeah, I'm starting to see Dodge Rams and similar vehicles here in Germany, too. People are such assholes.
Nothing at all in this about how few actual cars are still being sold. Because the NHTSB have made it so that passenger vehicles require a certain number of safety features and fuel efficiency, bigger vehicles means more money for auto makers and not having to produce vehicles that are as fuel efficient or safe as their larger counter parts.
Also: Because my truck can't be smaller than my neighbor's.
That last one is actually legitimate. My wife was rear ended twice at a red light. Her physiatrist, recommended she gets a slightly bigger car because it would change the angle of impact if it happens again. The lower more reclined angle could potentially kill her if she's hit again.
She went from a car to a compact SUV. Small change, but she is now in a more upright seated position.
The vehicle size arms race. Large cars force other cars to become larger just to match their mass in an accident. Still doesn't mean if you buy a large vehicle that you're not making the problem worse
I wouldn't call a Honda HR-V large.
It's ok, tramp is going to teach everyone about frugality, lol. They can eat military parades.
That's really bad, sorry, yet that extra safety also makes it more unsafe to spot e.g. children crossing the street (better to have a higher tilt angle in that case)
A Honda HR-V is not very big and has plenty of visibility.
Giggling in hatchback at this.
My local roads are shit, the SUV prevents me damaging my vehicle in all the potholes / construction zones.
I would totally rock a Slate, though.
Thanks, I hate it
First guy on the second line looks and sounds like a blonde Ron Swanson
(Ron is not that bad of course, but he can sound like he is)