Fuck SUVs in particular.

That infographic fascinates me. It's obviously not made by an American because never received a car branded as the Qashqai which should have been labeled as the Hyundai Kona. Same as the CX-8. We have the CX-9 here. With those said, the detailed drawings of the cars are beautiful!! I am a bit shocked at the Maverick, being Ford's "tiny" truck sitting so low on the list.

meters

Ya lost all Americans.

I love the inclusion of the M1 battle tank

Damn

I have always said "the louder the engine the smaller the dick". Guess this now applies to bigger trucks, too.

Not Redditors when they get to body shame people they disagree with.

Can't buy a small truck because EPA regulations made it easier to make the trucks bigger. Let's remove that failed regulation so small trucks actually exist.

Meanwhile, builds the largest highway network in the world, many even in cities; maintain shitload of free parking; also enforces minimum parking requirements, all at the expense of tax payer.

People without cars are literally forced to pay to make everyone's life worse.

FREEDOM!

Ironically, trucks have gotten larger precisely because of regulation. In particular, emissions standards are tied to vehicle size. So if you make your vehicles bigger and bigger, you don't have to make them more efficient.

Also, regulation makes it difficult to import small Japanese kei trucks, and regulation is the biggest reason that the Ford F series truck is the single most popular model of vehicle in the US. In particular, we've taxed foreign-built trucks at 25% since the mid 60s, so there's dramatically fewer models of truck than SUV or cars.

This shit is the direct consequence of regulation, not lack of it!

I'm talking about both CAFE standards that encourage manufacturers to build big vehicles to fit in the "light truck" loophole, and (infinitely more importantly!) the zoning regulations that led to all the car dependency in the fucking first place!

IRL Rocket League let's go!

I believe the technical term for an excessively big car is "compensator."

It has to do with new standards for fuel effiency being based on the size of the vehicle.

In the Obama era, Edmunds explained, fuel economy regulations “changed from just a straight average across the board to what’s called a platform-based fuel economy standard. So your fuel economy target for a given vehicle is based on its wheelbase and its tread width, which is the width between the tires left to right. So if you multiply that you find the area of that rectangle and there’s a table that shows what your fuel-economy target is. The bigger the vehicle, the smaller the target.”

In other words, the regulations put in place to get better mileage out of vehicles also led to an increase in truck size. “There was kind of an incentive to maybe stretch the wheelbase a couple of inches and set the tires maybe an inch [farther] apart, because you get a bigger platform and slightly smaller target,” said Edmunds. “Now, the bigger vehicle would be heavier and might use more fuel, so it’s not as easy as just doing that. But certainly there was a feeling that if they did need to make it bigger to accommodate more passengers, the fuel economy target wouldn’t be onerous. They could do it.”

Basically, it was easier to make bigger trucks than it was to build more efficient engines, so we have this gargantuan trucks pushed on us and then they go "ITS WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT" because there are literally no other options besides these giant trucks if you want something with a bed.

Like, even the "small trucks" like the modern Rangers and Colorados are about the same size as the 90s F150s and Silverados. Its nuts.

I think there's a huge percentage of truck drivers who never use their truck for truck stuff. It's simply a status symbol to them which is pathetic. And bigger equals better in their feeble minds.

I have a 13 yr old Tacoma and it's tiny compared to even the modern "small" trucks. When this thing finally dies, I have no idea what I'll get. I love the size of it though. Maybe a Ford Maverick, but those are on backorder for years I heard from several friends who tried to get one.

They have a higher profit margin because they are less regulated than standard size cars. So auto manufactures are incentivized to shift production to larger vehicles and market them to consumers.

People don't actually want them, car companies have just convinced them they do.

https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM

Here's an excellent video explaining why.

Because I love making generalizations based on personal experience: most of the bad drivers I encounter on the road are either pickup trucks, BMWs, or rusted out junkers.

The trucks have no regard for others' safety, because they know if they get in an accident they will squash a smaller vehicle. They take this to the point of just swerving into your lane, counting on you to break or get out of the way.

BMWs are simply unskilled, unpredictable, selfish drivers. They are too self-obsessed to cater their driving to anyone else on the road. They will take up lanes they don't need to be in and do illegal maneuvers to correct their mistakes, because they believe they are above the law.

The junkers are just batshit methheads or something. They have no regard for anyone's safety, including their own. They have a drug deal they are trying to get to.

Be the change you want in the world.

Get ready Datsun... I'm ready to douche it up

At least it wasn't the H2! One of the worst vehicles I had to drive when it comes to visibility (second only to the F650) and I probably have driven a thousand different models in the 10 years I was a valet!

In the college town near me, students walk directly in-front of cars and bikes. Nearly hit oblivious pedestrians stepping into the road on multiple occasions while on my bike. Some people put very loud horns on their 2 and 4 wheeled vehicles, which is pretty funny anytime they get used.

https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM

That's because the auto industry realized there was a lucrative loophole in the regs and has since successfully lobbied to keep it in place. Basically it's a type of regulatory capture.

It's almost as if government regulation is a problem.

Thing is, the size is already regulated. The bigger the car is, more emmisions are allowed.

This cars are getting bigger because of regulation.

Depends i see, every suv as needlesly huge. And you definitly see them everywhere

American perspective: The RAM fits just fine, shame that that railcar doesn't fit.

Ahah love the pic u linked of one blocking a tram. The regulators would surely be on their ass for blocking stuff like that.

Sad thing is as these become more common they'll pressure the right people to change the infrastructure around their bigger cars.

Great video, and fully agree with its message. I really don't understand why people buy these and am always amused (and a wee bit irked) when I see one trying to maneuver on a tight street. Want more space? Get a hatchback. Got kids you need to carry around and need more space? Get a longer hatchback (or station wagons as the guy says in the video). Plus, you look cooler in a car the closer you are to the ground.

https://youtu.be/azI3nqrHEXM

Here's another excellent video explaining why we don't have small trucks any more.

This. So much this. I own a compact pickup truck, and a few SUVs, and really wish I could have station wagons instead, but the used market is the used market, there really isn't anything available.

They're popping up here in the UK too. Our winding pre-industrial roads really aren't big enough for these road tanks, they constantly get in the way. They're even too big for a lot of parking spaces, you see them spilling over all the time.

Ridiculous

It's because EPA under Obama changed emissions regulations from average across vehicles sold to tables by wheelbase (in order to try and tighten mpg on larger vehicles instead of sedans just getting better to average it out). So now, as MPG requirements go up, they just build bigger cars to bump into the next size instead of hitting MPG targets for the current size. This is also partly why there's few sedan models and everyone has just moved to crossovers.

Every potential regulation/deregulation has unintended consequences that should be explored to figure out if the consequences may be worse than current. Instead everyone just does it by throwing darts and assuming everyone will just go along with the intent. When that doesn't work, they go about blaming the other side for loopholes before repeating the process to try and close those loopholes up.

"...make up 80% of new car sales in the U.S." #yikes

This is literally what the gas tax is for - it's something like 40 cents per gallon in NC. The worse your gas mileage, the more you pay.

Further, even if you have your boat or RV, relatively "smaller" vehicles can tow them confidently. A Santa Cruz is sized consistently with the pickup trucks of the past and can tow 5,000 lbs. There's a lot of SUVs about that same size that can tow that much or more, if you don't need a bed.

Further, the biggest reason these smaller vehicles are constrained on how much they tow is the American expedition that you can slap on your 5,000 lb trailer and drive 75 mph down the road. In Europe many cars have significantly higher towing capacities for exact same model as the American version, owing to the speed limits imposed on trailering.

The ridiculous "must look like a semi" pickup truck situation needs to pass. Those trucks have a purpose, but for it to be a likely "default" choice for a household is silly.

idk if it's an American thing, but please stop calling them trucks. Trucks are actual freight hauling industrial vehicles. This is just a family car with a bucket on the back. Call it a ute or whatever.

shit comic

Literally people feel safer in larger vehicles because of all of the large vehicles on the road. It's a positive feedback loop

Legally they are. Both SUVs and pickups are legally classified in the US as "light trucks" (or "light-duty trucks").

They both increase the risk of drag under if a pedestrian is hit, and they both have decreased visibility in comparison to a sedan, hatchback, coupe, etc. Etc.

You mean like a driveway?

They don't have any type of warning for running people over. Cameras don't activate if you aren't backing up.

so you stare at your camera instead of what's in front of the car?