A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
Within the "truck" class of vehicles, EPA fuel efficiency standards are based on weight. It's easier to build heavy trucks and SUVs that meet those standards, than light trucks.
Effectively, the US government legislated heavier trucks and SUVs.
I think this is USA only. Maybe mention that in the title. They don't sell half of those cars here.
I wish. More shitty American pickups in the Netherlands each year, further encouraged by a tax loophole.
I hope the gas prices bleed these fuckers dry…
It’s the same in Australia. Tax incentives given to businesses during the pandemic mixed with a large influx of yank tanks available on the market means that there are heaps of these monster trucks getting around. I honestly don’t know how they cope, the roads and parking around here aren’t designed for such large vehicles and this is out in the countryside; I can’t see them fitting in narrow city streets.
yank tanks
I love it. I'd use it here in the U.S. but no one calls each other Yanks internally.
We just had a laugh about this this week at work - it's just such a ridiculous size compared to European cars.
Even our cars are getting noticeably bigger. It's a stark difference if you see old refurbished cars from the 80s compared to their contemporary counterparts.
Ireland and the UK are headed this way, if not there already.
The pickups make everyone look like posers but the SUVs are decent enough. I drove a couple, I wouldn't say there is more space but seeing them on the road so often makes me consider it the safer option for a family car. I don't want to going under one of them in a crash. That said I only think that this is how their popularity explodes.
We got here because fuel economy requirements are tied to the size and type of vehicle, and so it's easier to make and sell larger, less efficient vehicles.
https://afdc.energy.gov/data/mobile/10562
Why make a smaller vehicle with a smaller margin that requires more engineering time to reach fuel economy standards when you can sell a larger, often more expensive vehicle that has the same fuel economy as last year's model?
Consequently they have become best selling vehicles because there are increasingly fewer small vehicles on dealer lots to purchase.
That explains why manufacturers focus on making these vehicles, but not why people aren't buying cars. There are many cars available to buy, less so than before, but still plenty.
My guess is it's that people are too susceptible to marketing. Some people see huge vehicles as a status symbol, and parents see them as safer.
A long time ago, I saw a documentary about how marketing changed. Vehicles (and everything else) used to be marketed in a matter-of-fact manner listing off capabilities, features, and specs. Now, marketing is mostly about emotions and convincing people to buy products to "express themselves." That's how they got the "anti-establishment" hippies to start spending money on colorful vehicles, new fashion items, etc.
I'm sure marketing has a significant impact, but let's also look at Ford as an example. They are ending production of all passenger cars except the Mustang, and will now only produce trucks, SUVs and other larger vehicles. I'm sure other manufacturers will follow along, reinforcing the trend of buying larger vehicles by limiting choice.
Stop buying bigger and bigger cars.
I drive a station wagon because I need to fit two dogs in the booth plus and entire family in the same car. But this is a transitory need. At some point I'll either get a small van, for carrying the dogs, or a small hatchback and have the backseats always folded down.
You should buy according to your true needs not market pressure.
" everyone should do thing!
But not me, I have a particular circumstance that means I need to exempt myself from the logic!
I plan to stop in the future but for now am certain!
"
Everyone buying these cars has some reason that matters to them. They all believe they need it.
Myself included (similar reason, dogs, kids, family out of state that we need to help often), but I have no illusions that I took the dirty way.
I don't even consider a station wagon a big car anymore. And I bet the vast majority of station wagon owners actually need the space. No shot the average SUV owner needs the weight for anything other than to feel "safe" in their tank.
Unless you work in construction, or have a similar need for a pickup, fuck you for buying one.
Here's a fun anecdote: I live in California, where these vehicles are (mostly) limited to those who need them. In 2018, I visited family in the midwest. We played a game of counting the pickups while walking a short trip from a hotel to a chain outlet. We hit 99 pickups by the time we got to the doors. I was irritated that we got to 99 and not 100 cause that would have been so awesome, but seriously. 99?! In just several minutes. People drive them for fashion, not for practical need.
Every pickup driver that doesn't "need" a pickup is my enemy.
My brother had a huge truck for a while. Strangely, this size actually affected his driving. All the sudden he felt justified cutting the half-mile long line to get onto the highway and cut in at the last second. "Might is right" he said. "They always let me in because they are scared of this truck."
Ugh. I hope this isn't typical but I feel like it is. I told him that was awful and he just shrugged.
This is far from new. The best selling vehicle in the US has been the F150 for some 30+ years now and the top 5 spots have typically been pickups from GM and Ram/Dodge.
The headlights can be angled downwards but fuck it, it's not themselves they're blinding
I’ve stopped driving my wee little Subaru at night because of these asshats with 900 lights on at roughly supernova levels of brightness.
Trucks have been bestselling models for literally decades.
It's because there's a 25% tariff on importing trucks. It was put in place nearly 60 years ago by Lyndon B Johnson; it's called the "chicken tax" because the excuse for passing it was as a retaliatory tariff against France and Germany taxing American factory farmed chicken.
Because of the chicken tax, fairly few foreign car companies in the US sell pickups.
And because being a "best selling" model is good marketing, truck makers generally sell very few models of truck. For example, the best selling vehicle right now is the Ford "F series". So that's the F150, F250, and F350, in all of their assorted trims. There's a couple other models they sell - the Maverick and the Ranger - but most of the trucks Ford sells are F series.
So a truck driver has been much more likely to drive a F-series for decades than a car driver was to be driving a Civic.
Don't forget the insane fuel efficiency calculation that rewards larger, less efficient trucks over the smaller more efficient ones we used to have. It's the reason even an f150 is gargantuan compared to ones of the past.
Am I reading this wrong? By all means plenty of people who don't need trucks buy trucks.
But the majority of this list is sedans and compact crossovers? These are barely more than hatchbacks with a different name. Obviously the top few spots are dominated by pickups that have ballooned in size. Legitimate criticisms are easily made.
But after reading the title I was pretty surprised at the list because I expected lots of large SUVs. But most large SUVs are missing from this list.
Disclaimer: I am not a car person. I do not know the difference between a hatchback and an SUV, except that SUVs are bigger.
This is entirely anecdotal so take this how you will.
Having lived in another nation for a few years, the cars you are calling "compact crossovers" are huge compared to the sort of cars sold in other nations. I don't want to give too many details about where I used to live, but in that nation, roads that we would consider to be one-way, one lane roads were used as two-way roads. If you meet oncoming traffic, the rule is the smaller vehicle pulls aside for the larger one. This is in urban areas. There is no shoulder to pull onto, there is a building there. If everyone with a car owned a huge American-style car or SUV there, it just wouldn't work. Many parking places just don't accommodate for them.
Another anecdote: Despite every house on my street having a two-car garage, there are huge vehicles parked on either side of the road, making our road wide enough for one lane of traffic. These two-car garages were built in the 70s and are too small to fit two vehicles now. Either one car is in the garage and one is on the street, or both cars are now on the street and the garage is full of misc stuff. Why would a road with with two car garages for every house have such congestion problems?
IMO, More people are buying SUVs than they used to. And their "cars" are simply much larger than they used to be.
Partially because people are selfish narcissistic cunts, and partially because being a selfish narcissistic cunt has become normalised.
I'm going to point one that hasn't been mentioned. Infrastructure.
Highways, roads, streets have way too many lanes that are way too wide. This encourages drivers to drive faster. Faster driving makes overall the roads and vehicles to feel more dangerous, because they are. People's response is to want and acquire larger, heavier an faster vehicles that make them feel safer in those hostile roads.
This is what contemporary urbanism is talking about when they say that infrastructure determines behavior. You can alter people's behavior by changing the shape of infrastructure.
The problem in most of the western world is that the answer of authorities (heavily misled by car and oil industry) has been to make more lanes that are wider. In the false belief that this would make roads safer. When in reality the result is the opposite. Other measures like police enforced fines, speed limits, etc. Are also useless to mitigate the lack of safety and carry a huge set of problems with them like systematic discrimination and endemic corruption.
The answer is to make narrower lanes, with fewer lanes in densely populated area, less parking, traffic calmed and car traffic banned zones. Protect bicicles and pedestrians with concrete traffic segregation. Impose aditional fees and taxes for vehicles above a certain weight and parking space take up. Those things will signal people that it's fine to drive a smaller, slower vehicle, it's fine to use public transport instead. Along with more public transport options available.
Can you name the truck with four wheel drive, smells like a steak and seats 45? Canyonero! (Yahhh) Canyonero.
I dunno. I had to drive a truck over the weekend, to move 3 cords of wood. I rented an F250, which is a big truck. It was useful to have; there's no way that I would have been able to move that much wood with a smaller truck and trailer, and, if my driveway wasn't so tight, it would have been nicer to rent a larger dump trailer (I'm pretty sure that I was over the maximum load rating on the trailer for each trip).
...But it's not a fun truck to drive. Power is slow compared to the compact car I usually drive, and very slow compared to my motorcycle, steering feels sloppy, brakes are feel mushy, fuel economy is terrible, and it was so goddamn big that I had to drive very carefully to be sure that it wasn't over any of the lines on the road. Aside from the ability to move a very heavy load--greater than a ton--it really doesn't have much of anything going for it. I can't imagine why most people would want one, compared to a vehicle that allows them to react quickly.
...Or compared to functioning public transit.
Now? Ford F truck is the best selling vehicle in the US for decades! It's not now.
Serious question: what's a good option if you live in semi-rural suburbs that gets snow in winter? Safety would be my main concern--something with four wheel drive and larger tires makes a difference there.
Myself commuted with a 95 Saturn SL for years out of a farm in rural Canada. People used crappy small cars for decades and still got where they need to, and today even the most basic car with basic snow tyres is extremely capable.
Needing AWD for the suburbs is a marketing myth the car sales racket wants you to believe.
Literally any front wheel drive or AWD car with snow tires.
If you ask this on any car blog, people will emphatically say that you do not NEED AWD. What you really need are a set of dedicated winter tires. Winter tires make a huge difference in snow, if you live in an area with a lot of it.
Having said this, you should check out the Car and Driver's buyers guide on their website to see what peaks your interest. Tons of great options. Subaru Crosstrek, Kia Seltos, Hyundai Tuscon, Mazda Cx-50... it goes on and on! Then check out Doug Demuro's reviews of any cars that strike your fancy. His reviews are crazy thorough and give you the best idea of what a car is like, before even stepping into a dealer lot.
I, too, love cars, so hit me up with any questions.
While we’re all bitching about this, is there anything I can do as someone with astigmatism to make driving at night less dangerous besides buying a higher car? I like my small car but it’s beginning to feel like a legitimate safety problem when I drive at night.
They make glasses lenses and contact specific for astigmatism. I've got the same problem and have been looking into it. I have found that polarized clear lenses on a non prescription pair of glasses is somewhat helpful.
Well, we needed a vehicle that could fit two children and related sports gear and, ideally, haul bikes at some point, and the had the cargo capacity for the yearly road trip vacation with the extended family. A small SUV was the winner as no car measured up and a true truck was overkill.
Shocking though it may be, for many, the use case may be valid.
i just want an EV Honda Acty truck
Rappers flexing with driving SUVs are one cause for this trend here in germany.