A new NYT analysis found that anyone shorter than 5-foot-6 — about half of American adults — would frequently be knocked to the ground in front of today's average vehicle.
Sadly this is spreading everywhere. It’s a race to the bottom because no one’s adult enough to step in.
I don’t get it who needs this car. I drove suzuki swift for 3 years and it was plenty of space gor 2 people and I’m 1.9m tall even. I don’t even understand how people enjoy these giant cars - it’s so uncomfortable, you can’t even u-turn. And parking?
You don’t even get the niceness of high seat because hoods are so giant. You take a van or something and at least you sit high with good visibility but thats not what people buy.
people buy what they want to buy. auto-makers respond to demand. the sales numbers over the last few decade show people overwhelmingly prefer SUVs and trucks to traditional passenger sedans or vans.
folks have decided they prefer larger and more expensive vehicles, and systematically do not purchase smaller or cheaper vehicles.
I’m the only person I know who owns a small sedan. everyone else has mid-large SUVs and trucks. they endlessly complain the cars are too large, and too expensive to drive… but to refuse to purchase anything smaller or cheaper. if you point out you can get a loaded civic for 30K that does 40mpg+, and costs $30-40 to fill up, or similar, they basically start telling you how ‘tiny’ those cars are and they couldn’t possible ever drive one because it’s ‘not safe’ and ‘doesn’t have enough space’. when they buy a new car, they buy a 50K+ SUV or truck that gets 25mpg or less, and often complain they wish they’d been able to purchase a larger vehicle but it cost too much.
nobody is forcing anyone to purchase these cars. they choose to do it. lots of wonderful are still on the market, but folks do not want to buy them, large sedans have basically disappeared apart from luxury brands.
the RAV4 sells double the units of the corolla now. the last time they sold equal units was 2015, a decade ago. in 2005, the corolla had 4x the sales of the RAV5. in another decade, Toyota likely won’t even make the Corolla anymore because the sales numbers are falling year over year to the point in 2035 the rav4 will sell 4x the Corolla.
personally I don’t see any value to buying buying a large suv/truck, but most folks do.
People don’t buy what they want to buy, they buy what the constant barrage of advertising tells them to buy. Starting with those most susceptible, then peer pressure gets added to the adverts, add in government lobbying and a list of other underhanded tricks, and bosh, job done.
E-cigs, wank tanks, social media, “designer products”, the list goes on.
They can’t force people to buy SUVs, but when it’s much more profitable for car companies from the USA to make SUVs, thanks to that EPA loophole, then they are going to do everything to make sure everyone “wants” SUVs.
nobody is forcing anyone to purchase these cars. they choose to do it.
Decades of propaganda advertisements telling people they need to buy an SUV, plus the (real or not) perceived danger of having a smaller car… that might not technically count as “manufactured consent”, but imho it’s not too far off.
Sadly this is spreading everywhere. It’s a race to the bottom because no one’s adult enough to step in.
I don’t get it who needs this car. I drove suzuki swift for 3 years and it was plenty of space gor 2 people and I’m 1.9m tall even. I don’t even understand how people enjoy these giant cars - it’s so uncomfortable, you can’t even u-turn. And parking?
You don’t even get the niceness of high seat because hoods are so giant. You take a van or something and at least you sit high with good visibility but thats not what people buy.
Truly weird.
people buy what they want to buy. auto-makers respond to demand. the sales numbers over the last few decade show people overwhelmingly prefer SUVs and trucks to traditional passenger sedans or vans.
folks have decided they prefer larger and more expensive vehicles, and systematically do not purchase smaller or cheaper vehicles.
I’m the only person I know who owns a small sedan. everyone else has mid-large SUVs and trucks. they endlessly complain the cars are too large, and too expensive to drive… but to refuse to purchase anything smaller or cheaper. if you point out you can get a loaded civic for 30K that does 40mpg+, and costs $30-40 to fill up, or similar, they basically start telling you how ‘tiny’ those cars are and they couldn’t possible ever drive one because it’s ‘not safe’ and ‘doesn’t have enough space’. when they buy a new car, they buy a 50K+ SUV or truck that gets 25mpg or less, and often complain they wish they’d been able to purchase a larger vehicle but it cost too much.
nobody is forcing anyone to purchase these cars. they choose to do it. lots of wonderful are still on the market, but folks do not want to buy them, large sedans have basically disappeared apart from luxury brands.
the RAV4 sells double the units of the corolla now. the last time they sold equal units was 2015, a decade ago. in 2005, the corolla had 4x the sales of the RAV5. in another decade, Toyota likely won’t even make the Corolla anymore because the sales numbers are falling year over year to the point in 2035 the rav4 will sell 4x the Corolla.
personally I don’t see any value to buying buying a large suv/truck, but most folks do.
People don’t buy what they want to buy, they buy what the constant barrage of advertising tells them to buy. Starting with those most susceptible, then peer pressure gets added to the adverts, add in government lobbying and a list of other underhanded tricks, and bosh, job done.
E-cigs, wank tanks, social media, “designer products”, the list goes on.
They can’t force people to buy SUVs, but when it’s much more profitable for car companies from the USA to make SUVs, thanks to that EPA loophole, then they are going to do everything to make sure everyone “wants” SUVs.
Decades of
propagandaadvertisements telling people they need to buy an SUV, plus the (real or not) perceived danger of having a smaller car… that might not technically count as “manufactured consent”, but imho it’s not too far off.