I have conservative family members who deliberately go for the biggest SUV with the lowest gas mileage available just to "stick it to the government." If the government told them that they couldn't drive a small car, they'd be out there shopping for a small car. It's incredibly childish.
Yeah, a lot of stupid culture war crap is now tied up into the car your own.
If people actually prioritized performance, handling, visability, cost to drive, and cabin features, then a LOT of people would probably be better off with a sedan.
If you don’t need the space, you can get so much more bang for your buck with a smaller car. The $10k more you spend on the larger form factor could go toward a nicer power train and cabin luxury features.
Most other countries I've been to, all the trades use these, and seem to have no problem getting projects done.
Japanese Kei trucks are pretty rad, but they don’t fly with US highway safety regulations. They’re meant for slower roads / slower collisions speeds.
That said, most American trucks do not need to be remotely as big as they are.
Good point.
Let's ignore the lack of crush zones, air bags, seat belts, re-enforced door panels and cabin pillars, for a moment. (The lack of any safety features is why they are mostly illegal to operate on roads in the US.)
How far do you think that roller skate could pull my empty 24,000lbs tandem axle tilt bed trailer? Or even my 4000lbs trailer? On a highway at highway speeds.
It’s almost like that it isn’t the intended purpose of these vehicles.. you don’t need 19ft long 10ft tall super duty ford f-250s and up to pull a 4klb trailer though… a 70s f150 half that size could do it just fine and modern engines in that size vehicle would be even better
Kei trucks and vans are the perfect vehicles for most jobs and most tradesman not hauling loads meant for real trucks not light truck frames
Most tradesmen DON'T use a 250 Super Duty unless they really need one. They prefer the standard 1/2 ton base models because they are cheaper and "good enough".
Kei trucks, while they do have their place and uses in some cities, are NOT the "perfect vehicles" for most tradesmen in many parts of the world. They do not carry enough items and tools for most tradesmen to make all the repair calls they may need to do in one day. They often need to drive well over 100 miles a day to get to all the appointments they can have. And the design of the those little trucks are patently unsafe at highway speeds.
Vans are sometimes popular, but they are just weird looking trucks. And they can be difficult to access tools and items from. Requiring you to either unload a bunch of stuff to get at something or you need to crawl over everything.
Fair point. Though if they weren't needing to go up against oversized trucks, it wouldn't be as much of an issue.
Not to mention longer term cost of maintenance and insurance.
"15 minutes could save you 15% or more 100% on car insurance"
(by leaving the scene of the accident as rapidly as possible. 'Geico'? No no, 'Guy, Go'.)
Or a hatchback or a station wagon...
Oops, nobody makes station wagons anymore. We stopped making them because, uh, people stopped buying them. Yeah, that's the ticket. People stopped buying them because we stopped making them.
The Americans don’t, but Volvo, Benz, Audi still do.
Ya know it probably says something that the concept of "cabin luxury features" made we want to burn the inside of a car. Ill stick to my lack of cupholders in my 30 year old car thanks, but seriously when I see the interior of modern cars they make me want to rip into them with wire cutters. Bunch of useless crap like lane assist, cruise control, and addaptive road assist, powered stearing is the only luxury I need.
Fun fact I am only 24, I just am tech literate in the way that causes me to think 90% of technology is worthless crap that shouldve never been created and needs to be recycled.
Cruise control is hardly luxury, most cars have had it for a while
I love cruise control. Get on the highway, set it and go. Ideally find someone driving the same direction and speed, and follow along behing them. No more stressing that I'm going to get a speeding ticket.
Im mostly joking that most of the cars ive owned havent had cruise control. Gotta love old base model jeeps.
True. I’m mostly saying that you could probably take that cash and upgrade to a nicer car that isn’t covered in creaking injection molded plastic inside, or something with nicer seats and upholstery.
AKA decent materials, and not the cheap garbage you get on a base model American SUV.
I get that its just the concept disgusts me, but then again my Scottish ancestors would rise from the dead and kill me for wasting money on such superfluous things. Profligacy is quite literally killing the planet, ya aint gonna catch me wasting money on stupid pointless shit too often. My grandmother though aint bound by such ancestral limits and it annoys me.
I'm with you. I want my car to have three pedals, a steering wheel, and a stick. Air conditioning, heat, and one cigarette lighter socket. That's it.
I'm almost 40 and a lot of my cars in my teens and 20s were from the '80s and '90s. Almost everything I've owned has had at least a rudimentary cruise control although there are some ('80s Bronco II, '95 Miata, early '90s 240sx, 99 Impreza Wagon) where it was broken or I just never used it.
All that said, I LOVE the radar controlled cruise control on my current vehicle. I've used it for at least 20,000 miles of driving at this point. Interstate, highway, city, you name it... Pretty much any time I want to maintain a steady speed over 28 and there's not a lot of stop and go traffic. I hate thinking about life without it now (and I hate using standard cruise control without radar)!
Toddler core behaviour
I had a student get just the worst giant diesel truck that was constantly breaking down so she could "stick it to the libs".
Girl was 18. Future of the nation?
Yeah, at some point we’re going to have to crank up gas prices
budgeting and foregoing food to own the libs
Ironic, considering how much gasoline is taxed.
Barely at all?
It depends on where, but it can be quite a bit. Typically goes towards road maintenance and whatnot.
They've been getting confused after Elon turned into a giant-ass bigot, so now some of them are considering Tesla.
The whole chart is rather fascinating and eye opening: Vehicle visibility
Astounding. Hummer H2 beating the Sierra by 3m is incredible. A truck designed almost exclusively to express how selfish you are and it has better viability.
This chart is eye-opening...I always thought Hummers were made by...Hummer...
GM marketing. They purchased the hummer brand from AM General. OG Hummer (later renamed H1) was based on AM General's military Humvee design, but released to the civilian market. H2 and H3 were designed by GM for mass marketing. Can be seen in the price. H1 nearly 10x more than H2 and H3.
Also, the H1 was 10x better for what it was designed for than the H2 and H3.
The H1 was not designed for commuting to work.
I'm not sure what it was designed for. It doesn't have a lot of space for hauling compared to its size. It's not great for offroading. It's a plastic money extraction machine.
The original was designed to play military at home.it was not a pickup truck or a dedicated and modded offroad machine, and yes it was a money pit. But it was perfect for pretending with a civilian version of the vehicle manufacturrd on the same line as the real thing.
H2 and H3 models were just mediocre rebranded SUVs with hints of the original hummer body lines.
Oh, neat. Thanks for all the information
The H2 was just a Tahoe with a different body on it.
Now my mind is really blown. I'm aware of this happening, just not with the H2
Thanks, embedding:
‘murca
I'd be curious to see that chart for a Toyota Yaris. I drove one for a few years and it was almost unnerving how little hood it had.
Same here. Going from a 1990 VW Passat to a 2009 Yaris was wild.
I will gladly trade my SUV in for a gently used M1
Only 20 gallons to the mile, not bad
Absolutely nobody will cut you off in traffic, though. At least nobody who wants to see the next sunrise...
what if the M1 doesn’t have a touch screen though
good
touchscreens should be banned from vehicles
It actually does, but it's a hundred times more useful. It helps make things go boom.
Touch targeting
This is actually a good point. And here's a video discussing the issue.
https://youtu.be/YpuX-5E7xoU?si=cmwWAFTUyAFt40mL
That's not to mention the optics.
https://www.quora.com/Where-does-the-M1-Abrams-have-the-optics-of-its-main-cannon-I-dont-know-anything-about-tanks
That being said, some civilian vehicles are gonna have their own camera systems too, so...
Civilian vehicles should all have thermals and a night driving HUD. If I'm paying 30,000 dollars then they can damn well put some actual stuff in there. Headlights being weaponized isn't something we have to tolerate.
Sorry, no can do, also cupholders are extra, best we can do is plastic hubcaps and a 10,000/6 month warranty.
Ugh. Too true. Cars would be 100% better if they weren't a mass market necessity.
This is misleading because being higher up you can see much better further ahead, and over obstacles and barriers. Your special awareness is much better at distances that are relevant for avoiding collisions. If something is 1.5m away its too late anyway.
The angle is also incorrect because they are putting the eyes of the driver straight in line with the hood, which is not how its been in any vehicle I've ever driven, the head should be higher or further forward.
The origin of the line is at head height...
Also these vehicles gain in distant visibility at the expense of everyone else on the road, blocking their views.
Also, an astounding proportion of fatal pedestrian collisions happen at low-speed, close to home where these sightlines explicitly matter.
The best way to avoid getting into an accident is to see it long before you get there. But situational awareness is not something the vast majority of drivers actually practice or have..........
You don't want to see "over" obstacles close to your vehicle when said obstacles are in fact human beings standing in front of your car.
At parking lot speeds, 1.5 meters is also not "too late," and it certainly isn't when you are at a standstill but need to determine if it is safe to move or if there is a small person in front of your vehicle, i.e. in the school pickup line, or in a parking lot, or your own driveway.
Ooo ooo we can do it like buses do. We'll put a bar on the front that folds out. 3 year olds totally know what that is right? They'll just get out of the way!
(/s)
You need one with a hand on the end, and the motor that drives it is strong enough to pimp slap people out of the way.