And yet still in the standard "Jeep Grand Cherokee melted in the sun" shape. I wouldn't mind so much if the popular land yachts of decades past like the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado were revived, but today's most common passenger vehicles are still being made in the same boring sad-beige-mom shapes.
What’s even more absurd is the Chinese vehicles in the same class have better tech and prices. German auto manufacturing is cooked unless they manage to legally block the Chinese in their primary markets.
Not this kind of higher. The EU stuff was about lifting the hood's sheet metal off the engine block so that there is more of a crumple zone instead of pedestrian's head kissing engine block
That’s part of the picture, but the US also has a considerable “my vehicle is an extension of myself” or “my vehicle is a major pillar of my identity” thing going on. That’s how we ended up with so many pavement princess trucks and SUVs shoehorned in where a minivan or hatchback would’ve been a better fit.
Cars have become absurd. We have an older car, and I occasionally look at what we could replace it with, and everything is huge and expensive. Literally, the only car I have been interested in is from BYD and will never be available in my country.
I hate this because my parking space, both at the company and at home, are not getting any wider or taller. I chose to purchase my EV6 over the Equinox EV, despite the Equinox being significantly cheaper, mainly because latter was too big (and also worse driving experience).
we're slowly moving towards a world where people can't afford homes so they'll just be living out of their cars. guarantee that some car manufacturers are already considering/getting ready for this.
The wild thing for me is that we just recently bought an XC90 and an American friend asked me how we're managing with three kids in a "compact SUV". That car is about as large as cars get over here for the most part.
Australia has a similar issue, in part because we import a lot of US domestic vehicles and advertising, and in part because the ato has tax exemptions that only apply to overbuilt utes[1].
There's little to no incentive to buy human sized cars usually. Parking costs the same, tolls can cost the same, insurance I have no idea but I don't think size matters, and perhaps more. All of these should be more expensive, much more expensive, for bigger and heavier cars.
Good then that all vehicles over 6m length and 2.05m wide are not allowed to park in my city. It's good most pickups have custom wide tires, as it makes them too wide.
Meanwhile the size of residential parking slots usually stays the same for decades after being built. I had "fun" of living in an apartment complex built in the 60's, one could only barely fit modern cars to the designated spots.
And this is in EU, not even America where cars have always been tanks.
I do think we will see fewer on the road though. In my city more and more streets are being pedestrianised. And unlimited public transport is only 24€ and amazing quality. Most of the people who still drive are rich foreigners that don't know any better. And also still view them as a status symbol.
Outside cities public transport isn't great though but it would be amazing if we would see car ownership decline by say 50% by 2040. Even electric cars aren't exactly good for the environment and cities become a lot more livable without cars.
The Germans will be pissed but they'll have to find new things to sell :)
As much as I like to hate on larger cars. In reality, I use my SUV (3 row, Subaru Ascent) all the time for camping and outdoor activities (80% of weekends or so). I just took out the middle seats to build a full-size bed platform (75x45” or so).
My wife also drives a smaller Forester that we realize could have been an EV or hybrid. Although in CA, electricity is so expensive that it’s not much improvement over gas especially if you spend more on the car itself. Really, just a same model year but more fuel efficient sedan or one of those old 100-mile range EV cars is what you have to “downgrade” too.
Of course, it’s silly seeing all the oversized, sparkling clean massive trucks and SUVs on my commute while I’m driving my heavily scratched glorified minivan (since that’s what SUVs are now days).
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[ 0.19 ms ] story [ 17.6 ms ] threadI guess I do agree those were insane monsters of vehicles. I couldn't imagine driving one of those today in urban areas.
> 5.31m long, 2.21m wide and 1.81m tall
vs. the Humvee, according to Wikipedia:
- 4.57m long, 2.15m wide and 1.83m tall
Not this kind of higher. The EU stuff was about lifting the hood's sheet metal off the engine block so that there is more of a crumple zone instead of pedestrian's head kissing engine block
[1]: https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/ute-tax-breaks-exemptions...
I do think we will see fewer on the road though. In my city more and more streets are being pedestrianised. And unlimited public transport is only 24€ and amazing quality. Most of the people who still drive are rich foreigners that don't know any better. And also still view them as a status symbol.
Outside cities public transport isn't great though but it would be amazing if we would see car ownership decline by say 50% by 2040. Even electric cars aren't exactly good for the environment and cities become a lot more livable without cars.
The Germans will be pissed but they'll have to find new things to sell :)
My wife also drives a smaller Forester that we realize could have been an EV or hybrid. Although in CA, electricity is so expensive that it’s not much improvement over gas especially if you spend more on the car itself. Really, just a same model year but more fuel efficient sedan or one of those old 100-mile range EV cars is what you have to “downgrade” too.
Of course, it’s silly seeing all the oversized, sparkling clean massive trucks and SUVs on my commute while I’m driving my heavily scratched glorified minivan (since that’s what SUVs are now days).