They are still able to sell SUVs and basically at this point road legal monster trucks to a consumer base that still cannot grasp the concept that they could do 99% of what they use a car for with a sedan or hatchback, and that 1% of the time just rent a uhaul… they could do that and save tons of money on gas with the greater fuel efficiency.
But American car owners are not exactly known for making rational decisions or being good drivers.
Much more important to flaunt status and lifestyle with a car.
The US government created this issue by exempting trucks and SUVs from fuel economy standards imposed on cars. That was the initial motivating factor behind car manufacturers pushing these large vehicles. Now it doesn’t upset car dealers that they can sell them for more money. Also, consumers feel safer in larger vehicles… largely because all the other vehicles on the road are now bigger and will do more harm to smaller vehicles. And, because it’s America, there is a special individualism factor baked in that prioritizes ego over rational sound decision making for the collective betterment of humanity and the environment.
Gas prices are basically never going to go down again
Unfortunately they will, and this is where a responsible government should step in to manage the market for our future, not just for our right now or oil companies profits.
The problem is that we’re not running out of oil reachable with current technology, fast enough. Peak oil is likely driven by reductions in demand, rather than supply, which pretty much guarantees lower prices. I would bet this will be a drawn out process with multiple cycles of demand decreases driving down prices, leading to shrinking oil supply industry leading to higher prices.
The reason people feel safer in a taller car is because of everyone else that has a tall car.
The driving american seems to use the mutually assured destruction doctrine from the cold war as a how to guide rather than a warning.
Worse, this is spreading ocer to Europe as well, though governments are starting to tax heavier vehicles more than normal vehicles, and that is fantastic.
One of the funniest things in the world to me is that I first saw an Aston Mini in I think the Bourne Identity in the late 00s. Or maybe it was some other Spy Thriller from around the same time?
Fast forward to today and there is now an American version, still called a Mini, that is just as big as every other SUV.
You are an idiot if you think the consumer base wants larger vehicles. It is the manufacturers who want larger vehicles. Widen a car’s stance by 3 inches and lengthen it by 6 inches, and it’s suddenly in a class that allows higher emissions and lower economy.
Every manufacturer has killed off all of their subcompact options rather than even trying to meet the tightening standards for that class. The perverse incentives they have push them to build bigger.
Paradoxically, the only thing that is going to bring back efficient subcompacts is eliminating economy requirements on the smallest, most efficient class of car, rather than tightening them.
I would argue that it is both. You are certainly correct that manufacturers have many incentives.
But to deny that many, many Americans will openly tell you they want a larger car to feel safe, a big ole impractical truck to signal masculinity, stuff like that… I dont really see how thats a tenable position.
People car shame other people all the fucking time.
“Oh you drive a hybrid, pff, good luck when you need to haul 3 tons up a mountain!”
“You know, if you wanted your kids to be really safe, youve got to get an (insert favorite car company’s latest SUV model), they the best safety record.”
Now unless you want to argue that ultimately these consumer preferences were ultimately created by the marketing campaigns of manufacturers years ago and today, amd thus all of that counts as ‘the manufacturers interest’, then I mean well sure yes I agree in that sense, but it seems like that is not what you are saying.
To your last paragraph, I would appreciate it if you could walk me through how removing various efficiency requirements on standard and compact and subcompacts would lead them to becoming more efficient.
I can see that argument working in a relative sense, if you mean that newer such cars post-regulatory removal/relaxation would be more efficient than newer larger cars, SUVs and trucks, but not in an absolute sense, as in significantly more efficient than the previously built models of smaller cars they are no longer producing.
To me it seems the only way to get a more efficient, market viable car is to just switch to a hybrid version or close analog of a gas only sedan or compact or subcompact or hatchback or w/e.
But that will be a hard pill to swallow for especially the truck crowd, which has largely spent the last two decades loudly telling us that hybrid and electrical vehicles are for f*gs and liberal antifa communists, publicly and privately mocking and berating any one who even considers purchasing one.
Sure, many Americans do have a need for very large vehicles. But there is a similar need for very small vehicles: DoorDash drivers, for example. There are millions of courier drivers in the US. Doordash alone counted 2 million 3 years ago, and their business has only increased since. Paying for their own fuel, these millions of couriers have a considerable financial incentive for the smallest vehicles they can find.
Manufacturers are meeting the demands of consumers needing very large vehicles, with a wide range of models and options. But they are not making any small cars anymore. None. Nothing on the new car market is as small or smaller than the subcompacts of the 90’s.
You are not getting a true sense of consumer preferences, because those consumers who do want small cars are being forced to select from larger options.
Used Priuses, in particular Prius C’s, are reliable, easy and cheap to maintain and have incredible MPG compared to many other cars.
This explains why after I was mugged and my Prius C was stolen, I saw it being driven around by a Lyft Driver 2 months after a corrupt used car salesman recycled it into the economy.
Had the same missing hubcap, same minor scratches. Naturally of course, the police didnt give a shit.
publicly and privately mocking and berating any one who even considers purchasing one.
Those days are pretty much over. The performance of the pending generation of EVs is so high and they’ll be so common place the luddites will exposed as such.
The new Cadillac Lyric is an excellent example. 5 Passenger SUV and if you spend $3,000 extra it goes from RWD with 300 Horsepower to AWD with 500 Horsepower. Hell the new Silverado EV will have 750 Horsepower and nearly 800 ft/lbs of torque in it’s top trim. Those kinds of numbers simply cannot be denied, even by the tuned and modified diesel freaks.
Hah, I agree with you that /logically/ EVs and Hybrids are just basically great and often superior options at this point…
…but i feel like you do not know many hillbillies and rednecks.
Logic is not exactly their forte.
People make their conspicuous consumption habits /into/ their personalities, and … well basically I can easily imagine that if a gun toting, coal rolling truck owner with the biiiiggest truck nuts you have ever seen… i can easily see that if he crashed or had to sell his truck and drive his battered wife’s honda civic to work, he could actually become seriously depressed.
Maybe I have just known a lot of really shitty people in my life, I dunno.
This is also a downside to the cheap gasoline we’ve enjoyed in the US, relative to most of the world. There’s less incentive for us to make a more efficient choice
they could do 99% of what they use a car for with a sedan or hatchback
I have an ‘04 Impala that perfectly fits a cello in a hard case in the trunk, or belted into a passenger seat. My parents’ Highlander won’t fit that anywhere without folding something out of the way. How the fuck did we lose so much cargo space in a larger vehicle?!
Yeah hah, they are largely not even in the race.
They are still able to sell SUVs and basically at this point road legal monster trucks to a consumer base that still cannot grasp the concept that they could do 99% of what they use a car for with a sedan or hatchback, and that 1% of the time just rent a uhaul… they could do that and save tons of money on gas with the greater fuel efficiency.
But American car owners are not exactly known for making rational decisions or being good drivers.
Much more important to flaunt status and lifestyle with a car.
Much more important.
The US government created this issue by exempting trucks and SUVs from fuel economy standards imposed on cars. That was the initial motivating factor behind car manufacturers pushing these large vehicles. Now it doesn’t upset car dealers that they can sell them for more money. Also, consumers feel safer in larger vehicles… largely because all the other vehicles on the road are now bigger and will do more harm to smaller vehicles. And, because it’s America, there is a special individualism factor baked in that prioritizes ego over rational sound decision making for the collective betterment of humanity and the environment.
Gonna be reeeeallly fun when all the people who daily drive these things realize:
Wait a minute…
what even is peak oil ?
WHAT?! Gas prices are basically never going to go down again and just keep going higher?!
-===-
My guess is they will then all start complaining about the lack of public transportation, having spent their entire lives voting against funding it.
No, they will just keep complaining about how gas prices rose under [current Dem president] because the liberals hate freedom.
Unfortunately they will, and this is where a responsible government should step in to manage the market for our future, not just for our right now or oil companies profits.
The problem is that we’re not running out of oil reachable with current technology, fast enough. Peak oil is likely driven by reductions in demand, rather than supply, which pretty much guarantees lower prices. I would bet this will be a drawn out process with multiple cycles of demand decreases driving down prices, leading to shrinking oil supply industry leading to higher prices.
Buyers feel safer in a taller car, and car dealers are happy to sell this bullshit, even though SUVs are far more likely to roll over in a crash.
The reason people feel safer in a taller car is because of everyone else that has a tall car.
The driving american seems to use the mutually assured destruction doctrine from the cold war as a how to guide rather than a warning.
Worse, this is spreading ocer to Europe as well, though governments are starting to tax heavier vehicles more than normal vehicles, and that is fantastic.
One of the funniest things in the world to me is that I first saw an Aston Mini in I think the Bourne Identity in the late 00s. Or maybe it was some other Spy Thriller from around the same time?
Fast forward to today and there is now an American version, still called a Mini, that is just as big as every other SUV.
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/american-trucks-suvs-almost-bigger-world-war-ii-tanks/
These are not exactly precise, and I cannot believe I am actually citing the DailyMail, but you get the idea:
You are an idiot if you think the consumer base wants larger vehicles. It is the manufacturers who want larger vehicles. Widen a car’s stance by 3 inches and lengthen it by 6 inches, and it’s suddenly in a class that allows higher emissions and lower economy.
Every manufacturer has killed off all of their subcompact options rather than even trying to meet the tightening standards for that class. The perverse incentives they have push them to build bigger.
Paradoxically, the only thing that is going to bring back efficient subcompacts is eliminating economy requirements on the smallest, most efficient class of car, rather than tightening them.
I would argue that it is both. You are certainly correct that manufacturers have many incentives.
But to deny that many, many Americans will openly tell you they want a larger car to feel safe, a big ole impractical truck to signal masculinity, stuff like that… I dont really see how thats a tenable position.
People car shame other people all the fucking time.
“Oh you drive a hybrid, pff, good luck when you need to haul 3 tons up a mountain!”
“You know, if you wanted your kids to be really safe, youve got to get an (insert favorite car company’s latest SUV model), they the best safety record.”
Now unless you want to argue that ultimately these consumer preferences were ultimately created by the marketing campaigns of manufacturers years ago and today, amd thus all of that counts as ‘the manufacturers interest’, then I mean well sure yes I agree in that sense, but it seems like that is not what you are saying.
To your last paragraph, I would appreciate it if you could walk me through how removing various efficiency requirements on standard and compact and subcompacts would lead them to becoming more efficient.
I can see that argument working in a relative sense, if you mean that newer such cars post-regulatory removal/relaxation would be more efficient than newer larger cars, SUVs and trucks, but not in an absolute sense, as in significantly more efficient than the previously built models of smaller cars they are no longer producing.
To me it seems the only way to get a more efficient, market viable car is to just switch to a hybrid version or close analog of a gas only sedan or compact or subcompact or hatchback or w/e.
But that will be a hard pill to swallow for especially the truck crowd, which has largely spent the last two decades loudly telling us that hybrid and electrical vehicles are for f*gs and liberal antifa communists, publicly and privately mocking and berating any one who even considers purchasing one.
Sure, many Americans do have a need for very large vehicles. But there is a similar need for very small vehicles: DoorDash drivers, for example. There are millions of courier drivers in the US. Doordash alone counted 2 million 3 years ago, and their business has only increased since. Paying for their own fuel, these millions of couriers have a considerable financial incentive for the smallest vehicles they can find.
Manufacturers are meeting the demands of consumers needing very large vehicles, with a wide range of models and options. But they are not making any small cars anymore. None. Nothing on the new car market is as small or smaller than the subcompacts of the 90’s.
You are not getting a true sense of consumer preferences, because those consumers who do want small cars are being forced to select from larger options.
Completely agreed, and I know this personally:
Used Priuses, in particular Prius C’s, are reliable, easy and cheap to maintain and have incredible MPG compared to many other cars.
This explains why after I was mugged and my Prius C was stolen, I saw it being driven around by a Lyft Driver 2 months after a corrupt used car salesman recycled it into the economy.
Had the same missing hubcap, same minor scratches. Naturally of course, the police didnt give a shit.
Those days are pretty much over. The performance of the pending generation of EVs is so high and they’ll be so common place the luddites will exposed as such.
The new Cadillac Lyric is an excellent example. 5 Passenger SUV and if you spend $3,000 extra it goes from RWD with 300 Horsepower to AWD with 500 Horsepower. Hell the new Silverado EV will have 750 Horsepower and nearly 800 ft/lbs of torque in it’s top trim. Those kinds of numbers simply cannot be denied, even by the tuned and modified diesel freaks.
Hah, I agree with you that /logically/ EVs and Hybrids are just basically great and often superior options at this point…
…but i feel like you do not know many hillbillies and rednecks.
Logic is not exactly their forte.
People make their conspicuous consumption habits /into/ their personalities, and … well basically I can easily imagine that if a gun toting, coal rolling truck owner with the biiiiggest truck nuts you have ever seen… i can easily see that if he crashed or had to sell his truck and drive his battered wife’s honda civic to work, he could actually become seriously depressed.
Maybe I have just known a lot of really shitty people in my life, I dunno.
This is also a downside to the cheap gasoline we’ve enjoyed in the US, relative to most of the world. There’s less incentive for us to make a more efficient choice
BuT mA FreEduMb!
I have an ‘04 Impala that perfectly fits a cello in a hard case in the trunk, or belted into a passenger seat. My parents’ Highlander won’t fit that anywhere without folding something out of the way. How the fuck did we lose so much cargo space in a larger vehicle?!
Is the Highlander a luxury model maybe and has more cab space dedicated to larger seats and armrests maybe?
Not sure, I dont really know too much about the Highlander.