People keep buying and buying at record paces these larger and larger vehicles.
Auto makers only produce what we buy
Putting a Hummer H2 next to an Escalade really sums up how desensitized we are to pointlessly oversized vehicles. When the Hummer H2 came out in the early 2000’s it dwarfed everything, it looked so ridiculous on the road and barely fit in between the lanes. The Escalade/Suburban/Yukon is nearly 2 feet longer and is just as wide as the Hummer and we see them all over the road and don’t really think twice about it.
and don’t really think twice about it.
Speak for yourself.
Those suburbans are huge. They are bigger than my full cab f-150.
Suburbans of the past 20 years are anywhere from 219-226" long. “Full cab” (crew cab) F-150s of the past 20 years are 226-232" long with the short bed.
Suburbans of the past 20 years are anywhere from 219-226" long. “Full cab” (crew cab) F-150s of the past 20 years are 226-232" long with the short bed.
And what so many of the people here in this sub Giving excuses for the trucks and SUVs forget, is that so much of this is about the beltline not the length width or height. The cubic volume increase of these vehicles is absolutely astounding and makes it impose and everyone else on the road because you can’t see out of these fucking things and you can’t see around them
don’t really think twice about it.
Given that the beltline of those cars (and most modern “full”-size pickups) is nearly in line with the roof of my Crosstrek (not a small and in no sense a short vehicle), I think about it pretty frequently, actually. Every big SUV and pickup on the road is a hazard, even if I assume the operator’s not an incompetent moron (which I absolutely do not assume), simply because they can’t see what’s going on around them.
I only saw one of these in Europe and I was like “Holy shit what is that thing”. It looked like a damn tank on the road. And I just know it was a nightmare around the city with it. I couldn’t believe that’s how they came from the factory
The h2 was roughly normal sized for SUVs and was even built on a normal SUV platform at the time it just looked square. I remember my dad saying he would never want one because it’s just a normal Tahoe now nothing special anymore lol. It wasn’t as crazy big as you suggest. The H1 Hummer though… That thing is soooo wide I saw one a year ago and couldn’t believe it fit on the road.
I’m in a big city and yet I’m at the point where I think I need one of those UTV safety flags on my hatchback.
It isn’t the only reason, but it is partly why demand for small cars is going away. I would want a BMW M2 as my next car, but I don’t want to become a scratch in a pickup’s chrome bumper so I am not even thinking about any “small” cars
When I dailed an NA Miata, I wasn’t so much worried about not being seen as I was about larger vehicles trying to bully me out of the way. People would lock eye contact with you, and then immediately cut you off or merge on top of you.
I had an M2, it was very wide. Makes it significantly more difficult to park than the regular 2-series.
Every week in /r/Miata someone posts a picture after a truck rolled over their Miata in a drive thru or at a light. Unironically we might need those
Funny you mentioned the M2 because it’s not even a small car anymore. And that recent drag race next to the challenger they look damn near equal in height in beltline. And the Challenger used to be considered a massive boat
You can always do what I did with my hatch and make it loud enought hat they hear you coming from a mile away 😅😅😅
Try riding a bike 😐
Car enthusiasts should love people using a bike instead of a car, it’s less traffic on the road for everyone else. But these monstrosities can make it harrowing at times.
I drive an M2. The worst part is actually everyone’s headlights blinding me. High beams or not. It’s right into the eyes whether they are in the front of me or blasting my mirrors from behind.
But I love the car so much I would rather drive it then ever get into something taller.
I recently switched from a full size Ram to a Tesla Model 3 and there is an immediate difference on how other drivers treat me on the road. Usually people would give me a pretty wide berth in the truck but in the sedan I’m constantly getting cars practically tailgating me and merging into me. A lot of the time they see me, it just feels like I’m getting bullied every time I’m on the highway.
Especially when the woman driving the Escalade can barely see over the steering wheel
I used to own an ND Miata. Sadly, I would never buy one again since I feel like the risk of death or serious injury is far too great with all the tanks on the road these days
I’m in a big city and yet I’m at the point where I think I need one of those UTV safety flags on my hatchback.
I feel you. The rook of my car is barely above the window frame of an F150 or another big american pick-up. If they have just bigger tires I’m completely invisible to them.
Thats all anyone drives these days, modern mini vans that obstruct views and ride each others asses. They stop slower than their car counterparts and waste more gas. Its hilarious honestly.
Why are minivans catching a stray, they are fantastic at their job. Using two cars instead of one is definitely less fuel efficient.
A tool is only as useful as its user.
If you’re going to talk about how big cars are getting, you need to look at the generations side-by-side. Compare Tahoes to Tahoes: Tahoes are illustrative of little length gain from the '90s GMT400 to the early '10s GMT900 but show a not-insignificant increase in bumper/hood height, and the GMT900-GMT1YC shows a significantly higher hood and a more significant increase in size.
If the hood height was related to cooling system efficiency, the GMT900’s 8,500lb max towing capacity should be increased- but instead it decreased to 8,400lbs (and yes, I know the GMT900 wasn’t initially engineered to SAE J2807).
Whatever you do, don’t use the Lotus Elan to compare to anything modern.
I’m pleased to say that my Jimny has the same overall dimensions (l+w+h) and the same weight as the previous generation. Not everything is growing
A BMW 5 Series is 18" longer now than in the 80’s. They weighed 1160kgs.
The 80’s 5 Series was comparable in length to a modern 2 Series, but today’s 2 Series is still up by 600kgs.
A BMW 5 Series is 18" longer now than in the 80’s. They weighed 1160kgs.
The 80’s 5 Series was comparable in length to a modern 2 Series, but today’s 2 Series is still up by 600kgs.
I enjoyed smaller cars for years, with my favorite being a Civic Si, that was a fun car, miss it and still think about it from time to time. Now I drive a GMC Yukon (basically a Tahoe), dad life and all that. I will probably get downvoted for this sentiment, but once I got used to the size I fell in love with the Yukon. It’s big, powerful, comfortable, well appointed, and makes a sweet highway cruiser. And yes, I do feel safer putting my family in a large vehicle. It would be hard to go back to a smaller car at this point TBH. I ‘get it’ now and understand why large vehicles are so friggin’ popular, it’s just something about big V8s pushing 5,600lbs surprisingly quick that is more endearing than I had expected.
Driving ICE SUVs and crossovers bored me. Heavy as heck, slow, and unresponsive. Like you, I may get downvotes, I test drove an unpopular EV SUV that rhymes with ChinMast and holy shit I was breaking the law within seconds. The guy had to tell me to slow down multiple times and chuckled because no one is used to how fast it accelerates.
I’d definitely get an EV SUV that’s super comfortable if I had a big family. It’s easy to see how there are so many Model Y’s on the road now…
Of all the EVs out there the first one you drove was a VinFast? Those are awful.
Driving ICE SUVs and crossovers bored me. Heavy as heck, slow, and unresponsive. Like you, I may get downvotes, I test drove an unpopular EV SUV that rhymes with ChinMast and holy shit I was breaking the law within seconds. The guy had to tell me to slow down multiple times and chuckled because no one is used to how fast it accelerates.
I’d definitely get an EV SUV that’s super comfortable if I had a big family. It’s easy to see how there are so many Model Y’s on the road now…
I don’t know anyone I enjoy the company of who drives a large car.
They’re exclusively for morons.
Embiggening, eh? How very cromulent
“A noble spirit embiggens the smallest car”
Great tool; I just wish it had a wider variety of models rather than just what can be photographed in Europe.
One day minivans will be cool again
I think it’s already occurring. One of my friends was recently talking about getting a new vehicle but noted she didn’t want some thing everyone else had. She said she didn’t want some sort of mommy mobile. She was thinking about getting the RAV4. But because of previous conversations she’s had with me, she noticed when she went on a girls trip that all of her mom friends showed up with the mommy mover CUV.
Minivans are damn near the size of half ton trucks…
They’re an inch narrower and 6 inches shorter is all, while weighing damn near as much as your average F-150. Only real advantage is a truck is 2’ longer.
A minivan has a lower hood, ride height, and better visibility. Modern pickups are shaped like a brick and weigh hundreds of pounds more, if not over a thousand in quite a few comparisons.
Get hit by a van and you roll over the hood. Get hit by a pickup and you’re immediately brought up to the speed of the truck, flat against the grill, which is quite often lethal.
Meh. We test drove one but I despised the trunk. You’re just haphazardly piling stuff on top of each other. I was shocked because I thought that was the selling point that it has the same trunk space as a suburban. It does but it’s way more annoying and awkward.
Hopefully close. I rented a minivan 2 years ago to help a friend move. It was the comfiest ride ever and last time I rode a van it was cluttered but the minivan I rented you could literally hide all seats under the floor and it looked like a cargo area or space for a bed. Really awesome and good mpg, not a thrilling drive but damn if it was a comfy drive.
Dave Grohl drives a minivan. That’s all the confirmation bias I need if the time comes.
Stupidly oversized American utes are everywhere in Australia now. So fuck you, US car industry, for sending them here.
fuck YOU for not sending us cool australian utes
Blame your country for liking them
Something that kills me is when people say “trucks haven’t actually gotten much larger, their length and width are the same”
Sure. But their volume has swelled drastically. They’re much taller and have very different total surface areas.
Holy shit thank you for making this point because I feel like I am going insane. This sub has so many people that are now trucking SUV apologists. There are three or four specific users in specifically one who is absolutely proliferate in every single one of these threads cherry picking data to try to claim that trucks have not gotten larger. It’s like their full-time job or some thing. And it’s not even on the sub only. They will post in Ford subs truck subs everywhere declaring the trucks haven’t gotten bigger with cherry picked data. I think we all know who they are.
YES!! There are miles of sheet metal from the bottom of a truck’s body to the top of its bed or window sill. So much more than 20 years ago, it’s hideous. Yet people seem toove it.
That’s true. My head was about in the ceiling of my 97 f350. I have a foot of headroom in a new one. I’m not short either. I realize the old trucks are a little cramped for tall individuals, but today’s trucks are designed so someone that’s 6’-10" won’t need to make any modifications or compromises lol
It’s funny to see how the headlights of the trucks/SUV directly line up with the eyeline of the driver in a sedan
THIS literally got me to trade in my civic. Unfucking real. With tinting still hurt my eyes at night.
I hate it so much
Ban LED headlights because trucks are too tall
-reddit logic
Ban LED headlights because trucks are too tall
-reddit logic
one more reason i run 20% tint all around… i didn’t like having my cabin light up like the bomb scene in oppenheimer when a truck/suv is behind me.
That analogy is funny as hell
That analogy is funny as hell
It’s not just sedans. I even get blinded in my CX-5 by pickup headlights…
I still don’t understand how regulations allow for that. They should be even more adjusted downward. I’d link to /fuckyoutheadlights if the mods weren’t such dweebs about reality
At some point, engineering can’t defeat physics. I had to buy the wife a larger vehicle because I didn’t feel comfortable with my family in a smallish SUV. I made sure that the vehicle had an excellent crash rating, air bags and it was just … bigger.
When folks around you are in duallys and is twice the length of a Sherman tank, it matters.
Size only contributes to safety in vehicle-on-vehicle crashes. In a vehicle-on-enviornment crash the larger the vehicle the more challenging it is to stop.
Which is why the safest cars imo are in the mid-size class, not the trucks.
SUVs and pickup trucks have lower single vehicle fatality rates than cars.
SUVs and pickup trucks have lower single vehicle fatality rates than cars.
Is this gonna turn into another “nobody needs anything bigger than a Yaris anyway” thread?
Mini cooper, akshually. If you have babies then you can get Miata or Yaris. That’s it. /s
Mini cooper, akshually. If you have babies then you can get Miata or Yaris. That’s it. /s
It’s a weekday that ends in -day so yes.
It’s a fact that as cars get bigger and heavier, pedestrian deaths increase. You can cry about it being a circlejerk All you want. Why wouldn’t I be against a trend that is increasing my probability of getting injured or killed?
I daily drove this Miata for 3 years when they were still new. It was terrifying then when 1/2 the cars were massive like today but smart phones weren’t a thing yet. Now that almost everyone is driving massive “utility vehicles” and they’re lost in their phones, I can’t imagine driving such a small car anymore. My model 3 is about as small as I’ll go.
