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Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

economist.com

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Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#101

Post by nothercastle »

abhay37 wrote: post #12
ur-whale wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you do differently if you owned a dealership ?

All prices of all components are listed, thus I have no reason to hire salesmen. You pick the components as if you are building a PC. There is a huge demand for this, and the savings from fewer middlemen can go elsewhere. Of course there are several laws and policies on national and statewide levels enshrining the current anti-consumer model because it "creates jobs".

Nobody would buy all weather floor mats for 600$ or protective finish applications if you could remove them. That’s why they bundle features you want with those you don’t

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#102

Post by Spooky23 »

roughly wrote: post #75
xwall wrote: post #15

Key Ideas: Heavier vehicles are safer for their occupants but more dangerous for others: The weight of a vehicle is a critical factor in car crashes, with heavier vehicles causing more fatalities in other cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. The heaviest vehicles kill more people than they save: Analysis of crash data shows that for every life saved by the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks, more than a dozen lives are lost…

> Key Ideas: Heavier vehicles are safer for their occupants but more dangerous for others: The weight of a vehicle is a critical factor in car crashes, with heavier vehicles causing more fatalities in other cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. I'm actually curious how much of this danger is primarily to pedestrians and cyclists. On the margins, I'd expect in a crash a 6000lb vehicle with modern safety equipment to be saf…

I think a lot of this is details lost in the stats. Every car is heavier due to safety standards. A 2024 Civic is bigger than a 1994 Accord.

The pickups are less safe for all stakeholders and are a dominant category. They have poor safety features, handle poorly and have comically bad visibility.

That plus the abandonment of speed enforcement drives death. 2000lb or 8000lb car, if you get hit at 45mph, you’re dead. Velocity is exponentially more important than mass.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#103

Post by dnadler »

globular-toast wrote: post #66
imglorp wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us actively hate big cars for daily use and are angered at the "SUV" (usually neither sport nor utility) unithink forced on us, and are frustrated how hard it is to find anything different. I want basically an electric Miata for around town, can't get one. I also want an actual utility vehicle with a long, solid, roof rack to haul a canoe or sheet of plywood. SUV roof racks are usually token, if at all. A pla…

Your comment shows how bad car culture is. You think you're the enlightened one, but you want an electric sports car for getting "around town"? People should be walking or cycling around town. Cars are actively harmful to towns. Cars have led to generations of people who don't realise they are capable of walking further than a few steps between car and building. A kind of learned helplessness. When you step outside o…

People in US suburbs frequently live several miles from their town center, if they even have a town center at all.

Cycling simply isn’t viable to large swaths of the US. There isn’t an easy answer to this either, given that you’d probably need to tear down entire neighborhoods and rebuild a more dense town

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#104

Post by ericjmorey »

sheepdestroyer wrote: post #27
ur-whale wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you do differently if you owned a dealership ?

What's the added value of dealerships? They feel like parasites. The mere idea of having to negotiate prices like in an flea market is disturbing and disgusting to me. I want to be treated fairly and as well as the next guy. Fixed & open construtor prices and warranties, online customisation and ordering should be the only norm.

Warranty repair is the only advantage.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#105

Post by marcosdumay »

croes wrote: post #9
PaulHoule wrote: post #3

I hate sounding like a broken record but my belief is that car makers are more excited about XXXXL cars in American than car buyers are. The media is consistently complicit in covering this up, sounding like the brainwashed soldiers in The Manchurian Candidate It's not to say that we don't like big cars because we do, but walk into a car dealership looking for a small car and they will tell you they are out of stock…

Seems like the market isn't working.

Markets don't work when there are huge barriers to entry.

That's widely known, and for a very long time already.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#106

Post by robin_reala »

acd wrote: post #86

Let's consider the energy efficiency of moving a vehicle weighing about 2000kg to transport a person who weighs around 100kg. That's a ratio of vehicle to person of about 20:1. A potential solution would be to give heavier cars worse crash ratings. This approach would take into account not only the safety of the occupants of the car but also the occupants of other vehicles.

I was going to ask who weighs 100kg, but then I looked it up at it turns out that the average male weight in the US is over 90kg(!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_body_weight#By_country

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#107

Post by dataflow »

erikaww wrote: post #83
dataflow wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this means taxes should be imposed on cars proportionally to the fourth power of axle load too.

Car makers would adjust but road freight would fight this tooth and nail

Good point, but one could probably easily treat freight vehicles differently.

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#108

Post by baq »

dionian wrote: post #34
xwall wrote: post #15

Key Ideas: Heavier vehicles are safer for their occupants but more dangerous for others: The weight of a vehicle is a critical factor in car crashes, with heavier vehicles causing more fatalities in other cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. The heaviest vehicles kill more people than they save: Analysis of crash data shows that for every life saved by the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks, more than a dozen lives are lost…

Sounds like a heavier car is actually safer to put me and my loved ones inside, at least for now.

Upvoting because that’s literally the point.

c.f. The Onion in 2020: https://theonion.com/conscientious-suv-shopper-just-wants-so...

Re: Americans' love affair with big cars is killing them

#109

Post by coliveira »

globular-toast wrote: post #66
imglorp wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us actively hate big cars for daily use and are angered at the "SUV" (usually neither sport nor utility) unithink forced on us, and are frustrated how hard it is to find anything different. I want basically an electric Miata for around town, can't get one. I also want an actual utility vehicle with a long, solid, roof rack to haul a canoe or sheet of plywood. SUV roof racks are usually token, if at all. A pla…

Your comment shows how bad car culture is. You think you're the enlightened one, but you want an electric sports car for getting "around town"? People should be walking or cycling around town. Cars are actively harmful to towns. Cars have led to generations of people who don't realise they are capable of walking further than a few steps between car and building. A kind of learned helplessness. When you step outside o…

You're right, but doing otherwise is almost impossible in North America. Everything is made to benefit big business owning big box retail stores and put mom and pop small retailers out of business. If you don't have a car you may pretty much starve except for a few cities in US and Canada. No wonder online shopping is becoming so popular, it is anti-human to get into a car and then be forced to walk a mile inside a big retail store to make a small purchase.
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