Steal This Idea: The Larger the Car, the More You Pay to Park • Hacker News Board

Re: Steal This Idea: The Larger the Car, the More You Pay to Park

#81

Post by tivert » Tue, May 23, 2023, 2:38 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #56

tivert wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My old '96 geo metro (four door) was is 1,984 lbs I drove one of those, and there's no way they were typical American car in any way in any era, so I don't think it's a valid starting point for plotting a valid trend line. They were weird things. Mine had a 3-cylindar 55hp engine, and I'd joke there were lawnmowers that were more powerful.

The Geo Metro was at least common enough that people knew what they were, but they were certainly outliers. But there were small cars, like the Nissan Sentra and friends.

> But there were small cars, like the Nissan Sentra and friends.

IIRC, a Sentra was Civic-sized. I drove a Civic before my Metro, and it was literally twice as powerful and much more fun to drive.

The Metro took smallness/cheapness/fuel efficiency to the maximum extreme (for the US at least). It was not fun to drive, and I was constantly reminded about how under-powered it was. IIRC, the thing struggled with hills and couldn't even make it to 80 or 85 on perfectly flat, level ground.

Re: Steal This Idea: The Larger the Car, the More You Pay to Park

#82

Post by latchkey » Tue, May 23, 2023, 2:39 PM UTC

Fradow wrote: post #72

latchkey wrote: post #8

In the US, we literally don't have a choice. The only small (2-door) cars that are on the market are the Mini, Mazda MX5, Toyota GR, Subaru BRZ. The last three being sports cars. Everything else has pulled out of the country or has more doors (and is larger). It is really sad. I really wish Smart cars would come back as an option.

Friendly advice: if you go for a Mini, take a 3rd gen (2014+ roughly) or be prepared to wrench on it (because otherwise your mechanic bill will soon be more than buying a newer one in the first place). They are awesome little cars that are plenty practical for the city and still fun to drive (even the naturally aspirated ones).

Great advice. I do plan on getting one above 2022 cause I like the digital dashboard design better than the big round useless dial in the middle of the car.

I have heard that they generally have a lot of issues though. I also plan on just getting a certified pre-owned to at least give me a few years of warranty service so that I don't have to deal with it myself.

I also hope to just sell it after a few years and get the electric version. I'd get that now, but the mileage is pretty bad. Hoping that it gets better.

Re: Steal This Idea: The Larger the Car, the More You Pay to Park

#83

Post by bombcar » Tue, May 23, 2023, 2:47 PM UTC

tivert wrote: post #81

bombcar wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Geo Metro was at least common enough that people knew what they were, but they were certainly outliers. But there were small cars, like the Nissan Sentra and friends.

> But there were small cars, like the Nissan Sentra and friends. IIRC, a Sentra was Civic-sized. I drove a Civic before my Metro, and it was literally twice as powerful and much more fun to drive. The Metro took smallness/cheapness/fuel efficiency to the maximum extreme (for the US at least). It was not fun to drive, and I was constantly reminded about how under-powered it was. IIRC, the thing struggled with hills an…

The problem with the Metro (and similar sized cars) is nobody wants to buy them new - the entire market is people who want a tiny used car.

Because if you have $10-15k for a Metro you just buy a used better car.

Re: Steal This Idea: The Larger the Car, the More You Pay to Park

#84

Post by seanmcdirmid » Tue, May 23, 2023, 2:56 PM UTC

atyppo wrote: post #4

ARandomerDude wrote: post #2

A minivan can very comfortably seat 6 adults. In a busy area, higher fees for larger vehicles may discourage carpooling and increase traffic.

The vast majority of people in the US and Canada are not buying minivans. They're buying comically large cars that endanger road users, and often even themselves because SUVs and trucks are not subject to the same road safety standards as sedans and minivans (in the US, at least. Not sure about Canada on this second point).

The most popular vehicles sold in the USA Today are crossovers, and they are subject to the same safety standards as cars. There are lots of other criteria that have to be met for a truck to be considered a non-passenger vehicles. https://www.motorbiscuit.com/do-suvs-designs-let-them-be-mor...

Re: Steal This Idea: The Larger the Car, the More You Pay to Park

#85

Post by Timon3 » Tue, May 23, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

nobodyandproud wrote: post #78

Timon3 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While it’s true the vast majority are not buying minivans, the vast majority of US citizens also live outside of cities. Nope: > This statistic illustrates the size of the urban and rural population of the United States from 1960 to 2020. In 2020, there were approximately 57.47 million people living in rural areas in the United States, compared to about 274.03 million people living in urban areas. https://www.stati…

Would you consider the suburbs “outside of cities”?

I'm not sure. But I'm sure I wouldn't consider the suburbs to be rural!