I live in the UK and I drive an Astra. It’s a four door hatchback style car from the late 00s, I bought it used and still runs fine even if it’s getting on a bit. I know it won’t last forever, so I’ll probably buy another used car.
Right now, it seems like every new car for sale is a SUV - maybe a crossover which is more moderately sized, but basically an SUV. Buying a new car like my Astra feels niche, I don’t think I have ever seen one at a dealership in the last 5 years.
What’s going to happen to all of these SUVs in 5-10 years? The used market is going to be filthy with them and people are going to buy and drive them because they’ll be cheap - regardless of the fact they are unsafe, costly to run and damaging to road infrastructure. I don’t think we will see any car other than a SUV style car, or a van, on the roads in 5 years.
Does this not terrify anybody else? Something has to change here - either a shift to micro mobility scooters and e bikes or a massive increase in transit investment - or we are headed towards an even bigger disaster. Anybody else feel this way?
Here in the middle of America, it’s not SUVs - it’s full-size pickup trucks. Just as much of an ecological and safety disaster though.
In southern Ontario it’s both full-size pickups and SUVs. I live in a rural area so many pickups are lifted or have tires that extend outside the fender. Vehicles so big they can’t even stay in thier lane. Constantly drift into the empty bike lane even on the straightest part of the road. Can’t even control these monstrosities on a good day.
Ah, the pickup truck, the SUV for insecure dads. Or for office workers LARPing as construction workers.
I think the Ford CEO even said they build trucks for the working man, but I don’t think a tradesman has an unlined bed, a super lifted truck, or a short bed that can’t fit a full sheet of plywood or drywall
That idea of pickup trucks being for required ‘working people’ is totally made up. Construction workers all over the world do fine with simple white vans.
Agreed. Like I can understand when you need a truck, you need a truck. But most of the time, those guys seem to need storage space that’s covered more than they need towing/hauling capabilities with a short bed that’s
Well you would be wrong on the last part, tradesmen are very often just as (in my experience sometimes more) superficial and short-sighted regarding their choice of vehicle. 90% of jobs people think they should buy a truck for would be far better suited with a van.
There’s new construction near my house and I much prefer the guys in shit box cars, minivans, and actual work vans. The trucks seem to belong to the LARPers on-site and always have the cover on their bed, because almost all the materials hauled in are on flatbed trucks
I like seeing when tradesmen pull up in their beat up 600k mile Scion xB or a white van. It makes me think that there was more thought put into the purchasing of their tools than looking at ads/marketing. They were also chill people to work with too
It’s a status symbol. I used to live next to tradies who would laugh about a guy turning up on the worksite with a cheap Ute or an automatic transmission. Having a big, powerful muscle car is - as Nick Offerman describes it - like having a carapace for these men to hide in and feel protected.
It’s starting to be pickup trucks here in the UK too. It’s fairly common to see F150s and L200s on the roads, often taking up more than half the road on the smaller lanes.
No F350s yet that I’ve seen though, but they are available here so it’s mostly a matter of time :(
Until there are fundamental economics and regulatory work to de-incentivize the purchases of these monster cars, they won’t stop. It’s a much higher margin item from the auto makers perspectives, so they will keep trying to sell and market these cars.
Amen to that!
Another auto industry scam. Unnecessary, unsafe and wasteful. And we buy most of them on finance plans (in the UK).
Here in the States the Toyota Camry is the only car that made the top ten most sold vehicle list for 2022. Everything else is either a crossover/SUV (Honda CR-V, Tesla Model Y), or a truck (#1 is the Chevy Silverado, #2 is the Ford F-series).
We’re already deeply screwed.
That’s sad. But do you think it’s less to do with wanting to own a bigger car, and more that regular people can’t really afford to buy new cars anyway? So the sample size is skewed in favour of rich people (or moderately well off) who can actually afford a new car in the first place?
Maybe that’s why we are seeing a surge in e bikes.
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I don’t know if that statistic included used car sales, so it may only reflect those able to buy a new vehicle. It still reflects a pretty substantial shift in preference though, in my view. The list was 9 cars out of 10 just a few decades ago.
Also, used car stock reflects prior new car purchase decisions, so over time we just starve ourselves of reasonably sized vehicles to choose from.
I actually never thought about them beeing on the used market in a couple years 🤔
I hate SUVs and cannot for the love of god understand why people like them. I hope that the small car like a Ford Fiesta or Fiat 500 don’t die (the fiesta sadly already did)I have owned a SUV in the past - Toyota Rav. I really liked that car. It was a pain to park and I scraped it a few times, but it felt nice to be higher up and comfortable, especially when I was a new driver.
I know in hindsight now I don’t need any of those things. I’m a lot more confident as a driver and am perfectly happy with smaller cars.
You should watch Not Just Bikes’ video on Light Trucks, it’s pretty eye opening.
Probably this. Some of it gets recycled, some exported elsewhere, either to lay on another trash heap or be driven by someone in another country where it doesn‘t “count” for our pollution.
We need to start having waste be part of the consideration when producing a product. If your product is meant to last a long time, there should be a strategy for bringing it back and recycling it fully. This goes for computers, phones, cars, whatever!