What’s more interesting is that if you go overseas and look at the same brands, you can see companies like Ford and BMW selling station wagons and normal-sized cars without a single truck, if any, available for purchase.

Not Just Bikes has a great video on this.

The Obama admin began changing CAFE to use a whole-fleet average which would have closed the large vehicle loophole.

The Trump admin reversed that and pushed to eliminate CAFE altogether.

This is what happened with my family. We had a VW GTI and a Golf.. when the kiddo came along the wife wanted an SUV so if we got in an accident the kid wouldn't be automatically dead by one of these fucking monstrosities... I think I'm slowly convincing her that a car might be safe, but VW doesn't make the Golf for USA anymore..

I feel like maybe a path forward would be a long the lines of what someone else has said. Make vehicle registration cost more depending on how big it is.. but who knows...

Now to top it all off because of America's obsession with big vehicles there is still a limited selection of small hatchbacks in the EV zone...

Unexplained fires are a matter for the court!

I parked behind one yesterday. Dude backed up into my car during my brunch. He comes into the restaurant to fess up. I tell him I'm the owner. He was nice enough. All he did was put a square dent in my license plate and bent it. I told him it's an old car and that it's ok. But as we were walking to my car he said "you parked close behind me and I couldn't see it as I backed up". I had half a mind to make a remark about having a clean, lifted, truck that probably hasn't hauled anything in 2 years, but I just shut up and let bygones be bygones.

Still, I hope that guy realizes having a 9ft truck isn't worth the sweat every time he backs up. I have a Toyota Camry. Not the fanciest thing in the world. It's 20 years old and I do most of the work on it. So I'm not phased by a dent in the license plate (and possible minor trauma to the bumper). But it's the kind of car that a lot of people own. If he can't see that, he probably should consider lowering his lifted truck. Or perhaps learning to look behind his car before he hops in and tries to exit a parking space.

People like that probably will never learn. They are buying an aesthetic, not a tool. It's like buying a high caliber pistol, an expensive phone, or a McMansion. It's not about having a tool. It's about having a sense of visible identity.

Based on my long rant, I can tell I have not entirely "let bygones be bygones" despite shaking his hand and letting him drive away without a lick of shame.

That's the thing. You still see those old toyotas on the road. They're ugly from wear but still choochin.

It does make me curious: has anyone seen a survey on how widespread that interest may be? Sure, it’s the practical answer, but i it an answer that a lot of people would give?

Or how much price difference would it require? We naturally expect a smaller vehicle to cost less. The propaganda from one major manufacturer is that a small truck is still as complex and materials cost is small, so they could not produce a small truck for enough less that people would buy it. I know it’s corporate propaganda for sticking with their profit machines, but I suspect there may also be some truth in it.

Noisy, dangerous