The Weird Loophole That Made American Cars So Big
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2023
- Few trends have been worse for the environment, people's health, or public safety than the dramatic growth of the SUV market in recent decades.
But the dominance of SUVs on American roads is a relatively new phenomenon. In 1980, SUVs made up less than 2% of new car production in America; last year, that number was closer to 50%.
According to automakers, changing consumer preferences explain the growth of the SUV market.
But this story overlooks the crucial role that automakers played in shaping those consumer preferences.
This is the story of how American vehicles got supersized.
Sources: www.distilled.earth/p/the-loo...
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#urbanism #sustainability #climatechange - Наука та технологія
Here in the Midwest it's difficult to overstate how incredibly adverse people are to the idea that their cars are too big. Often they'll talk about needing to haul something.
I recently had to buy some fiberboard from a Home Depot that wouldn't fit in my sedan.
Guess what! For $20, I was able to rent a cargo van in the store, hauled my stuff, returned the rental, got back in my car and went home. Amazingly easy. Way cheaper than buying a truck, and only the slightest amount of inconvenience.
100% a smarter way to go!
People would rather finance an extra 20-30k and spend double what they would in gas for the once or twice a year they need to haul something, and that's crazy.
@@nefariousyawn gas costs half as much in the US as in Europe, makes people care less about it.
As I learned decades ago from a co-worker at CDC, "A poor man is a practical man." I'd add, "...and he definitely ain't lazy, stuck in his ways, or old-fashioned."
Where did u rent anything for $20? That didn’t include a mileage fee
Not to mention the damage heavier vehicles do to roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. The damage done rises with weight to the 4th power.
Great point!
Yes indeed. These bigger vehicles will increase the cost of road maintenance, pulling money from other places where they are much more needed. Either that or higher taxes to maintain roads. But we know how many Americans feel about higher taxes...
The new Hummer EV is actually too heavy to legally cross many major bridges lol
How is lobbying lawmakers any different from bribing lawmakers?
Even the example of contractors hauling lumber to a job site doesn't always play out. Here in NZ, builders, electricians & plumbers are more frequently using vans as work vehicles. The space inside can be fitted out better for storage of tools, cabling & smaller parts, while offering better security than a toolbox in the bed of a truck. A roofrack is more useful for carrying long lengths of lumber or piping, or the larger supplies are delivered to the work site by the warehouse or hardware supplier. Forward visibility from a van cab is better & allows for parking in restricted spaces. The only people on the job sites in SUVs or trucks are the developer and architect.
That's a great point. Very few genuine use cases of these oversized vehicles!
There are indie workers. There's people who like to do road trips with their cars or turn their cars into campers. Road tripping in a train is expensive and you can't stop whenever. The bike campers I've seen look too small and thin. Can people lock up a bike camper in front of a store?
You make some great videos keep up the good work the channel will blow up soon.
Thank you!
The rise of bigger vehicles is making a huge impact on the psychology of going outside. If you want to walk, bike, or god forbid play on the street, you must do so knowing full well the increasingly most popular vehicles can run you over without even feeling a bump.
Ugh I know. I bike to work every day and it is terrifying.
I want small cars! Much more fun, much easier to drive. But our options now are incredibly limited. I'd pay more for a well-equipped small car. Doesn't have to be economy grade. I currently own a 2019 Civic Hatchback, and it's a good car, but it's still bigger than I wanted.
@@RareGenXer I was rear ended at 30-40 mph and my 2017 Civic had $16000 of damage. I literally felt nothing. My glasses flew off, that was it. I was stopped at a light.
@@RareGenXer Why should people not be able to enjoy small cars; care about the environment; or have to pay high prices for big cars, more gas for them, and bigger storage to keep them? Then we need bike paths too.
Watch Not Just Bikes and Shifter.
What’s stupid is a “pick up” Is useless for a tradesmen. It’s just a vanity vehicle.
I’m a electrician and only the boss has a pick up and he’s doesn’t use it for work. Everyone just uses a van or small Japanese style flatbed truck because it has space.
He can’t even fit a tiny switch board in the back so has to use a trailer if he wants to carry anything big.
And don’t get me started on “towing capacity” 99% off loads can be pulled by a small too medium sized car/sedan.
We’ve towed many large switchboards using a sedan and trailer and if it’s too big, it going with a courier truck.
That's really interesting - thanks for sharing!
That's what I've been saying. A van is a far more practical vehicle and a trailer offers way more space than a bed. The only real use case for pickups is in heavy duty applications for towing or hauling heavy loads. A bed is only useful for carrying large items without having to grab a trailer.
Pickups offer a "do it all" convince even it doing everything makes them less useful for specific things.
YES exactly.
Did I miss it or was there no mention of the Chicken Tax, the 25% tax on imported light trucks? This has given U.S. manufacturers an additional incentive to focus marketing and development on trucks since they don’t face much of a competition from imported cars.
BTW, the EU does not have this truck loophole or the Chicken Tax, yet SUV sales have increased massively over the last two decades. But those are mostly small SUVs and crossovers. Continent wide, pickups have a 7 to 8% marketshare but in the denser-populated richer countries like Germany, their marketshare is below 1%. And full-size pickup trucks are exceedingly rare, they are not even officially for sale by their manufacturers, you generally only get them via grey imports.
And the grey imports is the loophole
The biggest reason is saftey. Larger and heavier vehicles are safer for passengers (other than rollovers) in a crash. Once suvs got bigger it turned into an arms race. Modern compact cars are very safe but it doesn't feel like it next to a massive truck. A false sense of saftey and utility entices buyers.
High bumpers are also a massive problem that truck and suvs were able to avoid. Smaller cars will perform just as well in a crash as long as it's hit in the right spot. If a compact car is hit by a truck with high bumpers it is going to fare much worse than hitting another compact car. Mandating a maximum bumper and hood height would make all cars much safer.
A size and weight tax would be a great way to influence consumers. A corolla hatchback will carry as much as a ford edge but it's much lighter and smaller.
For the people needing to carry lots of people or cargo: vans are the perfect solution. You dont need a truck. Unless it is commercial or hevy duty, there is no use for a full size pickup whatsoever.
So, for safety sake, let's all drive Mack trucks.
@@williamboyd2019 Oh I'm saying it's dumb but I'm just giving the rational. If there were the same bumper and safety rules for trucks/SUVs and cars it wouldn't matter what the size is and people wouldn't care about it.
I was driving in a California city last week next to a Hummer EV. Those things weigh 9000 pounds (4100 kg) and I found it very scary in my mid-size sedan. It was perfectly clean so no sign it had been off of paved roads. No tailpipe emissions but a dangerous vehicle for city use due its size.
I can fit nearly as much stuff in my Prius as my Highlander. Highlander is better in snow, but I don’t drive it nearly as much unless I need the extra seating (which sucks).
This makes me wonder... for lack of a better word. Almost need something similar to happen here that has been happening in right to repair.
Definitely!
The difference is everyone wants RTR (except manufacturers) but only some people want to close the SUV/Truck loophole. Too many people want a giant vehicle, for whatever reason.
@@incognitotorpedo42 Valid point, there does seem to be an obsession with bigger vehicles in the US.
It is a strange world we live in, and gets even weirder when you start to count how many people are in a vehicle on a highway on average...
Yes. It's insanity, and people just accept it, usually without a thought to it.
love the growth of the channel!! cant wait for a collaboration w other youtubers!
Awesome video that seems to bounce off a recent Not Just Bikes video about the same topic. Great to raise awareness about how unnecessary this trend of larger “cars” really is.
Ya, Not Just Bikes is doing great work raising awareness for this stuff!
Is the moral of this story that only regulation really forces car companies to invest in more efficient engines, lighter and more aerodynamic vehicles (where lighter includes smaller) and safer vehicles? And that the market itself either doesn’t care (about fuel consumption) or has weak transmission mechanisms?
By and large, that is the case. Detroit has shown over and over that they could in fact build safer and cleaner cars, once they were forced to do it. Of course, these things also cause cars to be more expensive.
If you want standards then you need regulations.
Yeah because private companies don't care about efficiency they only care about making a buck
I get that the SUV loophole is an enabler for the whole big car issue but it's only part of the story. Americans seem to have this mindset where we feel like we have to be prepared for anything, anywhere. And it isn't just cars. Americans will do things like keep a gun in their house just in case they have to defend it from an intruder, even if they're more likely to be killed themselves when confronting someone with a gun. People get big scary looking dogs like they're actually going to chase away a cat burglar or a rapist on the running path. American families will buy a house with one more bedroom than they actually need just in case they get pregnant again.
People tell young women shopping for convertibles or Mini Coopers "what if you get pregnant?" as if pregnancy isn't an easily preventable thing. Folks pass on EV's because they think some day they might need to travel across the country or somehow they'll find themselves more than a 200 mile round trip from a rapid charger or dryer outlet. We THINK we might want to tow something some day or make a home renovation so we buy vehicles we THINK are appropriate for those activities. Nevermind that the typical pickup truck with a family size passenger compartment has a 5.5 foot bed. That's not really long enough to transport drywall and lumber securely. Sure. Put the tailgate down. Attach a flag. Drive slow.
We seem to seek out and then fall into the pit of false confidence. We buy AWD/4WD vehicles because we THINK they will better get us where we're going in the snow. False confidence puts us in the ditch. We buy long, tall vehicles because we think they keep us safe. False confidence gives us roll-over collisions. We buy 1/4 ton pickup trucks rated to tow 11,000#. False confidence makes us jackknife with a 5000# car dolly.
All. That. Said.
There is still an elephant in this room nobody talks about when it comes to Americans and bigger cars. CAR SEATS! THEY ARE HUGE! I drove a Mazda3 hatch before having children and up until wifey was preggo with number 3. I can say with great authority that a rear facing car seat will not fit directly behind the driver's seat. There isn't even room for an unusually short driver. The car seat MUST go in the middle. It will be wedged between the two front seats. And the driver will be sitting closer to the pedals than they should. The bottom of the seat is also higher up in the car than you might think. Putting the kid in the car seat involves lowering them below the door opening then lifting them up over the seat before setting them in and buckling the belt. Two kids is doable. The baby is rear facing in the middle, and the older sibling goes front facing on passenger side. But 3 kids? In 3 car seats?! How much inconvenience will you tolerate for your principle of only buying the minimum car required for the job?
This is where big cars and SUVs win. If you get a car that will fit the car seat behind the driver that is HUGE. Put the kid who's big enough to buckle their own belt in the middle. That's where they should be anyway. But to do that you need a car large enough to fit the seat. The Chrysler 300 I drive today? It isn't long enough for a rear facing car seat behind the driver without compromising the driving position. It isn't wide enough for two harness boosters and a front facing car seat. Heck, when I bought "extra narrow" European seats they weren't compatible with the geometry of the car and location of the latch points. An Expedition would have been a much more comfortable and less frustrating vehicle to carry those children where they need to go. Of course I wanted a car. I bought the biggest RWD car I could afford and it STILL wasn't big enough!
Heres the thing suvs and big cars might look big but are laughably tiny on the inside. A minivan or for the matter a sedan would still do the job it they aren't all the same in spaces and storage etc.
I hate how manufacturers continue to bloat up their models.
Look at the Rav4. What started as a very compact affordable crossover is now huge, but somehow still referred to midsized or even small.
It's only small compared to a bus.
Ford has produced the small-ish Maverick and somehow seems to be caught off guard that its very popular. There is still a strong demand for non-gigantic vehicles.
It's just they don't seem to want to build them.
Great video!
Great work here.
Thank you!
Great video - very informative! But the zooming in and out during the talking head segments is... very distracting.
I was wondering more about 2 things that aren't covered in your video.
1) EPA regulations vs the size of the vehicle. I've heard that the reason the same model cars are bigger than their 20 and 30 year old counterparts is due to the language of a the emissions regulation about the size of a vehicle vs what it can emit. So just make the ranger as big as a full size truck use to be instead of how big a ranger was in the 90s.
2) Safety regulation laws. Are bigger vehicles easy to stuff more airbags and crumple zones into?
I wonder if the impact of the SUV loophole will still have as big of an impact when EVs are the standard? The end of the video touches on "big EVs are still bad", but doesn't answer "will automakers still be incentivized to make big cars".
Maybe the higher profit margins will be enough, but EVs already cost so much more. It seems like Tesla is going to try to push prices down.
Contractors don't need a "truck" with a huge manly engine taking up a third of the vehicle, a giant cabin with 5 seats and a miniscule tub at the rear that's too small to carry a sheep of ply, too high to load over the side and surrounded by shiny delicate paintwork and which can only carry a few pounds.
they done jelq'd all our cars out
We’ve encountered a similar scenario here in Australia concerning SUVs and pickup trucks, which are commonly referred to as four-wheel drives. Although our four-wheel drives generally aren't as large as the Ford F-150, the Toyota Hilux and the Ford Ranger hold the distinction of being the two most popular vehicles sold in Australia. These are mid-size pickup trucks and are comparable to their counterparts in the United States.
Over the past five years, I have observed a growing presence of the Ford F-150, Ford Ranger Raptor, Chevrolet Silverado, and various RAM vehicles on our roads.
In my opinion, when considering the statistics related to cars and pickup trucks, it becomes evident that none of them offer substantial benefits. These vehicles are highly polluting, emitting harmful toxins through their exhaust pipes, and the environmental costs associated with mining the minerals required for their production are considerable. From an environmental standpoint, neither option is viable. Additionally, the casualties caused by road accidents directly or air pollution indirectly cannot be overlooked. If this were any other product in the market, it would have sparked a significant outcry and likely would have been banned outright by now.
Fortunately, we already possess part of the solution to our environmental conundrum. E-scooters serve as an excellent alternative for commuters, as they are significantly cheaper to manufacture than vehicles, do not necessitate insurance payments or fuel consumption, and occupy minimal space on our roads. Even in the video footage depicting traffic congestion, most vehicles showcased only accommodate a single passenger.
By promoting the use of e-scooters and making substantial investments in public transportation, revising our urban zoning strategies, and implementing policies that encourage remote work, we can alleviate the burden on our infrastructure. Zoning regulations, although complex, serve a purpose, and I acknowledge their initial intent. However, some flexibility in zoning laws, such as allowing for closer proximity between residential and commercial districts or embracing mixed-use development, can reduce dependence on automobiles.
And these cars are driven by fake 'tradies' and seemingly dangerous drivers at that. Unsurprising that obnoxious and impatient people drive the most obnoxious and dangerous vehicles on our roads.
Distilled I doubt you will read this but could you do a video on the effects nuclear radiation and particuls had on climate change? I had a environmental teacher in college talk about it and he theorized it might have super charge the green house effects to carbon and other greenhouse gasses
How about converting the weight of your car to pump water to a high tank as a way to store energy?!! 3,000 pounds of you car plus the weight of each passenger can pump a lot of water if we engineer it. The among of energy of that go wasted adding up each day if we don't use it.
That’s why most of us love living in the United States. We don’t answer to any of this nonsense.
Why can't Europe sell their cars in the US?
Supply and demand. Very few want them.
@@docholiday9175chicken tax, different safety standards and lazyness from those automakers.
@@slent5346 if someone wants a EV buy one. I’m from Detroit and have 3 family members at Chevy, ford and an engineer at Chrysler. He says very few people want EVs but the government keeps pushing them on manufacturers with subsidies.
This is a copy of Not Just Bike's video.
Lacking many sources and units on your graphs and figures. Please do better as a science communicator. Also, typo at 6:22 : automobile*, not automibile
2022 is the last year that a list of best sellers in any major car market does not include an EV.
All regulation efforts should now on focus on avoiding the proliferation of monstrous mega EVs that are currently being pushed by Ford, GM, Stellantis, and yes, Tesla.
Agree! I wrote about that recently in my newsletter: www.distilled.earth/p/the-problem-with-big-electric-trucks
You seem pretty young, at the oldest born in the mid 1990's. I don't think you realize how miserable the vehicles that came out of CAFE were. Part of what happened is that cars became so woefully underpowered and awful in the 1980's.
It is true that the more fuel efficient cars made in the USA during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s were awful cars. The USA manufacturers seem to have tried to make them bad, because they wanted to sell more profitable large cars, pickups and SUVs. They left the efficient market to the Japanese and European manufacturers. That is why I bought only Japanese cars from 1980 through 1995. The Japanese cars were fun to drive and fuel efficient, so it was possible but Detroit did not want to make those cars.
Starting in 1995, I bought Saturn cars, built by the GM division they created to be more like the Japanese car makers. After GM killed Saturn in 2009, I went back to Japanese cars.
@@ericfielding2540 A lot of the issue was they didn't have enough time to go into design and engineering.
@@hattree I don’t know about Chrysler, but GM and Ford had divisions making cars in other countries that were more fuel efficient, so they had an option to make better small cars in the USA if they wanted to do that. Ford finally started bringing some of those designs back to the USA market and did well.
Chrysler had a European arm that is where the Horizon/Omni came from. GM was selling totally home market vehicles by the 80's with that crappy iron duke engine that is still powering mail trucks and really belongs in a tractor. What really happened is oil went down through the 80's. I wasn't driving till 91 and I can remember 97 cents a gallon gas. People here don't want tiny cars. We're big, have stuff, and need to get around. I'm in the smallest car I've ever had and it's an Accord.
this is a fantastic video about how things reall work. the real reasons America is how it is.
Several times I've asked people commuting to work on southern California freeways (no ice, no snow, no off-roading, no big loads, no passengers) why they drive huge SUVs. The distressing but understandable answer is that the big vehicles are "safer" - i.e. in a crash the bigger vehicle wins. Both the occupants and the big heavy vehicle will sustain less damage than the people in the smaller vehicle who cared about things like sharing the Earth and protecting human health and the environment. Having a big expensive SUV is also a status symbol in the U.S. I don't know how we'll make progress when people have such self-centered mindsets. It seems that these folks are not worried about the pedestrian, cyclist, small vehicle, or other thing they might hit - they just care about themselves and their loved ones coming out unscratched.... Sigh. How could anyone convince someone out of such a mindset?
Roomier cars are better for your health because you can stretch better on long trips.
Sitting in any car for a long duration is not good for your health, however you slice it, and you can still have plenty of room in a small car. Meanwhile, consider the health of the 48,000 that were killed last year, and the millions worldwide, not to even count the pollution that kills countless.
@@PiceaSitchensis You don't know if those people died because of car or factory pollution.
@@Brandon_O.If you can’t Spot a Car Crash, you probably have One of those
Worms that RFK Jr had in his Brain. 😂
Quite amusing to see truck bros use kindergarten-level arguments like this one.
@@georgelampropoulos1704 Yes, even a small kid can understand my point of view.
You can still buy a sedan from an American carmaker. It's called Tesla.
Tesla has been pushing out SUVs lately, and also those Teslas are quite expensive. There isn't really a budget sedan being made by the Big Three
They're way overpriced, not safe, far too heavy, and you're supporting a right-wing psychopath.