luxury trucks, suvs, crossovers and the death of the sedan

https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/idbFlkN1DI9k/v2/800x-1.png

why do you still drive a sedan?

how do you think about mileage and safety?

are the rise of the compact SUV and the luxury truck even related?

lots of interesting points in this thread

The trend of sedan sales collapsing and being replaced by sales of compact SUVs and the trend of gigantic, jacked-up pickup trucks as the luxury vehicle status symbol of choice in much of America are often collapsed together, but I think are basically unrelated?

— Michael Tae Sweeney (@mtsw) March 7, 2022

e.g.

Yes. I would need to see more data on this but I think there's a reasonable case to be made that car seat regulations killed the sedan, and I wonder if they've led to more death.

— Joel Wertheimer (@Wertwhile) March 7, 2022

minor scandal that kieth drives a rav 4 btw https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/01/who-needs-suvs-dear-keir-walk-to-the-tailor-next-time

i didn't realize child seat laws went so high in age, obviously i don't have a kid. like i know my parents had child seats for me and my brother, but i don't have strong memories of being in them.

you might be able to disentangle these trends somewhat, but i think there's definitely an arms race aspect to it. new trucks are basically designed to shine their extra-bright headlights directly into the rear view mirrors of smaller cars. a lot of things that are functionally passenger cars are still absurdly tall in ways that i don't think make them easier to get in and out of.

i sometimes i wonder if the mega trucks trend is partly the fallout from a bunch of american soldiers driving giant armored vehicles on patrol around iraq and afghanistan for a couple decades. dead pedestrians are acceptable collateral damage for protecting ourselves with our badass mech suits.

Several cars were vandalised in Dulwich last night with tyres deflated and this poster left on windscreens. We are environmentally friendly but this is not who we are as a community. pic.twitter.com/mTvBjPLz6p

— The Dulwich Society (@DulwichSociety) March 4, 2022

i sometimes i wonder if the mega trucks trend is partly the fallout from a bunch of american soldiers driving giant armored vehicles on patrol around iraq and afghanistan for a couple decades.

That's certainly a component of the marketing that drove the trend. 1990 is the year of the Gulf War, Arnold Schwarzenegger constantly complaining that he couldn't buy a military truck (until he could), and the introduction of the Ford Explorer.

Behind the scenes, auto manufacturers figured out that SUVs were a very profitable way to game the fuel economy standards in their favor. Nothing has really changed since.

x-post

One tactic against monster trucks I learned from some Earth First! folks is to deflate the tires on opposite corners. If the truck sits there long enough (like overnight), the sag is enough to permanently warp the frame and body assemblies.

whenever i visit my parents in the "suburbs," i note that each of the houses on their cul-de-sac (except for my parents who both drive small cars), has one luxury truck and one SUV. The truck is the daddy car, and the SUV is the mommy car.

minor scandal that kieth drives a rav 4 btw

I drive a rav 4 ... i haul stuff on a regular basis. i suppose i could have tried to find an old minivan from the 80s that was in decent shape instead of the small SUV, but almost all of those have been cash-for-clunkered out of the area.

xp:

Adding that to the running for best piece of tire-spiking advice on ilx, along with ukilxors arent u posh?

thanks to calzino (in another thread) I had my mind blown about the existence of posi screws (and drivers) ... which up until then, if I had seen any posi screws, I probably thought they were slightly malformed Phillips heads

the sag is enough to permanently warp the frame and body assemblies.

(evil cackle)

there certainly are sedans bigger than say a rav4 which isnt nearly the smallest "suv" so the categories arent that meaningful but thats all kind of pedantic in the face of the fact that vehicles on average are getting bigger which isnt great

we all just need to go back to the humble station wagon, the best kind of car, and its little brother the hatchback

i feel very alienated

luxury truck/suv/crossover owners are living in a different world. even getting to think about being in that world is a different world. it's fine but wtf

what kind of luxury houses are trending? who cares

luxury truck/suv/crossover owners are living in a different world. even getting to think about being in that world is a different world. it's fine but wtf

― the world's undisputed #1 fan of 'Spud Infinity' (Karl Malone), Monday, March 7, 2022 7:47 PM (eight minutes ago)

i got mine used, and I drive less than 5k miles a year so idk ... maybe I do live in a different world, a world where construction materials and music gear are large and bulky and heavy and someone needs to transport them from one physical place to another ...

i have a subaru outback which some say is a station wagon while others a crossover, it cannot be identified, i am therefor innocent, perfect really

xp

it is a different world

suburus should basically be their own category

everyone always takes that in such a judgy way

i have been in that different world. you're right, there are good reasons to own one, where it makes sense.

i think i run into trouble with this kind of thing, all thing time, frequently at least. it's like, yeah, i do get it. i totally get that

suburus should basically be their own category

― call all destroyer, Monday, March 7, 2022 11:02 PM (fourteen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

its sort of a cult vehicle, like a toyota but different

the outbacks used to be station wagons and now they pretty much look like RAV 4s. My RAV is almost 20 years old and looks like the Honda equivalent from that era, just like how the Honda Accords and the Toyota Corrollas all looked the same back in the 80s

like the subaru outback, the toyota rav4 and the honda CSV (or whatever the fuck honda calls theirs) are now all the same car ... kinda creepy when u really ~think~ about it? ... meanwhile last time i went to the suburbs (i went to a suburban Lowe's ... you really get a sense of what cars real Americans own when you go to a Lowe's in the suburbs) ... I did see a sweet-ass 70s El Camino, and ... now that was a car

whats funny is crossovers came out and they looked like mini real suvs, the original rav4 was like a tiny 4runner it looked like a truck, and people loved them so much they drove station wagons out of business, now most crossovers dont look anything like trucks, the new rav4 looks like a tall station wagon, they are slowly reinventing the station wagon

el camino was the best car truck of all time

the outback does look even more like a station wagon than the rav4 etc tho, its a station wagon, thats just my opinion, and its a fact

the new rav4 looks like a tall station wagon, they are slowly reinventing the station wagon

yes!!! mine is like the mini-4runner type

but seriously, cargo vans are even getting bigger. the classic Ford Econoline that bands toured in ... now there are those Sprinter things with the tall ass roofs.

https://i.imgur.com/Tm2cVMo.png

this is an outback which is a station wagon

https://i.imgur.com/nsOq4u4.png

where this is a forester which is a crossover, obviously

el camino was the best car truck of all time

― the world's undisputed #1 fan of 'Spud Infinity' (Karl Malone), Monday, March 7, 2022 8:10 PM (two minutes ago)

it was ... when I was a kid, my mom's best friend, Vern, had one. I think it probably transported just about every single household appliance

lol last time we were buying an ICE car i think the main reason we didn't check out suburus is because i couldn't figure out how to differentiate their models

I deal with a TON of Sprinter vans at work, followed in popularity by Dodge Promasters and Ford Transits

#vanlife

if the sedan dies, will that mean the death of ILX?

its a huge failure that no one from this board has ever bought one of those

it's a huge failure that Acura doesn't subsidize this board

they should be giving us free sedans

theres also a special offroad edition of the outback, which idk might be something for the post modernists to delineate

https://i.imgur.com/TlF0UCG.png

but the thing is ... with these new, bigger vehicles, it limits where you can actually live and own one of these things. Like, I have to park my little mini-suv almost right against the retaining wall so I can make sure that I can get in and not be blocked by my neighbor's car in our off-street parking.

i think there's one of those special offroad edition of the outback that I see semi-regularly ... in the parking lot of Whole Foods. ... definitely requires such a rugged vehicle

you'll have to pry my little Prius hatchback outta my cold dead hands, and yeah ease of parking is key

aren't there these custom window jobs you can get on the rear window that fuck with the high-headlight people by revealing scary ghosts or something like that?

there's a fellow ilxor who i know IRL and for years we both had late-80s Toyota Corrollas ... right around the same time each of our Corrollas met their ends and he got some small Honda thing that is quite environmentally friendly and easy to park, and I got the RAV4 ... anyway, if at some point I stop being a "hauler of things," I would totally go for a little Prius hatchback.

seriously, why do I always draw a blank on the models of vehicles made by Honda????

if i lived in the big city i would like to have a small sedan or hatchback, preferably one thats zippy, to zip around in

would you be calm and debonair?

no i would be caffeinated and whimsical

im a truck guy now. well i guess two trucks... got a 07 gmc sierra z71 as my car and a 08 suburban z71 for the fam car. use both for camping and road trips quite a bit. love having a big car that sits up high tbh. the gas mileage thing is rough tho.

used to be a sedan guy but a drunk driver hit my wife head on ten years ago with two oldest kids (newborn and 2.5 y/o) in the car. the buick sedan (le sabre?) held its own but there were broken bones, cuts, concussions, trauma... so we immediately bought a suburban cos i wanted my family to be in the biggest (practical) car possible.

if the sedan dies, will that mean the death of ILX?

ILX was killed last month

Years ago a musician friend had a Volkswagen Squareback from the early 70s and in it's own way, it was the ideal ur-crossover for someone who needed to carry stuff but not 500kg of it. It also had a front trunk (I HATE the word "frunk") which gave it a surprising amount of cargo space.

https://www.ambassadorautomobileco.com/imagetag/53/11/l/Used-1968-Volkswagen-Squareback.jpg

I used to obsess over this Mustang station wagon one-off/concept from 1966. Boomers that give me "that's not a Must..." shit when I tell them that I have a Mach-E on order usually stfu when I show them this. It's a great design that should have been built.

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/images/media/51/ford-mustang-wagon-inline-7-photo-562256-s-original.jpg

Oh wow, I had to look up Mach-E. I saw one outside my grocery store a month or two ago and thought somebody was being cheeky by slapping a Mustang horsie emblem on their electric.

xp I haven't seen that Mustang study before, ET. I'd call that a shooting brake, but maybe the the tweed and shotguns imagery doesn't work for a Ford. I really like that body style.

I would consider purchasing a well used but well loved ILX vehicle, at the right price

as a driver of an outback and a forester the main difference is that the outback is longer than the forester which means its easier to transport ikea billy bookshelves home in the outback

good way to remember this is it's "out" in the "back"

and the forester is made for moving wood in the form of bookshelves

lOad
Up
The
Bookshelves
After
Cashier at
iKea

the difference between the Honda Fit and other competing subcompacts is that it is Fit to serve all your driving needs

the honda fit is the result of a least squares regression on a plot of "cool vs car attributes"

lol

I use a zippy little Mazda 3 hatchback, it does fine holding a full drumkit, three or four guitars, assorted amps and whatnot. It has a roof rack for Ikea trips and each year's Christmas tree.

Volkswagen Squareback from the early 70s

my mom had one of these when i was a kid that she used as her delivery vehicle when she worked for the post office. she delivered mail to rural areas, and rural carriers had to use their own vehicles, as opposed to the USPS vehicles.

guy who delivers my mail has a rav4 but its some ridiculous limited edition in electric blue, really funny car to get a special one of

the ultimate small zippy car is prob the bmw 2 series, audi 3s are nice too and a lil more practical, volkswagen golf too basically same car as the audi tho, i would like to have the audi s3 i believe

my mom has had vw golfs for the past two decades (she no longer is a mail carrier) ... she loves to zip

when i once tried to 'relationship up,' i ended up driving my bf's s3 around and it felt like a beast (much larger, more powerful) than the economy yaris i was used to driving. but somehow less space for hauling stuff.

i don't think i could ever have an audi, because one of my regular "words or phrases that get stuck in my head to the tune of ..." is

douchebag in an audi
i know
i know
it's serious

whenever i see the four hoops i reflexively think 'douchebag' tbr

and my ex was a douchebag. i don't see any need for additional data points here.

my "stupid annoying coworker" is also an audi owner, though he is only sometimes a douchebag, but when he is a total douchebag, you better believe i sing to myself "douchebag in an audi, i know, i know, it's serious"

ive owned a couple audis, if you like nice cars you kinda just have to roll with the douche affiliation

out of he german lux badges id prob be most embarrassed to drive a benz, id do it tho if the right one came into my life

A lot of "small SUVs" just look like sedans on stilts to me

yeah theyre just tall cars

BMW way douchier than an Audi.

Drove an Audi A3 hatchback on vacation a few years ago. Perfect car, but they don’t sell them in the US.

yeah i wish they still had those here, they even look a lil more like a small station wagon than a typical hatch which is p sweet

We own a Mini Cooper S, which is fun to drive but has the worst ride ever (stiff suspension plus low to the ground plus run-flats).

idk i feel like benzes have more street cred than audis -- i mean, janis had a song about a benz, and there are rappers that rap about benz ownership -- audi doesn't have that; kinda feel like BMW is a bit more retro ... like Audi is as douchey now as BMW's were in the 80s

roughly how i break it down

bmw: the drivers car
benz: the luxury car
audi: the competent car

obvs theres a lot of crossover and if you get a huge bmw suv its not going to drive differently than the other guys but on the other hand bmw does still make a lil rwd manual coupe thats just going to be more fun than the equivalent audi, you get a benz and itll have like 20 ways you can adjust the seats and a really over the top interior etc, audi generally will be a lil more minimal germanic no nonsense experience that just feels quality and well made but not specifically fun or opulent

xxp - the mini countryman wagons are super cute

my parents drive Audis and it's very fitting as a middle-class suburbanite boomer car. a "nice" car but not too flashy. comfortable, reliable.

benz g wagon is the car that most signals douche to me currently

volvo is the ultimate plausible deniability luxury car

saab was even more so rip

benz g wagon is the car that most signals douche to me currently

― 《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 11:49 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

id go with the ford raptor

Truck balls
H3
Those are the worst, in that order

lexus is just for old people now, acura and infinity are basically dead, then theres the new kid on the block genesis which is getting rave reviews, american luxury badges cadillac linclon seem to mostly sell just one huge suv, and then theres electric cars which are most luxury cars obvs tesla but new ones popping up every day lucid looks pretty amazing, same for rivian

benz g wagon is the car that most signals douche to me currently

― 《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 11:49 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

really sad it costs a million dollars cause its an amazing car, sick boxy design, its not that big, and its one of the most capable off roaders out there which is ironic cause no one is taking their 130k truck offroad, they should find a way to make a stripped down version call it something else idk

raptor is also sick vehicle lol

saab was even more so rip

We don't wanna hear your Saab story

ayye lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZdMbdWX0IA

raptor is also sick vehicle lol

― lag∞n, Tuesday, March 8, 2022 11:58 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes i want one lol

tacoma trd imho

those were so cool in the early 00s.

Living in a super-hilly northeast town I do now get the appeal of AWD, and our second car is a Honda CR-V. It's v comfortable but not particularly fun to drive, slightly awkward handling (but probably not moreso than any other similar sized vehicle), and turbocharged engine + continuously variable transmission make for strange acceleration feel/sound. Definitely practical, maximized cargo space etc. It seems like the majority of families in our town own either a CR-V, Subaru outback/forrester/crosstrek, a Mazda CX-5 or a Toyota RAV-4.

The CX-5 is surprisingly elegant looking. RAV-4 looks childish. Subarus are orky but in an 80s volvo station wagon sort of way that doesn't bother me.

*dorky

those were so cool in the early 00s.

― jammin on the dud (Spottie), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 2:04 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

the new ones are good!

lol weve reached the recommending trucks phase of the anti truck thread

the only truck that looks in anyway appealing 2 me is the ford maverick that gets 40 MPG, it looks like a normal sized truck for ppl who actually do things with a truck

trucks r good the thread is built on a shaky foundation

the f-150 lightning seems good. my bro in law is going to get one

ive never driven one of these Big Cars before but ill probably have to get one in the next couple years. intimidating prospect

thread with shakey foundation would have title 'RIP Trucks'

the only truck that looks in anyway appealing 2 me is the ford maverick that gets 40 MPG, it looks like a normal sized truck for ppl who actually do things with a truck

― class project pat (m bison), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 2:12 PM (nine seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

its cool that ford came out with a small hybrid pickup but its really not a truck, no real 4wd, built on same unibody platform as the escape, its a "light truck" aka a crossover, same as hondas pickup

only truck i'd buy is the saturn s-series

subaru brat

On those extraordinarily rare occasions when I need a truck or SUV I rent one. (Privilege alert: there are like three Enterprise locations literally within walking distance from me, plus two U-Hauls and an Alamo.)

The idea of owning a truck or SUV when the vast vast vast majority of my trips are taking a kid to school or getting groceries is weird to me, but I am not in the business of judging other ilxors for their choices.

have thought about picking up a subie baja before lol

do it

i've a forester.

it's ugly compared to older foresters. it gets terrible mileage. i don't like it, but the lease expired during pandy 2020 so i bought it.

i've told joe this but my dream is that toyota makes the prius v again.

we need a thread on i love cars about hating cars and not knowing anything about cars and having some $400 repair you have to make on your pos 2010 kia sportage wipe out the credit card spending margin you had managed to gain over the last 6 months every 6 months, because you live in poverty, that consists entirely of me posting "bump" every 6 months.

no you should get this the electric baby fj that doesnt actually exist xp

https://i.imgur.com/7C9sopQ.png

i've a forester.

it's ugly compared to older foresters. it gets terrible mileage. i don't like it, but the lease expired during pandy 2020 so i bought it.

i've told joe this but my dream is that toyota makes the prius v again.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 1:28 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the newer gen prii are already pretty v-ish imo

we need a thread on i love cars about hating cars and not knowing anything about cars and having some $400 repair you have to make on your pos 2010 kia sportage wipe out the credit card spending margin you had managed to gain over the last 6 months every 6 months, because you live in poverty, that consists entirely of me posting "bump" every 6 months.

― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 1:30 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

:( but also i'd bookmark that thread and cashapp u a $20 everytime u bumped it

the only truck that looks in anyway appealing 2 me is the ford maverick that gets 40 MPG, it looks like a normal sized truck for ppl who actually do things with a truck

― class project pat (m bison), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 2:12 PM (nine seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

its cool that ford came out with a small hybrid pickup but its really not a truck, no real 4wd, built on same unibody platform as the escape, its a "light truck" aka a crossover, same as hondas pickup

― lag∞n, Tuesday, March 8, 2022 1:18 PM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

smh this is the "no true truckman" fallacy

come off it. if it can carry a queen mattress it's a truck.

its not a truck

"The Ford Maverick is a compact pickup truck produced by Ford Motor Company"

not my words. the words of en.wikipedia.org.

m bison you're very sweet but i'm definitely not starting that thread now :P

this is an engineering issue that no manner of marketing can change

tell that to the engineers at en.wikipedia.org.

come off it. if it can carry a queen mattress it's a truck.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 2:16 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

caek gets to take your us citizenship lagoon, sorry this is ilx law

If that's true, I am a truck.

and a dolly cart is a truck

The idea of owning a truck or SUV when the vast vast vast majority of my trips are taking a kid to school or getting groceries is weird to me, but I am not in the business of judging other ilxors for their choices.

― jenny from the blockchain (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 2:24 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was def influenced by the time it took me six hours in my non-AWD sedan to get home from work in a snowstorm, albeit that was a pretty unusual storm. Generally speaking streets around me are pretty steep (and my driveway is sloped), and it's been helpful to have the AWD in snow. Renting cars around me is expensive and inconvenient, and I've made a fair amount of use of the cargo space in buying used furniture, home depot trips, taking my kids to ride bikes (although could just get a bike rack) etc. Mileage is only a couple MPG below an accord, so it seemed like nbd. I could definitely live fine without it, but the pluses seemed to outweigh the minuses.

I bought an entire disassembled used 16' trampoline and was able to fit all the parts into the CR-V.

the best car I ever drove in the snow was a Chevy Prizm with FWD

video of man alive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePAd4kmwMMk

The idea of owning a truck or SUV when the vast vast vast majority of my trips are taking a kid to school or getting groceries is weird to me, but I am not in the business of judging other ilxors for their choices.

― jenny from the blockchain (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 2:24 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

fwiw we got a SUV precisely because 90% of our trips involve moving two kids around, sidewalks here are 10" above the street, and my back is shot.

come off it. if it can carry a queen mattress it's a truck.

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 2:16 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

caek gets to take your us citizenship lagoon, sorry this is ilx law

― class project pat (m bison), Tuesday, March 8, 2022 3:35 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

smh effete urban wine sippers who dont even know what a truck is trying to take my citizenship i guess is this america now

i dont even own a wine

i have wine by the stove for red sauce

it's two buck chuck ($3 because i don't live in real america unlike lag00n)

we dont even have that store

*donald glover's "this is america" plays but he's at a trader joe's*

speaking of vans, i've been enjoying this incredible nerd's playlist about converting a ford transit to a camper

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWlfOav4jlvgX7qMTEJfdFWF7sgds3kit

Countdown to when the MAGA Chud Convoy (chudvoy?) takes on unibody construction as anti-American. "Body-on-frame was good enough for the covered wagons our ancestors used and it's good enough for our trucks now!"

landrover fans have been grieving about unibody construction for 5 years now

Yeah like I said I am not tryna be Judgy McJudgerson here, but only you can know whether you're being honest about how often you need to transport a queen-sized mattress.

I own a queen-sized mattress that has been moved precisely once in 15 years, fwiw

Six years since the last time I had to move a queen-sized mattress.

My max load is a couple of guitars, a bass head/cab, pedals/cables, and us with all of our stuff to go on the road for a week. All of that fits amazingly well in a 9 year old Charger - put the rear seats down and you've almost got a small pickup bed hidden inside a sedan.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3665046

Since 1977, U.S. states have passed laws steadily raising the age for which a child must ride in a car safety seat. These laws significantly raise the cost of having a third child, as many regular-sized cars cannot fit three child seats in the back. Using census data and state-year variation in laws, we estimate that when women have two children of ages requiring mandated car seats, they have a lower annual probability of giving birth by 0.73 percentage points. Consistent with a causal channel, this effect is limited to third child births, is concentrated in households with access to a car, and is larger when a male is present (when both front seats are likely to be occupied). We estimate that these laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide in 2017. Simultaneously, they led to a permanent reduction of approximately 8,000 births in the same year, and 145,000 fewer births since 1980, with 90% of this decline being since 2000.

thats wild

broke: give women access to contraceptives and education to lower birth rate
merica: GOOD LUCK TRANSPORTING YOUR CHILDREN "MOM"

Yeah I was on the oebdient/careful end of the spectrum but the idea of 12-year-old humans still in car seats is just, um, wow

that is some wild freakanomics shit there re: birth rates

Yeah I was on the oebdient/careful end of the spectrum but the idea of 12-year-old humans still in car seats is just, um, wow

― jenny from the blockchain (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, March 9, 2022 4:38 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

IMO there's a tradeoff between the very minimal additional amount of safety you get vs not humiliating your child.

What’s it got to do with 12 year olds? Unless you have two kids more than five years apart, you need two car seats, which means the back row is unusable for anything else, and lowering the back row to use the trunk takes like 20 minutes of in installation and installation. This is why parents get 3 row cars and suvs with extravagant cargo space.

the minivan is back again awooooo

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/03/vw-unveils-adorable-electric-id-buzz-us-sales-begin-2024/

it's sort of cute, but weirdly commercial looking, like a commuter van

feel like making a mini van is kind of disrespectful to their #vanlife roots, it is cute tho

maybe theyll make a full size one with a pop top and so forth

yeah it looks like a sienna with a cute front, rather than a combi. tbh i'm fine with that.

this is the short wheel base version. the 3 passenger row one is coming later.

if the long one is more full sized will be cool to have it electric cause the battery cld lower the center of gravity which is always an issue w vans

guessing its gonna be a long mini van tho

we need to get back to this

Now live at BaT Auctions: 1960 Volkswagen Double Cab Type 2 Transporter. https://t.co/NdOW70fKWG pic.twitter.com/bIZIrH2qYm

— Bring a Trailer (@Bringatrailer) March 10, 2022

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2022/03/17/study-megacar-drivers-up-to-4x-more-likely-to-hit-walkers-while-turning/

finally know what kind of car i want pic.twitter.com/3BPHwrHPGI

— justin jacoby smith (@hoosteen) April 8, 2022

Needs flame decals

I discovered my neighbourhood was developed in the 1840s so decided to add an 1840 section to my ‘cars are getting bigger’ drawing.

All the same scale. pic.twitter.com/fhg2oDgDc3

— Michael (@baoigheallain) March 11, 2022

In the land of the free, why can’t we have mini-pickup trucks like the Taliban and ISIS?

kind of a silly piece considering compact or at least smaller pickups are trending hard right now, i understand they might not be small enough for that guy but i feel like it wouldve been worth exploring that on the heals of the maverick doing so well that there are strong rumors that the toyota stout and the subaru baja are making a comeback, gotta think chevy will make one too, the light truck is back baby

its a ridiculous vehicle category imho, but if people want a pickup shaped car they should be able to have it

it's a good headline though.

i mean we all want to be like isis but its just not always realistic

My new car

in case anyone is looking for a JDM dragon hearse https://t.co/LZK9EQe7b5

— marginal idea (@marginalidea) July 9, 2023

saloons still live

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a31069594/station-wagons-disguised-suvs/ (2000)

i didnt know about that jaguar, pretty sick

wish audi wld bring the s4 wagon over

the new mazda cx-90 could probably qualify as a station wagon disguised as an suv

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cvw_oMsAsaE/

hyundai finally coming into its own design-wise, for better or for worse

i like what theyre doing generally, now if they could just make their cars harder for children to steal

on the contrary all cars should be made very easy for children to steal - just my humble opinion

tough but fair

We are gradually starting the process of looking into an eventual replacement for the 12-year-old accord and want an electric, but not an SUV. It's surprising how few options there are, esp if you don't want a Tesla. Nissan Leaf maybe?

Or maybe one of these electric "compact" or "sub-compact" SUVs is close enough to a sedan that we won't feel the difference. Also just don't want anything too ostentatious looking or that we will be too afraid to ding bc H is gonna commute to the Bronx in it.

i would totally get the MG EV wagon if i were getting a car but i am not, so

probably not available in the US sadly

reason why so many electrics are crossovers is cause the battery goes in the floor raising the height of the car and a crossover is basically just a tall car

and then theres just that america has abandoned the car

i like the hyundai ioniq 5, its bigger than an accord but not super big about the size of a subaru forester

https://file.kelleybluebookimages.com/kbb/base/evox/CP/50143/2022-Hyundai-IONIQ%205-front_50143_032_2400x1800_SAW.png

its gotten good reviews

i gotta say in defense of the crossover a hatchback is so much better than a trunk, you can fit so much more stuff in there especially when you consider putting the seats down, you can even sleep in there, tho it is too bad there arent more wagons which is the true sweet spot

i keep a sleeping kit in my subaru outback (wagon shaped crossover) at all times, tho tbh ive never slept in it without planning ahead to sleep in it, still i like having the sleeping bag sleeping mat camping pillow in there i feel ready, this is my version of prepping thinking that i might go on a fun spontaneous drive some day

Yeah, both a neighbor and a relative have one of those and seem to like them. And I think they look kinda sharp.

I hear you on the hatchback too, other car is a CRV, have managed to haul pretty large pieces of furniture from facebook marketplace and such, good for the occasional music gig, oversized duffle bags to sleepaway camp etc.

yeah i like how they look feel like hyundai is blazing a trail away from the super cut madface look that dominates the industry which is nice

St. Louis Police told my parents to keep their Prius keys in a lead-lined box.

I do not know whether this is even remotely* true, but there is apparently an idea out there that a decently clever person can clone your keys from a distance.

* no pun intended

You don't need a lead-lined box, just an RFID pouch. Ten years ago these were all tech demos at hacker conferences, now it's easy enough that you can buy theft devices on the cheap. This is a legit threat - thieves here in SoCal all know which makes and models are vulnerable. Flipper Zero makes this stuff look like gaming.

I suspect we'll see ever more blurring of the sedan/crossover/SUV definitions as the manufacturers realize that you can completely rethink design. I'm fascinated by construction of the Silverado EV where the body is the battery, or the battery is the body - whichever.

One big plus to Hyundai's Ioniq 5, is that it (and Kia's EV6) have significantly faster charging rates. This could be a big deal depending on your situation, use-case, etc.

lol, apparently Toyota has now gotten into the game as well with the "bZ4X" - possibly the most "we ran out of names" name I've ever seen.

Looks cool though
https://www.toyota.com/bz4x/?srchid=SEM:700000001483645:GOOGLE:71700000105010941:58700008358242166:p76039051254:655190536031&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQjwldKmBhCCARIsAP-0rfxsLtiEAGhW0Wv1n6PuzbH1dvprgyBkjARg6rXlPLlHsZonZRvI3Z0aAt5SEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

i think thats the one they made to fulfill some regulation barely made any of them and everyone says its horrible

their ceo resigned a few months back over the whole not bothering to make electric cars situation

toyota make a compact electric pickup trust me bro

Toyota is all-in on hydrogen

think thats the one they made to fulfill some regulation barely made any of them and everyone says its horrible

― lag∞n, Thursday, 10 August 2023 22:26 (yesterday) link

Yeah, that might explain the half-assed name too

https://www.motor1.com/news/706424/suvs-too-fat-european-roads-study/

https://www.thedrive.com/news/rhode-island-dmv-is-trying-to-ban-kei-trucks-again

why is rhode island racist against the cute cars

a new wagon getting a US release

https://www.caranddriver.com/bmw/m5-touring

oh my god

can someone please give me $122,675

i'll give you 122,674 but you're on your own for the rest

wow selfish

interesting how thats the bmw equivalent of the audi rs6 which is also in the usa as a wagon

i was at a campsite in france last week and let me tell you guys, european campsites are where station wagons come out to play

thats whats up

Audis are stupid

thats actually not true

the first time I took my eldest to the uk we rented an audi wagon. it was the best two weeks of my life

So many Chinese EV wagons crush the overpriced, overengineed Audis. The NIO ET5 Touring, NETA's S Wagon, BYD's Han wagon

damn i didnt know audi had been crush by chinese evs

NIO ET5 Touring (YT link) is probably the best car out there. If you want to know why US and Euro car makers are in total fear of Chinese EVs...

i visited a few chinese ev showrooms last year and rode in a couple via rideshare. the fit and finish was very very good

As of this week I'm leasing an Ioniq5 for a few years - sort of fitting for this thread because it's considered a "compact SUV" but it's kind of hard to see what makes it that and not a sedan with a wagon-type hatch.

Wasn't a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs recently enacted in the US? That will kill any potential market for NIA, BYD, etc. in the US, unless they shift production to North America or find some other workaround. I'm not a fan of protectionism; previous efforts, particularly in the automotive sector, have had unintended and negative consequences.

its not really protectionism if china is pursuing a dumping scheme, which is the claim, idk if its true, obvs theres some gray area when say an industry gets a lot of government investment which is whats going on with chinese evs, are they selling them at effectively subsidized prices, i mean they are really cheap

China also has long had a policy where non-Chinese manufacturers couldn't sell their cars in China, or at least couldn't set up Chinese manufacturing plants (can't remember which) except by forming 50/50 "joint venture" companies which were half Chinese. This, amongst other things, gave the Chinese a close-up look at foreign production methods which they have since copied.

As of this week I'm leasing an Ioniq5 for a few years - sort of fitting for this thread because it's considered a "compact SUV" but it's kind of hard to see what makes it that and not a sedan with a wagon-type hatch.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Saturday, August 31, 2024 8:56 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

did you look at the kia ev6 too? just curious as these are the models i'm considering when my kia niro ev lease ends in november

thats actually not true

the first time I took my eldest to the uk we rented an audi wagon. it was the best two weeks of my life

you can take an audi to a normal mechanic they are more expensive to repair than say a japanese car but thats the case for any german car, idk about the over engineered counter initiative part ive personally found them to be nice to drive around in

The Audis we have had have been great. I had a 2011 that had over 120,000 (hard) miles and never had any issues until it got totaled. It held up well in the crash. My wife's A3 had to have the entire car computer replaced with just over 10k miles on it, but it was under warranty so not that big of a deal.

My only complaint about the newer ones is that the technology is getting more and more complicated, but I think that is a general car trend and a me getting older trend. They also look way better than the BMWs from the last 15 years and the A4 is very fun to drive.

tbf my mechanic did say that he hated my the audi i owned at the time, which i guess could be "over engineering" but i mean thats german performance baby, i def wouldnt recommend buying a high milage one tho

and yeah tech in cars is out of control, think audis bad take a look at a new mercedes its a farce in there

I have had mechanics make comments about Audi's reputation for reliability, but I think that is lingering from many years ago.

I rented a Mercedes two years ago and I could not get into it when I picked it up because the drivers seat was so far forward (like up against the steering wheel), I could not find the switches to operate it, and the owners manual in the car did not match that model.

my mechanic was complaining about how fiddly they were to work on iirc

did you look at the kia ev6 too? just curious as these are the models i'm considering when my kia niro ev lease ends in november

― call all destroyer, Saturday, August 31, 2024 9:30 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I was considering them but didn’t go test drive or anything. I’m told they are fairly close to the same car and I think some people even like the EV6 trim options better. I kind of needed to resolve our car situation within a very limited amount of time, but would have done more comparison otherwise. Friends of ours love their EV6.

https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/BMW-M5-Touring-leak-profile.jpg

I was just in the UK for a couple of weeks and our rental was a volvo xc60. very nice but a bit big for the country lanes, and my first time driving a touchscreen climate control situation.

I gave one wheel curb rash on the first day. got a mobile refurbisher to come out and make the wheel like new for £95, better than the £500+ the rental place would have charged me. took about an hour. worth considering and much easier than I realized if you care about such things.

i wish audi and bmw would bring their smaller middling performance wagons to the usa i want s4 wagon or idk what the bmw equivalent would be a 340i, their high end performance cars yr Ms and RSes are so fast and expensive now that m5 upthread is $100k+ and has 700 horsepower thats some fantastical shit you just want something a little zippier than the normal ones you dont need some crazy track car

the usa can have a little wagon if it wants

the hatchbacks for their small cars would be nice too

we cant have it cause everyone wants tall car

S3 hatchback would be sick.

would be such a good city car

aren't you basically after a golf then?

yeah basically the same car but doesnt have the nice audi design

all cars are a little small for english country lanes ime

all british car youtubers talk about how poorly the roads are over there whats up with that

ya cannae pump yer brex

The ioniq is slightly taller than sedans and wagons I guess, but low for an SUV. Part of its visual appeal I think.

https://i.redd.it/4a7lt4zl7gld1.jpeg

just read about the audi 48v "mild hybrid" start/stop system, that's crazy, who needs 48v? apparently audi

let audi cook

48V is a sweet spot for battery voltage fwiw

lots of vehicle lithium systems using that now, esp vans

yeh i'm guessing audi chose 48V because of availability of parts from EVs. but apparently the audi 48v system is only used for a smoother start/stop (hence "mild" hybrid) and the rest is pure ICE

is also apparently broken / subject of a recall and leaving audi owners stranded often

im watching a doc on the calabrian mafia and the cops there have bmw wagons

https://www.thedrive.com/news/overweight-ford-f-750-plunges-through-historic-wooden-bridge-in-maine

The picture is perfect

looney tunes ass plunging into the river ass hole

the ford f750 is a commercial truck fwiw, spec'd out i think they go into the 6 figures

we drove a normal subaru outback over a wooden bridge to a pier in astoria oregon... never really feels like cars are meant to go over wooden bridges

theres a covered bridge near me that has a similar weight limit i have driven a much smaller truck over it

https://www.tiktok.com/@creiser36/video/7414259011106671903?lang=en

https://i.redd.it/ouriswjag7td1.jpeg

Honestly people are being mean about that but i love it

smh

that's not a minivan

Honestly people are being mean about that but i love it

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, October 8, 2024 8:23 PM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

BTW, I actually do too, I was posting it as an appreciation. I think it's fun and slightly ridiculous in a good way. A good absurd thing to do with too much money.