SUVs are the most versitile vehicle for a number of people. As someone who has driven nothing but SUVs ever since I started chosing vehicles for mysef (Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Toyota RAV-4)
With the back seats folded down they have a huge amount of space. My RAV4 isn’t particularly large but I can carry 10 foot dimensional lumber home from Home Depot, lay my bicycle in back without messing around with external bike racks or taking off the wheel. Even an IKEA mattress and an IKEA sofa. In the 30 years I’ve had SUVs I’ve needed to borrow a pickup truck to haul something larger exactly twice.
All wheel drive, high ground clearance, and larger wheels are advantages in places where it snows like here in Minneapolis. Multiple times I gave my sister rides to work in the middle of a blizzard when her Corolla literally got hung up on the snow before making it out to the main street.
Higher H-point seating is more comfortable for a lot of people including my 50 year old back, and you get a better view of the road.
I drove a borrowed Accord sedan for three months between SUVs. I absolutely hated the thing. I couldn’t fit my bicycle in back without taking off the wheel. My back was screaming in pain after only 100 miles on the road. I couldn’t see as well virtually sitting on the pavement like that. Forget about hauling anything bigger than a few sacks of groceries. About the only reason I can see for owning a Sedan is if you live in the city and need the secure, hidden trunk storage.
Agreed, driving can be deadly serious. That’s why, when I was choosing between an SUV or the sedan it’s based on, I chose the sedan as it’s lighter and lower so it brakes better, handles better, accelerates better, and as a bonus, it does less damage to whatever pedestrian or vehicle it might hit.
Yep - ease of entry and exit. I’m tallish, and while that Honda Civic was fantastically efficient and reliable, hauling myself into and out of it was becoming more and more of a problem. I had ridden in a friend’s minivan (no kids, but she was a harpist) and loved it - so when I got pregnant with Moon Unit, that’s what we bought.
When that had to be replaced, we did not even consider “downsizing” to a sedan. I’d been spoiled by the ease of entry / exit, and the view of the road while driving.
The minivan was also the first automatic transmission car I ever owned; all our prior ones were manual. We figured why pay more money for something that resulted in lower mileage. The tech has improved enough since then that this is no longer a concern - plus, manual transmission SUCKS in stop-and-go traffic - especially with my 64-year-old original-equipment knees.
We did consider a compact crossover - like an HR/V - and I’d consider one in the future; when we were shopping last, though, it just seemed a little too cramped. I’d actually prefer the smaller vehicle as a daily driver, but since we only keep one car (plus the older one, for my son), we had to go with something that worked for daily driving AND trips.
There’s another aspect of safety: can the other drivers see YOU?
I’ve had a lot of sports cars. Several 240-Zs, a 1967 Camaro built out to be stupid fast, a Saab WRX clone, and a Mustang (my wife’s). The 240’s were almost invisible to other drivers it seemed. I routinely had to swerve when someone tried to lane change into me. It wasn’t as bad as being on a motorcycle, but worse than an SUV.
A low, small car in a world of SUVs has its own challenges.
The short version is that when the Obama administration was proposing new fuel economy standards in 2012, carmakers complained that it was too hard for trucks to meet those standards. They asked for an easier standard for larger cars (measured by the “footprint” of the car, which is the wheelbase times the track) and an even easier standard for light trucks. Then, after they got what they asked for, the carmakers more or less got out of the business of making more efficient cars and got into the business of just giving trucks bigger footprints.
At the time of the 2012 rule, the EPA concluded “Under a footprint-based standard, manufacturers have the incentive to invest in technologies that improve the fuel economy of the vehicles they sell rather than shifting their product mix, because reducing the size of the vehicle is generally a less viable compliance
strategy given that smaller vehicles have more stringent regulatory targets.” See 77 FR at 66287 (here: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2012-11-15/pdf/FR-2012-11-15.pdf). The EPA considered but chose not to consider that carmakers would shift their product mix to bigger cars and then to trucks to make it easier to hit the lower standards. That was a mistake and the 2012 fuel economy standards (and the later revision) did only about 3/5 of what they were supposed to do. They may also be contributing to higher pedestrian fatality rates and perhaps to higher overall highway fatality rates as automakers shift to selling trucks that kill more people in collisions.
By SUVs do people mean those “crossover” things that are not quite a sedan, not quite a van, not quite a station wagon, and not quite a full-sized SUV? Like the BMW X-5 or Subaru Forester come to mind.
I suppose what it comes down to is multiple manufacturing lines are very expensive. Unless you want a special purpose vehicle like a high performance sports car or pickup truck, most people are content for a run of the mill all purpose car. And since form follows function, you end up with most cars on the road being these sort of sporty half-SUV things that all look alike.
We bought a Nissan Juke because we live in a neighborhood with a lot of tradespeople with higher-up vehicles than our old Sentra. Combine that with an alley parking spot, and we nearly got T-boned more than once trying to pull out of the alley because of visibility issues what with all the giant pickups and SUVs blocking our visibility. Plus it’s much easier to drive in snow even though it’s not a 4WD.
I’m a cyclist and motorcyclist and have been for almost 40 years. This is exactly why I am an absoulte defensive driver and it doesn’t matter what I’m in. I wish more people had this mentality vs “they better move” mentality.
I’ve had nothing but SUVs for the last 25 years. I install a tow hitch if they don’t have one, and when I need to haul something larger than what fits I rent a trailer from U-Haul. They’re a fantastic deal. No mileage charge, and about $15 - $25 a day depending on the size and type of trailer. You can’t beat it!
Yeah, if you are a motorcyclist and have a low regard for other drivers, you grow eyes in the back of your head. I commuted to work on the freeway for a couple of years. They’re all trying to kill you.
those Cat’ chasis are so huge, they come in 3 separate parts and are normally assembled by the cat-people at the mine … and once worn out, they are dumped into the mine …
So unless you have a reaaaaly large driveway (and lax zoning laws) … you are OOL
That’s solid logic for ANY vehicle configuration you may need only occasionally.
When we owned a minivan, that did for everything. When we got rid of it and got our first SUV, yeah, that was less useful for really long trips with the kids, but we’d rent a minivan for those. 700 bucks for a week, once a year, versus 10K more to buy the minivan versus the SUV, just made economic sense. Or in your case, a hundred bucks (or less) to rent a truck for a day. When our older SUV (2006, well over 150K miles, and we were starting to get leery over longer trips) was still the “new” car, we rented something once or twice a year. Plunk down the equivalent of 2 car payments a year for rentals - MUCH cheaper than the payment on a new car.
I am in the market for a new car in the near future and will likely buy a Corolla. I just want a small/medium size sedan that provides me with dependable transport. There aren’t a lot of choices these days.
I am currently driving an 11 year old Chevy Impala and will try to keep it going as long as i can.
