‘Carspreading’ is on the rise – and not everyone is happy about it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy7vdvl2531o
Posted by Alert-One-Two
‘Carspreading’ is on the rise – and not everyone is happy about it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy7vdvl2531o
Posted by Alert-One-Two
14 Comments
When we are slowly becoming like the US, expect shit like this.
Going to be funny when someone tries driving their large SUV down one of those very old, very small village roads and just can’t. I’ll stick to my hatchback, thank you.
There’s a distinction between smaller to midsize SUVs and the behemoths that just seem like they don’t belong in the UK. Take the X5 for example. Everytime I see that car on the road I wonder how they manage to park.
Added benefit for me is second hand saloons are so much cheaper at least.
“On a Monday morning with three boys, three school bags, three sports kits, and a trumpet thrown in the boot there isn’t even room in the car for the dog!”
Really? I think I could fit that in a coupé.
Call me a snob (I am but I know I am!) but I would be happier if people just said “I own an SUV because I’m basic and can’t have a smaller car than the neighbours” at least it would show they know themselves and make considered decisions based on that.
The major misstep this article makes is that it lays much of the blame on the consumer. Car companies *want* to sell SUVs over saloons and hatchbacks because it’s more profitable. A lot of them are phasing non-SUVs out of their range.
Ford retired the Mondeo and the Fiesta, which were both still popular up to the very end of their production, and replaced them both with the Puma. If you want a new hatchback from Ford, sorry! You can’t. Crossover SUVs it is.
I suspect many, many Puma buyers would be just as happy with a Fiesta if it were still on the showroom. Consumer choices are not entirely self-directed. If car companies want customers to buy SUVs, they will buy SUVs. It’s simply easier to go along with what you’re given than push back, and that’s true in many areas in life. Path of least resistance and all that.
Tax cars by width. It would fix the budget very quickly
The article, and many people, focus on SUVs.
But compare a Polo from 2000 to a Polo today. Do the same for the Golf, a Citreon C3 etc.
They have all got bigger and heavier. That is better safety features.
A VW T Roc SUV is based on the same chassis as the Golf.
Despite being an SUV, the T Toc is shorter and narrower than a Golf. It is taller and has 17% more boot space.
“fit a 3 foot length of pipe in it” – Is this guy thick. You can fit that in any car. That’s 90cm. You could put that sideways in a hatchback of literally any brand.
Talk about grasping at straws. Estates are better than a land rover anyway when it comes to fitting shit in. You can put a 6 by 3 foot length of plasterboard in a Passat and it weight about a third less.
Ugh does every concept need a social media nickname?
Didn’t Jeremy Clarkson & co take a massive Hummer around some small English villages causing their usual brand of mayhem? They and local motorists were not impressed.
I don’t have an issue with people buying whatever cars they want
I have a family of three and for nearly all situations we are happy with our old Toyota Yaris.
I wonder how much of the difference in size is due to internal dimensions. I remember being in cars in the 80s with friends and you’d almost be touching elbows. Now every car has a big old space between the seats.
I’m not convinced designers are doing their best to keep size and weight down tbh. A lot of the space at the very front of a car is just plastic and air.
Can’t even fit three car seats (across the back row) in most SUVs so their size is confusing to me.
Had to rent a car a few months ago. I got the smallest car on purpose, it wasn’t ready when i was there so they ‘upgraded’ my car to a bigger one. Then the place got really fucking busy as I waited every everybody was ‘upgraded’ to bigger cars… Every call the staff had with people was about ‘upgrading’ to bigger cars. And there were people in there who genuinely only cared about how big the car was.
What the fuck is this all about? I don’t get it. I want a car that is efficient, I can get the stuff I need in there and get from A to B. Since when is having a big car the thing. And why? Obviously I see all the huge cars on the road and that these cars have all got bigger, but it’s a bit fucking dumb?
The car I got was big on the outside but like a reverse Tardis. Tiny inside. I made as much room as I could for me behind the wheel but hardly fucking fit there and if there was passengers there just wasn’t any fucking room there at all. I’ve owned smaller cars that were much more spacious. Silly shit. People confuse me.