Bigger SUVs and pickups are outgrowing home garages, public parking spaces!

[alsoknownasDean]

The other week I was in a car park and there was someone in a fairly new Silverado 2500, and they were having trouble driving around the parking lot due to the size of the thing, and turning was very difficult.

Although here if you're paying about A$140k for a 'super size me' vehicle that's almost 70cm longer than a standard Australian car park (5.4m/18ft), you're probably doing so because you genuinely need that sort of vehicle. Most 'truck' buyers here are buying Rangers and Hiluxes and the like (a loaded one is half the price of a Silverado 2500 or similar), with a few buying 79 series Landcruisers.

It's a bit of a shame that the small trucks like the 80s-90s Japanese ones are no longer a thing. Everything's huge these days.

Speaking of small cars and long distance driving, I've driven 750km in a day in a Peugeot 306 multiple times, and 400km a day in my even smaller Holden Barina. It can be done :)

BTW I rented a Nissan X-Trail (Rogue in North America?) a couple of years ago and found that it was enough of a pain to park in the city. Comfy on the open road though.

[Bloop Bloop]

Win-win if fewer people use cars for commuting. Also frees me to hoon around in my small, compact, <1.5T car when I feel like it.

[mrmoonymartian]

Speaking of small cars and long distance driving, I've driven 750km in a day in a Peugeot 306 multiple times, and 400km a day in my even smaller Holden Barina. It can be done :)

? Did you mean per refuel? Should be getting about 1600km per day on the open road. Maybe 1000km if you've got a big city to slog through.

[former player]

I'm genuinely curious--what is your objection to driving a minivan?

I've never liked the look or ride of a minivan. They are designed for a family that I don't have. I am a solo, single, person. And lack key features I need, such as 4x4, ability to tow 10,000 pounds. Also, they seem wimpy to me in a way that I cant put my finger on., although I had no issue driving a little Nissan Leaf EV hatchback, but for some reason a minivan is repulsive.

The thing that you can't put your finger on is that you've fallen for sexist social conditioning: a truck is for a man and a minivan is for a mom.

If you don't recognise your sexism in choice of vehicle there may be other ways in which you don't recognise your sexism and some self-reflection might be in order.

[Just Joe]

Speaking of small cars and long distance driving, I've driven 750km in a day in a Peugeot 306 multiple times, and 400km a day in my even smaller Holden Barina. It can be done :)

My long distance hauler used to be an very early CRX. 55 HP I think. Drove 10-12 hours with it several times. Perfectly fine for one or two people.

[Engineer93]

Was watching the news yesterday and they were showing the long lines at the food bank.  One particular car I noticed was a brand new Chevy Tahoe which costs around $60,000.  If you need to go to a food bank if you lose your job you definitely should be driving a cheaper car...

[nereo]

Was watching the news yesterday and they were showing the long lines at the food bank.  One particular car I noticed was a brand new Chevy Tahoe which costs around $60,000.  If you need to go to a food bank if you lose your job you definitely should be driving a cheaper car...

Easy to judge, hard to know what’s really going on.  In general I think MOST people drive cars that are far more expensive than what they can reasonably afford, and are designed to handle driving conditions that they rarely if ever encounter.  But... free will, market capitalism and all...

[Slee_stack]

Speaking of small cars and long distance driving, I've driven 750km in a day in a Peugeot 306 multiple times, and 400km a day in my even smaller Holden Barina. It can be done :)

My long distance hauler used to be an very early CRX. 55 HP I think. Drove 10-12 hours with it several times. Perfectly fine for one or two people.

Not sure I'd call a CRX a hauler.  I had an 86.  I did carry 3 people on occasion though.  Young and stupid ones.

Then it got crushed by an oncoming Bonneville station wagon that decided to turn left in front of me.  Fun times.  I came out pretty unscathed.  Not bad protection  for such a tiny car.

[Just Joe]

I was in the military at the time and that car hauled all my wordly possessions a few times - not that I owned that much at the time. ;)

I was pretty mobile back then. It was a tiny highway car though. As I recall the axles of big trucks (tractor trailers) were about head height in the CRX. 

[Fresh Bread]

Article about nothing really, recent trucks/SUVs/CUVs aren't any bigger than in the past, people have been buying full-size trucks and SUVs for decades.  Ford's full-size has been the best selling vehicle in America for almost 40 years, with Chevy, GMC, and Dodge not terribly far behind for most of that run.  I remember my dad complaining about parking spaces being too small for trucks "these days", and that was 20+ years ago.  My 1970's coupe doesn't fit into the garage of my 1960's built house (technically it probably could with 2 inches to spare).  They're about 3 decades late with the article.

My 'hood is mostly houses built in the 1920's (detached garages) or 1940's to 1960's (attached 1 car garages).

The vast majority of single car garages would probably fit either of our cars (Matrix, Civic), but I think most would not fit the cars that are around (pickups, minivans, SUVs).

California, nobody parks in there anyway.  They've all converted them to living space or use them to store junk.  We don't even have a garage, and I think a fair % (10%) of the houses in my 'hood never had them.

The original garage of our 1950s house *just* fits our VW Golf. We put the mirrors in and put padding on the walls for where the door hits. Then we squeeze out. If we carried any extra body fat it would be a definite no.