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I started driving a truck 15 years ago after a number of sports cars/sedans/etc. I will never go back. Its not insane when you consider any number of factors,

I started driving a truck 15 years ago after a number of sports cars/sedans/etc. I will never go back. Its not insane when you consider any number of factors, starting with the fact that Americans are BIG. As a large person myself (although not overweight), I'm here to tell you that what a 120 pound 5'6" person finds comfortable frequently is painful for me. Second, I spend upwards of 2+ hours a day sitting my my car, spending a couple grand extra a year for a seat that is 6" wider, doesn't require me to have the flexibility of a 15 year old doing a deep knee bend every-time I get in/out of my car, and allows me to sit upright rather than tilting the seat back into the second row is well worth it. Third, while there are some SUV's and maybe minivans that qualify on the comfort front, they either tend to be less efficient, cost more, or have social stigma associated with them. Sure if I had two vehicles, I might be able to get away with driving the truck on the weekend or when I actually need it, but the convenience of being able to throw a bike, kayak, lawn mower, TV, piece of plywood/drywall/2x4/etc in the back when I need to is worth it. Plus, I tow something maybe once a year, but again, if you only have 1 vehicle.. The two vehicle argument might make more sense, if there was space and insurance/taxes/etc were per person rather than per vehicle. Finally, part of the problem is the American car market. Sedan seems to frequently translate to econobox. In Europe a basic car is smaller, but somehow frequently seems to have far more leg and headroom than a similar American car. This space problem seems to extend from the econoboxes in the US to the luxury car market as well. Apparently in the US, taking an econobox, putting leather and a bigger engine in while leaving the chassis/etc the same (or streamlining it and making it even smaller as honda/acura seems to do) is common. The result is that if your bigger than average, you likely don't fit in something that isn't a SUV/Truck.

mikekchar 8y ago
Interestingly (perhaps?) we got a Leaf a few months ago and the biggest thing that surprised me is that it is massive inside. I guess because the battery is stored under the floor. Although I have relatively short arms for someone my height (5' 10"), I still think it's instructive to say that when I'm sitting in the passenger seat, I can't touch the dash without leaning forward. And, again, I have slightly shorter legs, but with the seat all the way forward, I can still stretch out my legs without bending them and not touch the front. I have a long body (if it weren't for my short legs, I would be well over 6') and I can wear a straw hat in the car and still have a couple of inches of clearance. Not so sure about width... I'm probably "average sized" for a North American (fat for a Japanese person -- my wife likes to remind me...) and the width is perfectly comfortable. My supposition is that electric vehicles are just a lot more efficient on space. The leaf isn't a huge car externally (although it's not exactly small either), but it's the biggest interior I've ridden in for a long time (probably not since my Grandfather's Buick). As for the 2 car issue, I actually don't use a car much at all. The only reason we have one is because my wife insists that she needs it. Getting things delivered is both more convenient and cheaper from my perspective. The trade off is that I need to plan ahead a day or so, but I don't actually have to lift big heavy stuff. If I need to haul something bigger, I just rent the appropriate vehicle. I usually end up renting once or twice a year. It saves massive amounts of money. It is a lifestyle change, but it's got upsides as well as downsides.
- madengr 8y ago
  Ditto on the Leaf. I’m 6’5” and still have 2” headroom, and most importantly, clear line of sight (not looking into visor). I can also put the seat all the way back and still fit someone behind me. It has much more passenger room than my Toyota truck. Very happy with it.
- zaroth 8y ago
  Do you own a house? Do you do work on it yourself? Do you maintain a lawn? How about sporting activities? Own a boat? A snowmobile? A few kayaks maybe? Dirt bike? I assume you have a trash pickup at your place. You know a lot of towns don’t, and you have to haul your own trash to the town dump? Perhaps there are a million reasons why it’s great in your life to not own or even feel like you need a car. Perhaps there are a million other reasons people want and need a truck to drive. Personally, once I started maintaining a house and an acre of land, the way I wanted to maintain it, it gets very difficult having to wait hours for someone to return with the Home Depot truck because I need to get xyz thing home. I mooch off my brother a lot to move heavier equipment around, because he has a truck and a trailer, but there are a lot of projects I can’t get done for lack of a proper work vehicle. I order a lot of stuff off Amazon. But every time I’ve tried ordering groceries I’ve regretted it. Mostly because they insist on delivering from a store 13 miles away when there’s a perfectly good Whole Foods 3.5 miles down the road, and it just seems so asinine.
- StillBored 8y ago
  Sounds like the Prius is styled more European than most sedans. Makes sense it has more head/leg room given how boxy it tends to be. Anyway, I looked it up, and for comparison a tundra: headroom: 39.4 vs 39.7 legroom: 42.3 vs 42.5 (so fairly similar on the head/leg, what about big in the other direction) shoulder: 55.0 vs 65.7 hip: 53.4 vs 62.6 Hmmm not so similar. Also, the tundra has the least headroom of any full size pickup. The GM/chevy's have 4" more, which for tall people is literally a life/death choice if they get into certain accidents where their head impacts the ceiling.
- awful 8y ago
  Tesla same; drove one a few weeks ago, had 6 adults in it, and room for more I think. More than enough room.
brightball 8y ago
Minivans get a bad rap IMO. The covered transport space inside when you fold the seats down is insane.
- awful 8y ago
  Exactly; my Dodge Caravan Sport w/3.8L would turn the 16 tires easily, handled well, fun to drive, and hauled all of my family, building materials, and machinery. 19 years and 240k miles, was cheap to own, not pretty anymore but still runs well.
perl4ever 8y ago
I feel like large people requiring large cars is a relatively recent phenomenon. I had an early 90s Honda Civic as my first car which was ridiculously small by modern standards, and it had plenty of room for me at over 6 feet.
- Infernal 8y ago
  I don’t know why this is exactly, but it seems useful interior space is decreasing across all vehicles as dashes get bigger and curvier and more surrounding. I’ve driven my 2008 Honda Fit for 10 years, but the second and third gen models, while bigger and heavier, have less driver legroom due to big curvy dashboards and controls bulging in towards the driver. I can’t drive the ‘09 or later Fits, it’s physically impossible (I’m 6’8”). Similarly my 2002 Tahoe (same vehicle as Silverado, Yukon, suburban etc in most aspects) has a ton of room for repositioning myself in the drivers seat, I can and have driven it 8+ hours in a day with no discomfort whatsoever. However my father in law has a suburban of a generation after mine, and while I still could drive it comfortably, there is only one available position for me, even with the addition of a telescoping wheel in the later year models. I would be exhausted after two hours from the inability to reposition myself.
  - StillBored 8y ago
    I'm tall too, and noticed the same thing. I drove a fox body mustang in the early 90's, but every styling change since has reduced the amount of interior head/leg room. A couple years back I had a hard time even as a passenger in one. I couldn't even get my legs under the dash due to the angle it was positioned at relative to the seat. I suspect at least part of it has to do with fuel economy standards which are partially being met by reducing the frontal area of the car. The easiest way to do that is to take a couple inches off the height of the vehicle. Safety standards similarly are affecting the driver position and the crash test dummies aren't 7' tall. I noticed this a few years ago when the headrest standards changed and I now have a piece of headrest that doesn't raise high enough but sticks forward 8" pressing into the middle of my back in cars that would otherwise be ok to sit in. (I have the same problem on airplanes).
geggam 8y ago
My current truck is an 01 and has been paid off for over 15 years :)

mikekchar 8y ago

Interestingly (perhaps?) we got a Leaf a few months ago and the biggest thing that surprised me is that it is massive inside. I guess because the battery is stored under the floor. Although I have relatively short arms for someone my height (5' 10"), I still think it's instructive to say that when I'm sitting in the passenger seat, I can't touch the dash without leaning forward. And, again, I have slightly shorter legs, but with the seat all the way forward, I can still stretch out my legs without bending them and not touch the front. I have a long body (if it weren't for my short legs, I would be well over 6') and I can wear a straw hat in the car and still have a couple of inches of clearance. Not so sure about width... I'm probably "average sized" for a North American (fat for a Japanese person -- my wife likes to remind me...) and the width is perfectly comfortable. My supposition is that electric vehicles are just a lot more efficient on space. The leaf isn't a huge car externally (although it's not exactly small either), but it's the biggest interior I've ridden in for a long time (probably not since my Grandfather's Buick). As for the 2 car issue, I actually don't use a car much at all. The only reason we have one is because my wife insists that she needs it. Getting things delivered is both more convenient and cheaper from my perspective. The trade off is that I need to plan ahead a day or so, but I don't actually have to lift big heavy stuff. If I need to haul something bigger, I just rent the appropriate vehicle. I usually end up renting once or twice a year. It saves massive amounts of money. It is a lifestyle change, but it's got upsides as well as downsides.

madengr 8y ago
Ditto on the Leaf. I’m 6’5” and still have 2” headroom, and most importantly, clear line of sight (not looking into visor). I can also put the seat all the way back and still fit someone behind me. It has much more passenger room than my Toyota truck. Very happy with it.
zaroth 8y ago
Do you own a house? Do you do work on it yourself? Do you maintain a lawn? How about sporting activities? Own a boat? A snowmobile? A few kayaks maybe? Dirt bike? I assume you have a trash pickup at your place. You know a lot of towns don’t, and you have to haul your own trash to the town dump? Perhaps there are a million reasons why it’s great in your life to not own or even feel like you need a car. Perhaps there are a million other reasons people want and need a truck to drive. Personally, once I started maintaining a house and an acre of land, the way I wanted to maintain it, it gets very difficult having to wait hours for someone to return with the Home Depot truck because I need to get xyz thing home. I mooch off my brother a lot to move heavier equipment around, because he has a truck and a trailer, but there are a lot of projects I can’t get done for lack of a proper work vehicle. I order a lot of stuff off Amazon. But every time I’ve tried ordering groceries I’ve regretted it. Mostly because they insist on delivering from a store 13 miles away when there’s a perfectly good Whole Foods 3.5 miles down the road, and it just seems so asinine.
StillBored 8y ago
Sounds like the Prius is styled more European than most sedans. Makes sense it has more head/leg room given how boxy it tends to be. Anyway, I looked it up, and for comparison a tundra: headroom: 39.4 vs 39.7 legroom: 42.3 vs 42.5 (so fairly similar on the head/leg, what about big in the other direction) shoulder: 55.0 vs 65.7 hip: 53.4 vs 62.6 Hmmm not so similar. Also, the tundra has the least headroom of any full size pickup. The GM/chevy's have 4" more, which for tall people is literally a life/death choice if they get into certain accidents where their head impacts the ceiling.
awful 8y ago
Tesla same; drove one a few weeks ago, had 6 adults in it, and room for more I think. More than enough room.

brightball 8y ago

Minivans get a bad rap IMO. The covered transport space inside when you fold the seats down is insane.

awful 8y ago
Exactly; my Dodge Caravan Sport w/3.8L would turn the 16 tires easily, handled well, fun to drive, and hauled all of my family, building materials, and machinery. 19 years and 240k miles, was cheap to own, not pretty anymore but still runs well.

perl4ever 8y ago

I feel like large people requiring large cars is a relatively recent phenomenon. I had an early 90s Honda Civic as my first car which was ridiculously small by modern standards, and it had plenty of room for me at over 6 feet.

Infernal 8y ago
I don’t know why this is exactly, but it seems useful interior space is decreasing across all vehicles as dashes get bigger and curvier and more surrounding. I’ve driven my 2008 Honda Fit for 10 years, but the second and third gen models, while bigger and heavier, have less driver legroom due to big curvy dashboards and controls bulging in towards the driver. I can’t drive the ‘09 or later Fits, it’s physically impossible (I’m 6’8”). Similarly my 2002 Tahoe (same vehicle as Silverado, Yukon, suburban etc in most aspects) has a ton of room for repositioning myself in the drivers seat, I can and have driven it 8+ hours in a day with no discomfort whatsoever. However my father in law has a suburban of a generation after mine, and while I still could drive it comfortably, there is only one available position for me, even with the addition of a telescoping wheel in the later year models. I would be exhausted after two hours from the inability to reposition myself.
- StillBored 8y ago
  I'm tall too, and noticed the same thing. I drove a fox body mustang in the early 90's, but every styling change since has reduced the amount of interior head/leg room. A couple years back I had a hard time even as a passenger in one. I couldn't even get my legs under the dash due to the angle it was positioned at relative to the seat. I suspect at least part of it has to do with fuel economy standards which are partially being met by reducing the frontal area of the car. The easiest way to do that is to take a couple inches off the height of the vehicle. Safety standards similarly are affecting the driver position and the crash test dummies aren't 7' tall. I noticed this a few years ago when the headrest standards changed and I now have a piece of headrest that doesn't raise high enough but sticks forward 8" pressing into the middle of my back in cars that would otherwise be ok to sit in. (I have the same problem on airplanes).

geggam 8y ago

My current truck is an 01 and has been paid off for over 15 years :)