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I have 4 kids so we had 3 car seats for a while. We're in the UK and we have a Vauxhall (Opel) Zafira which is a 7 seat minivan, very small by US standards, bu
by akadruid1 6y ago
I have 4 kids so we had 3 car seats for a while. We're in the UK and we have a Vauxhall (Opel) Zafira which is a 7 seat minivan, very small by US standards, built on the chassis of the Astra small hatchback. I believe we have used this car to do everything we might do with an SUV, including taking our 6 person family on extended camping trips (with a small trailer) and across Europe as far as Lyon, Geneva and Luxembourg (with a roof box).
- valuearb 6y agoSounds nice. But living standards are higher in the US, and our trips are longer. To drive my family across Texas is nearly as far as driving across France and Germany, and I have three other states to cross. If I can afford to pay more to get a bigger, faster, safer vehicle for the trip, it’s my money.
- dabeeeenster 6y agoLiving standards in the US are higher than the UK? What?
- BeeOnRope 6y agoYes? I doubt there is any conventional metric for "standard of living" (which basically means per capita wealth/income) where the UK would be higher than the US, at almost any point on the income scale (even adjusted for the imputed value of the more extensive public health system in the UK). That doesn't mean the UK is "worse" than the US, or that it has a lower quality of life, just that it has (and has had) a lower standard of living for decades. Few countries car match the standard of living of the US.
- samoa42 6y agowhile agreeing to your point about living standards, i would add that there are almost no countries matching US military spending, foreign debt levels or energy consumption per capita
- valuearb 6y agoWell given the fact that Western Europe barely has a military outside of all the US troops there, it’s a lot easier to keep those debt levels low.
- woah 6y agoUs Americans use our vehicles to pick up a Hot Wheels jungle gym at Toys R Us, then we spend 3 hours on the freeway driving to another state to pick up some In N Out. We keep 8 large dogs in the back 4 rows, and have to hit Wal Mart to pick up a pallet of toilet paper to clean up. You can't understand our lifestyle requirements. EDIT: Yesterday I had to run to the store to pick up a vat of queso. I'd like to see you Europeans do that in your Mr. Bean cars.
- rsynnott 6y agoI suspect one factor here is that the US has, for practical purposes, no passenger intercity rail network, and has a somewhat less developed budget airline market. That said, I find it notable that the average price of new cars in the US has typically been rising faster than income over the last decade or so. This would indicate, bluntly, effective advertising, rather than resources, being a big driver of the huge car thing. Average new car price in the US is creeping up on average annual income. This isn’t just an American problem, incidentally; it’s happening in a good few countries.