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Americans have this weird fascination of bigger is better mentality to the point that practicality goes out the window. The hummer is a prime example: burns a

Americans have this weird fascination of bigger is better mentality to the point that practicality goes out the window. The hummer is a prime example: burns a ton of gasoline with little benefit to the owner or others.

an_opabinia 6y ago
Bigger cars are almost always safer, which isn't a weird fascination at all.
- Etheryte 6y ago
  This used to be true back in the 80s and such, but with modern safety standards, you have to take extreme ends of big and small to get anywhere close to a statistically significant difference. How you drive, what kind of airbags your car has, what the general traffic culture is in your country etc are all considerably more important factors than your car size. To put it another way, you're way more likely to walk away from a crash in a modern small car than in an older large car. For all intents and purposes, size being safety is an urban myth today.
  - CincinnatiMan 6y ago
    Are you sure? In a Consumer Reports article [0] from 2013, they mention in head-on crashes involving a car and SUV, the car driver was 7.6 times more likely to die than the SUV driver. So in a world where there are SUVs driving around, buying an SUV for yourself instead of a car is a safer move. Just think about getting t-boned in an intersection. Would you rather be in a light, low vehicle or in a heavy, tall vehicle? I'd pick the latter, especially if the vehicle t-boning me is tall and its bumper at the height of my head if I were in a small car. [0]: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/05/suvs-are-safer-than-cars-in-front-crashes-but-there-is-more-to-the-story/index.htm https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/05/suvs-are-sa...
    - freeflight 6y ago
      > So in a world where there are SUVs driving around, buying an SUV for yourself instead of a car is a safer move. That sounds like the same kind of circular reasoning that's often cited to oppose any gun regulation: "When everybody has a gun, you also need a gun to stay safe!".
      - rsj_hn 6y ago
        A lot of people are confused about the difference between a stable and unstable equilibrium, because hey, they are both equlibria! No one having a big car is an unstable equilibrium.
    - NickNameNick 6y ago
      Thats because the SUV is too big, not because the car is too small. If you lived somewhere where all the cars were small, both vehicles would be better off, because there would be much less energy in the collision. SUV's aren't safer, they're more dangerous to other people. and that shouldn't be OK.
- TLightful 6y ago
  But it is a dumb fascination when the logical conclusion is everyone riding around in tanks.

an_opabinia 6y ago

Bigger cars are almost always safer, which isn't a weird fascination at all.

Etheryte 6y ago
This used to be true back in the 80s and such, but with modern safety standards, you have to take extreme ends of big and small to get anywhere close to a statistically significant difference. How you drive, what kind of airbags your car has, what the general traffic culture is in your country etc are all considerably more important factors than your car size. To put it another way, you're way more likely to walk away from a crash in a modern small car than in an older large car. For all intents and purposes, size being safety is an urban myth today.
- CincinnatiMan 6y ago
  Are you sure? In a Consumer Reports article [0] from 2013, they mention in head-on crashes involving a car and SUV, the car driver was 7.6 times more likely to die than the SUV driver. So in a world where there are SUVs driving around, buying an SUV for yourself instead of a car is a safer move. Just think about getting t-boned in an intersection. Would you rather be in a light, low vehicle or in a heavy, tall vehicle? I'd pick the latter, especially if the vehicle t-boning me is tall and its bumper at the height of my head if I were in a small car. [0]: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/05/suvs-are-safer-than-cars-in-front-crashes-but-there-is-more-to-the-story/index.htm https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/05/suvs-are-sa...
  - freeflight 6y ago
    > So in a world where there are SUVs driving around, buying an SUV for yourself instead of a car is a safer move. That sounds like the same kind of circular reasoning that's often cited to oppose any gun regulation: "When everybody has a gun, you also need a gun to stay safe!".
    - rsj_hn 6y ago
      A lot of people are confused about the difference between a stable and unstable equilibrium, because hey, they are both equlibria! No one having a big car is an unstable equilibrium.
  - NickNameNick 6y ago
    Thats because the SUV is too big, not because the car is too small. If you lived somewhere where all the cars were small, both vehicles would be better off, because there would be much less energy in the collision. SUV's aren't safer, they're more dangerous to other people. and that shouldn't be OK.
TLightful 6y ago
But it is a dumb fascination when the logical conclusion is everyone riding around in tanks.