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car-buying trends in America traditionally favour larger-engined saloon cars. That's not really very accurate. The Ford F-150 pickup truck has been the best s
by georgieporgie 15y ago
car-buying trends in America traditionally favour larger-engined saloon cars.
That's not really very accurate. The Ford F-150 pickup truck has been the best selling automobile for nearly 30 years. As of the 2009 article I'm looking at, the Chevy Silverado pickup truck was the #2 seller. That's a lot of pickup trucks.
As for the rest of the market, it fluctuates tremendously with fashion and fuel prices. Cars overall have shrunk over the years, and enormous sedans, convertibles, or station wagons have come and gone as status symbols. The most recent notable trend was the SUV. Hatchbacks come and go, but we tend to associate them with the cheap compacts following the 70's oil embargo. Also, why buy a hatchback when you can buy an SUV (which is also technically a hatchback, but 'cooler') for not much more?
If the U.K. had the buying power and parking space, their automotive purchasing trends would likely look much more like the U.S. Then again, the depreciation rate on vehicles in the U.K. is extremely high, so perhaps that would limit adoption.
- arethuza 15y agoI think it has a lot to do with a general backlash against people who hardly ever leave urban areas driving stupidly large vehicles consuming vast amounts of resources for no good reason whatsoever. They were fashionable for a while and now they most certainly aren't and a lot of people buying them were motivated by fashion rather than practicality. Even in situations where you have deep snow etc. a lot of modern SUVs aren't actually that good because of huge low profile tyres. For most people in urban environments, SUVs are silly.
- georgieporgie 15y agoI disagree. Having lived in San Francisco and Oakland, I've found an SUV (Grand Cherokee, mid-size as SUVs go) to be positively fantastic. The suspension can handle terrible roads, the elevated position gives much better visibility, the turning radius is very good. There were times that I wished it were the length of a Miata for parking, but at least I could carry four friends in comfort while looking for parking. As for snow, I credit the tread design and composition entirely. A good mud/snow tire, with non-continuous tread blocks and plenty of siping, makes an amazing difference. Any car with high-performance street tires will suck in the snow.
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- JoeAltmaier 15y ago"screwing over" == "delaying slightly"?
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- JoeAltmaier 15y agoagain, "completely lose" == "wait a bit to regain". Same as any truck, cement mixer, van... There is no actual requirement that others on the road make your life convenient.
- jarek 15y ago> Cars overall have shrunk over the years Cars in America have shrunk over the years, which isn't difficult if you're starting with the monstrosities of 1950s and 1960s. Cars in Europe stayed mostly constant, although they seem to be trending slightly larger.
- georgieporgie 15y agoCars in America have shrunk over the years I would posit that, given the number of cars in America, historically, my initial statement is still accurate. :-)