5 ms·
The reason why US cars are so big are because of recent (within the last decade) safety standards. Cars could be much smaller and more efficient, but because of
by rytcio 5y ago
The reason why US cars are so big are because of recent (within the last decade) safety standards. Cars could be much smaller and more efficient, but because of safety standards...they're massive now.
- s0rce 5y agoThe Hyundai Kona is tiny (for a 2021 vehicle at least) and has really good safety ratings https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/hyundai/kona-4-door-suv/2021 https://www.iihs.org/ratings/vehicle/hyundai/kona-4-door-suv...
- giantg2 5y agoDon't forget, those safety ratings are against similar size and weight vehicles. So I can see this as being true that safety regulations may not be the biggest contributor, but overall safety may be (eg designing for impacts with larger vehicles).
- JKCalhoun 5y agoMazdaMX-5sayswhat?
- throwaway0a5e 5y agoI dunno why this got downvoted. The trend of increased size and weight for a static amount of interior space (or decreased interior space for a given size/weight) is well known and documented.
- avianlyric 5y agoEU safety standards were originally derived from US standards, and yet our cars aren’t even close to the monstrosities you have riding around in the US.
- rootusrootus 5y agoEuropeans are much, much more comfortable using taxes to drive policy.
- isbvhodnvemrwvn 5y agoThere is no separate tax rate for large cars.
- rootusrootus 5y agoThere doesn't need to be if you just levy a punitive tax across the board on gasoline. That wouldn't fly in the US, it works in Europe.