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18 of the top 25 selling cars in the U.S. are SUVs or pick-ups. Which are inherently less efficient than a sedan.
by kesselvon 5y ago
18 of the top 25 selling cars in the U.S. are SUVs or pick-ups. Which are inherently less efficient than a sedan.
- dahfizz 5y agoNot really. The top selling SUVs (RAV4, CRV, and Rogue) all get 35 mpg on the highway. That's better than the non-hybrid Honda Accord, for example.
- diebeforei485 5y agoI've always found the "highway" thing to not be very useful. Yes, if you're on cruise control on the open highway at constant speed, you will get good mileage in an SUV. But in practice that sort of situation only applies during road trips. Most people's actual highway driving is driving in traffic, which is a lot less efficient.
- _ea1k 5y agoIts not that bad. I've had daily commutes that were 70% highway at 40-60, and that's much closer to the EPA "highway" cycle than it should be. The highway cycle is actually not all high speed driving.
- rory 5y ago> Most people's actual highway driving is driving in traffic, which is a lot less efficient. Is that statistical, or anecdotal? It's counter to my personal driving patterns. Even in moderate congestion my Hyundai gets mileage closer to its "highway" MPG than "city" (when using cruise/distance control).
- citrin_ru 5y ago> Most people's actual highway driving is driving in traffic When I had cars I used them mostly to get out on weekends or for longer trips on vocations. May be I’m an outlier but during the pandemic time work from home is common and this allows to avoid driving in traffic.
- fomine3 5y agoHybrids mainly helps frequent stop city driving rather than constant highway driving, SUVs aren't good for Cd value that's important for highway driving. Because of that, pure ICE sedans should get relatively good value for highway mileage, but not good for city.
- Balero 5y agoYes really. That is not a very good benchmark. My Toyota Yaris gets over 50mpg on motorways, so about 50% better.
- gandalfian 5y agoThough having 25% larger gallons in the UK helps too. (Not that there isn't truth in European cars having been more efficient for thirty years).
- Balero 5y agoVery good point! I always forget this!
- jf22 5y agoThe point is that if they were smaller cars they'd get even better MPG.
- Spivak 5y agoAnd be a less useful vehicles for doing the kinds of things that most people ask of them, carrying stuff that doesn't fit in a standard sized trunk like furniture and appliances. All those sedans would be way more fuel efficient if they were motorcycles too, but I don't think you'd agree that they're comparable.
- jf22 5y agoSociety survived without SUVs. We have everything delivered in an instant. We don't need all this crap, and we don't need SUVs to carry it around.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Spivak 5y agoYeah, we had minivans, station wagons, and small pickup trucks. Then we had what are now called "full-size" SUVs. Midsize SUVs today are just slightly bigger cars.
- _huayra_ 5y agoDo most people ask that their vehicle carry furniture and appliances on a regular basis? Honestly any time I have a larger item either being hauled to my place or away from it, it's someone else's vehicle, e.g. delivery of a new appliance or pricing it to move quickly on craigslist so someone comes and takes it away.
- Spivak 5y agoSo your solution to not needing to move things is for other people with suitable vehicles to come and move things? How is that gonna work when everyone has a sedan? It's true for everyone I know who has children and owns a house in the burbs. The cost of taking delivery from everything from TVs, lawn mowers, dirt, mulch, Costco trips, adds up and SUVs aren't really more expensive than sedans. Like I get you, I live a very privileged urban apartment dweller life and can afford to just pay for people to move things for me the few times I need it but renting tools and labor is expensive for a family.
- jopsen 5y ago35mpg == 15 km/L Wow, that's not good... A large Sedan from early 2000s driven well can easily beat that.. I regularly hear about small cars doing 70 mpg == 30km/L My Toyota Yaris is not fuel efficient at 130 km/h on the highway, but it still manages 40mpg = 17 km/L Of course, it's not SUV.. I basically decided against buy a big car until EVs are ready -- they are now, but that doesn't mean I should throw out my existing car :)
- nimos 5y agoCivic gets 36 combined, Corolla is 33 combined, Rav4/CRV are both 30 combined. A Prius is 54 combined. Not sure where you are hearing about 70 mpg.
- jopsen 5y agoMy Toyota Yaris is rated at 27 km/L = 63mpg But maybe that's only downhill -- I'm certainly not reaching it :) But other mini cars like: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Lupo https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Lupo Or so I hear...
- dahfizz 5y agoThe Toyota Yaris gets 40mpg highway / 35 mpg combined: https://www.cars.com/articles/2020-toyota-yaris-mpg-can-frugal-be-fun-418734/ https://www.cars.com/articles/2020-toyota-yaris-mpg-can-frug...
- raydev 5y agoI think you've made an incorrect conversion to metric units. First off, if you're not in the US, make sure that you are converting from a US gallon, and not imperial gallon. 35 MPG (US gallons) = 6.72 Liters per 100 km
- jopsen 5y agoMileage is really a mess... Some place in the EU uses L / 100km, others km/L, I was using Google so I think the unit was correct. Any case, my car does roughly 17 megameters / meter^3 -- that's proper SI units :)
- Aunche 5y agoMost SUVs are intentionally just taller hatchbacks. They're maybe a couple mpg less fuel efficient than a similar sedan, but in return you get a more comfortable feeling car.
- evilduck 5y agoAnd far more utility than a traditional sedan, I own one of each and my midsized SUV that covers a lot of small truck use cases. I can strap things to the roof racks, I can open the back and lay down the seats and carry small and extended cargo. It has all wheel drive and handles bad weather conditions better than a front wheel drive car. It's higher up and provides better visibility than my sedan. It can handle hauling small trailers. Sedans _typically_ don't come equipped to handle dirty things like outdoor sports and pets while my SUV has rubber floor mats/trays everywhere. For road trips and camping trips I can pack almost twice as much stuff in the SUV and those things are more easy accessed than a car trunk. SUVs existing _prevent_ me from buying a small to midsized truck so to me the view is "look at the efficiency gained compared to the Ranger or Tacoma" instead of "look at how inefficient the Outback or Escape is compared to a Civic".
- YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y agoThat's when you realize that there are station wagons with better mpg more utility and your head explodes.
- evilduck 5y agoI'm not ignorant of them but there simply aren't that many wagon options on the market new or used and peak MPG isn't the only metric for purchasing a vehicle.
- YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y agoYour post seemed pretty ignorant of other choices besides SUVs and trucks. Mercedes has 6 station wagons/shooting brakes, VW has 4, BMW has 4, Toyota has 5, Hyundai has 4, Kia has 3, Honda got 5 every big car manufacture has at least 3 station wagons in their portfolio. I know there are more SUVs because of the SUV hype in the last years but stating that there are no options on the market is just not true.