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> There is no justifiable reason why we should be buying vehicles that are so much bigger than in previous years. Regulations (at least in the US) around car s

> There is no justifiable reason why we should be buying vehicles that are so much bigger than in previous years. Regulations (at least in the US) around car seats have made it more difficult to have three children without buying a larger car. I dislike huge cars (I actually love tiny cars like the Nissan Figaro) but I may have to get one.

ex3ndr 3y ago
Agree, it is bizzare how all this discussions completely ignore the children and families that have to get decent sized car.
- adamisom 3y ago
  Parents with 3-4+ kids can’t get a “decent sized” car. (And, I’d point out that given how % childlessness has skyrocketed, we do need some larger families to balance them out.)
  - hedora 3y ago
    Our truck seats five adults, but only two kids plus two adults. Our old truck seated 5 adults, but no more than two adults and one car seat. Instead of just requiring latch anchors, they should mandate that using all the latch anchors doesn’t reduce the max number of passengers. Also, I wonder if they could eliminate booster seat requirements by mandating seatbelts that can be adjusted for short people. As it is, we can’t take public transit, since the last few miles of most trips involves an illegal ride for the kiddos in an uber (so we have the kids walk those miles instead, which gets old fast).
    - cameldrv 3y ago
      If you get narrow car seats you can get three across in the back in almost any car. You don’t have to use the latch anchors. The seatbelts work fine. Uber is a problem with really little kids, but you can get portable and even inflatable car seats and boosters that aren’t too bad to carry around.
- ponector 3y ago
  How many families have more than 2 kids? For family with one kid a small car is enough. My friend drives a 5d Mini Cooper and it fits his family of 2+1.
jhenkens 3y ago
Would be great if the US could have something like the Multimac https://www.multimac.com/home https://www.multimac.com/home
- bombcar 3y ago
  https://diono.com/ https://diono.com/ Is moderately close
- ponector 3y ago
  This still is for a huge car. If you need to carry two adults and 3+ kids - buy a minivan. Easy solution.
  - alamortsubite 3y ago
    According to the fitment page, the 4-across model fits in a Corolla. I think it's unfair to call a Corolla "huge" in the context of the U.S. market, and it's certainly a lot smaller than a minivan.
alamortsubite 3y ago
A Toyota Sienna is larger, sure, but it carries as many passengers (8) as the typical obnoxiously-proportioned SUV and gets 35 mpg doing it. Also, if you've ever driven one, it's a really nice ride.
- BenjiWiebe 3y ago
  My family has a Toyota sienna. Nice minivan. Our previous '08 Sienna died for good a few miles over 300,000. Plus it only got oil changes (not the cheapest oil though) every 10,000 miles or so.
- analog31 3y ago
  I loved my Sienna. It was cavernous. The SUV that's even bigger, has much less cargo space. I wish we'd gotten another van.
hedora 3y ago
Yup. We had to replace our extended cab pickup with a crew cab so we could fit two car seats (which is just criminally bad misdesign; the old cab certainly had enough volume to accommodate everyone). To add insult to injury, the crew cab weighs more, reducing usable towing and bed capacity, so now, about a quarter of the time I need a truck, I end up borrowing or renting a smaller, but higher capacity one.
- paulryanrogers 3y ago
  Out of curiosity, why a pickup at all? I so rarely need to haul things with kids in the car that I've taken to just renting or borrowing as needed.
  - hedora 3y ago
    We live on a farm, so we end up using the bed multiple times a week. The main competitor would be a car with a nice cab and car seat, and then a second beater truck with a single row of seating. Alternatively, if someone made such a thing, but of course they don't, I'd like a little brick of an EV sedan that could tow as much as a large pickup (> 12,000 lbs), with no bed but a nice cab. The Rivian truck gets close to the towing requirement at 11,000 lbs, but for some reason their SUV only hits 7700. The BMW X5 hybrid is also close to what I'd be looking for, but still only hits 7700 lbs.
scythe 3y ago
Nickerson, J. and Solomon, D. "Car seats as Contraception", SSRN (2020). https://assets.super.so/6b4b5d92-904a-4e7b-95bd-914dd1d1528f/files/731b077f-0094-48a2-9414-a45a9a655456.pdf https://assets.super.so/6b4b5d92-904a-4e7b-95bd-914dd1d1528f...
- dfee 3y ago
  > We estimate that these laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide in 2017. Simultaneously, they led to a permanent reduction of approximately 8,000 births in the same year, and 145,000 fewer births since 1980, with 90% of this decline being since 2000. Wow!
thefz 3y ago
Look around: I am sure 3 out of 4 SUVs you see have just one person inside.

ex3ndr 3y ago

Agree, it is bizzare how all this discussions completely ignore the children and families that have to get decent sized car.

adamisom 3y ago
Parents with 3-4+ kids can’t get a “decent sized” car. (And, I’d point out that given how % childlessness has skyrocketed, we do need some larger families to balance them out.)
- hedora 3y ago
  Our truck seats five adults, but only two kids plus two adults. Our old truck seated 5 adults, but no more than two adults and one car seat. Instead of just requiring latch anchors, they should mandate that using all the latch anchors doesn’t reduce the max number of passengers. Also, I wonder if they could eliminate booster seat requirements by mandating seatbelts that can be adjusted for short people. As it is, we can’t take public transit, since the last few miles of most trips involves an illegal ride for the kiddos in an uber (so we have the kids walk those miles instead, which gets old fast).
  - cameldrv 3y ago
    If you get narrow car seats you can get three across in the back in almost any car. You don’t have to use the latch anchors. The seatbelts work fine. Uber is a problem with really little kids, but you can get portable and even inflatable car seats and boosters that aren’t too bad to carry around.
ponector 3y ago
How many families have more than 2 kids? For family with one kid a small car is enough. My friend drives a 5d Mini Cooper and it fits his family of 2+1.

jhenkens 3y ago

Would be great if the US could have something like the Multimac https://www.multimac.com/home https://www.multimac.com/home

bombcar 3y ago
https://diono.com/ https://diono.com/ Is moderately close
ponector 3y ago
This still is for a huge car. If you need to carry two adults and 3+ kids - buy a minivan. Easy solution.
- alamortsubite 3y ago
  According to the fitment page, the 4-across model fits in a Corolla. I think it's unfair to call a Corolla "huge" in the context of the U.S. market, and it's certainly a lot smaller than a minivan.

alamortsubite 3y ago

A Toyota Sienna is larger, sure, but it carries as many passengers (8) as the typical obnoxiously-proportioned SUV and gets 35 mpg doing it. Also, if you've ever driven one, it's a really nice ride.

BenjiWiebe 3y ago
My family has a Toyota sienna. Nice minivan. Our previous '08 Sienna died for good a few miles over 300,000. Plus it only got oil changes (not the cheapest oil though) every 10,000 miles or so.
analog31 3y ago
I loved my Sienna. It was cavernous. The SUV that's even bigger, has much less cargo space. I wish we'd gotten another van.

hedora 3y ago

Yup. We had to replace our extended cab pickup with a crew cab so we could fit two car seats (which is just criminally bad misdesign; the old cab certainly had enough volume to accommodate everyone). To add insult to injury, the crew cab weighs more, reducing usable towing and bed capacity, so now, about a quarter of the time I need a truck, I end up borrowing or renting a smaller, but higher capacity one.

paulryanrogers 3y ago
Out of curiosity, why a pickup at all? I so rarely need to haul things with kids in the car that I've taken to just renting or borrowing as needed.
- hedora 3y ago
  We live on a farm, so we end up using the bed multiple times a week. The main competitor would be a car with a nice cab and car seat, and then a second beater truck with a single row of seating. Alternatively, if someone made such a thing, but of course they don't, I'd like a little brick of an EV sedan that could tow as much as a large pickup (> 12,000 lbs), with no bed but a nice cab. The Rivian truck gets close to the towing requirement at 11,000 lbs, but for some reason their SUV only hits 7700. The BMW X5 hybrid is also close to what I'd be looking for, but still only hits 7700 lbs.

scythe 3y ago

Nickerson, J. and Solomon, D. "Car seats as Contraception", SSRN (2020). https://assets.super.so/6b4b5d92-904a-4e7b-95bd-914dd1d1528f/files/731b077f-0094-48a2-9414-a45a9a655456.pdf https://assets.super.so/6b4b5d92-904a-4e7b-95bd-914dd1d1528f...

dfee 3y ago
> We estimate that these laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide in 2017. Simultaneously, they led to a permanent reduction of approximately 8,000 births in the same year, and 145,000 fewer births since 1980, with 90% of this decline being since 2000. Wow!

thefz 3y ago

Look around: I am sure 3 out of 4 SUVs you see have just one person inside.