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They make bigger vehicles because people want bigger vehicles. I own a tiny (by US standards) car. It was discontinued by the manufacturer for lack of sales, wh

They make bigger vehicles because people want bigger vehicles. I own a tiny (by US standards) car. It was discontinued by the manufacturer for lack of sales, which were indeed miserable for many years despite being a great car and very cheap. The story is the same across most of the other US manufacturers. I still drive it every day to work but for family trips I drive a much larger three-row SUV and it is better in basically every way except gas mileage, which thanks to being a hybrid is about the same. So I get where people are coming from. My conclusion has been people tend to buy as much car as they can possibly afford and often more.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jwells89 2y ago
Customer demand is just one piece of the puzzle, though. People might not be buying as many small cars as they used to, but automakers also would prefer to sell you something big and fancy enough that chunky margin/markup is easier to justify — both by the manufacturer and by dealers. There's just not but so far the price on something like a Fit or a Yaris can be jacked up before prospective buyers just laugh at you and buy something else. So even discounting demand, automakers and dealers are incentivized to make big, expensive vehicles, which reduces the number of small models available, which in turn further reduces demand as would-be small car buyers can no longer find options that make the right tradeoffs for their situation. In other words, in some ways it's a self-reinforcing cycle that won't end absent external corrections.
rglullis 2y ago
> people want bigger vehicles. This is absolutely not true. The demand is manufactured. Car companies in the US are building bigger SUVs and trucks because they are classified different and have less strict emissions regulations.
- EricE 2y ago
  Yup. Government regulations once again screwing those of us who prefer smaller vehicles. Looking at you, Chicken Tax!
  - Amezarak 2y ago
    Government regulation didn't kill the Ford Focus or the Honda Fit. No sales did.
    - rglullis 2y ago
      You can not compare sales of two different classes of vehicles if one of them has subsidies and/or allow for a bigger profit margins. This is basic microeconomics. If the Honda CR-V, the Ford Explorer and every other car of a similar or bigger size had to pay the same tax as smaller ones, they would sell less.
      - Amezarak 2y ago
        You could buy a Honda Fit for 17k, the bottom of Honda’s car lineup. Much cheaper than a CRV. If you look at the actual CAFE standards you’ll see this had nothing to do with this particular case anyway, but even if it did, if consumers really wanted small cars the volume of Fit sales would rapidly outpace CRVs and it’d make up for the lower margin. They didn’t though. Because Americans didn’t want them. The emissions regulations people talk about are easy to look up online and there was undoubtedly a real effect on the viability of larger vehicles but it is hugely overstated online. The main reason for huge cars is because they really are much more useful and comfortable for anything except gas mileage and city parking, Americans can afford them, and such models generally have more social clout. The Fit in particular is an amazing car. There’s actually much more room for the driver than in even much larger cars. With the seats down you can fit all kinds of crazy stuff in there - even 8ft lumber. It didn’t die because of government regulation. It died because Americans by and large think it’s a ridiculous car to drive around in, so it didn’t sell. And because despite all those things, a three row SUV or a truck has more general utility.
        2y ago
- kjkjadksj 2y ago
  You can still buy subcompacts though
  - rglullis 2y ago
    Which ones?
    - kjkjadksj 2y ago
      Wow, I guess automakers really killed off their linup the last couple of years. Nissan versa still exists at least. As well as a couple year old toyota yaris, ford fiesta or honda fit.
- Amezarak 2y ago
  > This is absolutely not true. The demand is manufactured. Car companies in the US are building bigger SUVs and trucks because they are classified different and have less strict emissions regulations. My car sat on the lot for months before I bought it. There was plenty of inventory and Honda managed to sell something like 10-11k of them that year. There was no conspiracy here. People just didn't want a small car. People regularly make fun of me for driving such a small car.
- jtbayly 2y ago
  Are you telling me that the top three best-selling vehicles in the country are all pickup trucks, but people actually want small sedans?
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    Not sure it's even possible to distinguish between "what people actually want" and "what manufacturers have convinced them to want." Auto industry marketing is so steeped in psychology and persuasion, it's hard to tell where the border is between the customer's brain and the industry's marketers. If you mostly produce pickup trucks, you're going to make sure that the general public "wants" pickup trucks.
  - rglullis 2y ago
    No, I'm telling you that if they had to pay for the externalities incurred by the larger trucks, they would opt out of them.
- kube-system 2y ago
  It is both. Car companies started making larger vehicles due to CAFE restrictions, but consumers also started preferring larger vehicles. The data is clear about this, many of the options for small cars that did exist over the past 20 years have been discontinued due to poor sales. I think part of this is: 1. people want to keep up with the joneses 2. as other cars in traffic get larger, some people don't want to want to drive cars that make them feel small on the road by comparison... the "I want to sit up high so I can see better" effect.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

jwells89 2y ago

Customer demand is just one piece of the puzzle, though. People might not be buying as many small cars as they used to, but automakers also would prefer to sell you something big and fancy enough that chunky margin/markup is easier to justify — both by the manufacturer and by dealers. There's just not but so far the price on something like a Fit or a Yaris can be jacked up before prospective buyers just laugh at you and buy something else. So even discounting demand, automakers and dealers are incentivized to make big, expensive vehicles, which reduces the number of small models available, which in turn further reduces demand as would-be small car buyers can no longer find options that make the right tradeoffs for their situation. In other words, in some ways it's a self-reinforcing cycle that won't end absent external corrections.

rglullis 2y ago

> people want bigger vehicles. This is absolutely not true. The demand is manufactured. Car companies in the US are building bigger SUVs and trucks because they are classified different and have less strict emissions regulations.

EricE 2y ago
Yup. Government regulations once again screwing those of us who prefer smaller vehicles. Looking at you, Chicken Tax!
- Amezarak 2y ago
  Government regulation didn't kill the Ford Focus or the Honda Fit. No sales did.
  - rglullis 2y ago
    You can not compare sales of two different classes of vehicles if one of them has subsidies and/or allow for a bigger profit margins. This is basic microeconomics. If the Honda CR-V, the Ford Explorer and every other car of a similar or bigger size had to pay the same tax as smaller ones, they would sell less.
    - Amezarak 2y ago
      You could buy a Honda Fit for 17k, the bottom of Honda’s car lineup. Much cheaper than a CRV. If you look at the actual CAFE standards you’ll see this had nothing to do with this particular case anyway, but even if it did, if consumers really wanted small cars the volume of Fit sales would rapidly outpace CRVs and it’d make up for the lower margin. They didn’t though. Because Americans didn’t want them. The emissions regulations people talk about are easy to look up online and there was undoubtedly a real effect on the viability of larger vehicles but it is hugely overstated online. The main reason for huge cars is because they really are much more useful and comfortable for anything except gas mileage and city parking, Americans can afford them, and such models generally have more social clout. The Fit in particular is an amazing car. There’s actually much more room for the driver than in even much larger cars. With the seats down you can fit all kinds of crazy stuff in there - even 8ft lumber. It didn’t die because of government regulation. It died because Americans by and large think it’s a ridiculous car to drive around in, so it didn’t sell. And because despite all those things, a three row SUV or a truck has more general utility.
      - 2y ago
kjkjadksj 2y ago
You can still buy subcompacts though
- rglullis 2y ago
  Which ones?
  - kjkjadksj 2y ago
    Wow, I guess automakers really killed off their linup the last couple of years. Nissan versa still exists at least. As well as a couple year old toyota yaris, ford fiesta or honda fit.
Amezarak 2y ago
> This is absolutely not true. The demand is manufactured. Car companies in the US are building bigger SUVs and trucks because they are classified different and have less strict emissions regulations. My car sat on the lot for months before I bought it. There was plenty of inventory and Honda managed to sell something like 10-11k of them that year. There was no conspiracy here. People just didn't want a small car. People regularly make fun of me for driving such a small car.
jtbayly 2y ago
Are you telling me that the top three best-selling vehicles in the country are all pickup trucks, but people actually want small sedans?
- ryandrake 2y ago
  Not sure it's even possible to distinguish between "what people actually want" and "what manufacturers have convinced them to want." Auto industry marketing is so steeped in psychology and persuasion, it's hard to tell where the border is between the customer's brain and the industry's marketers. If you mostly produce pickup trucks, you're going to make sure that the general public "wants" pickup trucks.
- rglullis 2y ago
  No, I'm telling you that if they had to pay for the externalities incurred by the larger trucks, they would opt out of them.
kube-system 2y ago
It is both. Car companies started making larger vehicles due to CAFE restrictions, but consumers also started preferring larger vehicles. The data is clear about this, many of the options for small cars that did exist over the past 20 years have been discontinued due to poor sales. I think part of this is: 1. people want to keep up with the joneses 2. as other cars in traffic get larger, some people don't want to want to drive cars that make them feel small on the road by comparison... the "I want to sit up high so I can see better" effect.