this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2023
24 points (100.0% liked)

City Life

2114 readers
1 users here now

All topics urbanism and city related, from urban planning to public transit to municipal interest stuff. Both automobile and FuckCars inclusive.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
alyaza@beehaw.org
Butterbee@beehaw.org
aponigricon@beehaw.org
remington@beehaw.org
24
What's going to happen to all of these SUVs? (beehaw.org)
submitted 1 year ago by Kwikxilver@beehaw.org to c/citylife@beehaw.org
21 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I live in the UK and I drive an Astra. It's a four door hatchback style car from the late 00s, I bought it used and still runs fine even if it's getting on a bit. I know it won't last forever, so I'll probably buy another used car.

Right now, it seems like every new car for sale is a SUV - maybe a crossover which is more moderately sized, but basically an SUV. Buying a new car like my Astra feels niche, I don't think I have ever seen one at a dealership in the last 5 years.

What's going to happen to all of these SUVs in 5-10 years? The used market is going to be filthy with them and people are going to buy and drive them because they'll be cheap - regardless of the fact they are unsafe, costly to run and damaging to road infrastructure. I don't think we will see any car other than a SUV style car, or a van, on the roads in 5 years.

Does this not terrify anybody else? Something has to change here - either a shift to micro mobility scooters and e bikes or a massive increase in transit investment - or we are headed towards an even bigger disaster. Anybody else feel this way?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Kwikxilver@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

It's a status symbol. I used to live next to tradies who would laugh about a guy turning up on the worksite with a cheap Ute or an automatic transmission. Having a big, powerful muscle car is - as Nick Offerman describes it - like having a carapace for these men to hide in and feel protected.