SUVs make up more than 40% of new cars sold in the UK – while fully electric vehicles account for less than 2%

[editor]

How tall are we talking here? According to the IIHS, the average US passenger vehicle has gotten about four inches wider, 10 inches longer, eight inches taller, and 1,000 pounds heavier over the past 30 years. Many vehicles are more than 40 inches tall at the leading edge of the hood. And on some large pickups, the hoods are almost at eye level for many adults.

Truck bloat is killing us, new crash data reveals

We love our big, deadly trucks, don’t we, folks?

www.theverge.com

This is how ridiculous it's got:

More than 150 car models are now too big to fit in average car parking spaces, according to analysis conducted by Which?.

While the size of the standard parking bay has remained static for decades, cars have been growing longer and wider in a phenomenon known as “autobesity”.


Natalie Hitchins, Which?’s home products and services editor, said: “Cars are getting larger and larger, and while this might mean a more comfortable driving experience, it could be a problem when it comes to squeezing into a parking space.”

There is growing debate about car size and road safety, after two eight-year-old girls, Selena Lau and Nuria Sajjad, died when a Land Rover crashed through a school fence in south-west London in July.

Which? found that 161 car models it tested were longer than a standard car parking bay, with 12 exceeding the limit by more than 30cm. This was an increase from 2019, when only 129 did not fit the standard bay.

The longest car is now the BMW i7, which when parked in a standard bay will stick out more than half a metre, posing potential challenges for other motorists manoeuvring around the car park, as well as pedestrians. A Mercedes-Benz S-Class hybrid is 44.6cm longer than an average bay, while an Audi A8 sticks out by 37.2cm.

The research also revealed that 27 models are too wide for drivers to comfortably open their doors when parked between two other cars.

More than 150 car models too big for regular UK parking spaces

Fears over safety as analysis by Which? shows ‘autobesity’ epidemic means cars getting wider and longer

www.theguardian.com

 

[editor]

This is how dangerous they are:

There have been numerous studies and investigations examining how tall, flat-nosed trucks and SUVs are more likely to cause serious injury and death when they hit pedestrians. Larger bodies and higher carriages mean pedestrians are more likely to suffer deadly blows to the head and torso, as opposed to the legs when struck by a shorter vehicle. Higher clearances mean victims are more likely to get trapped underneath a speeding SUV instead of pushed onto the hood or off to the side. And front blind zones associated with large trucks and SUVs have contributed to the injury and death of hundreds of children across the country, studies have shown.

 

[Chz]

So let's get this straight: a manufacture has two product lines. One brings in a small profit, the other brings in a big profit.

You're actually arguing that they're going to let the market decide which ones they'd like to buy, and not employ all their powers of persuasion and marketing prowess to ensure that consumers start buying the product that brings them far bigger profits?

How do you think the shareholders would feel about such a policy?

The point being, you can't make someone buy a car they don't want. As I specified above, there are plenty of small cars on the market and yet they don't sell as well as the small crossover segment (the Corsa and the Mini are the only small cars that have done well in the 2020s). Is advertising a part of that? Sure. But the fact remains that you can spend £20M advertising shit in a bag and very few people will buy it. I take offense at the notion that the buying public are just mindless slaves to whatever gets the most advertising money spent on it. Remember that something like a Puma starts at £25k, but a Fiesta (which is near identical) starts at £19k. No amount of advertising alone is going to make someone drop an extra £6k just because the telly told them to. And Ford doesn't exactly sell them on a "random people will want to have sex with you" platform either. (That's Jaguar)

The shareholders rarely care about anything, so long as the money rolls in. It just doesn't work that way.

 

[Orang Utan]

You CAN make someone buy a car they don’t want: by not providing them with a safe, cheap and green alternative

 

[klang]

You CAN make someone buy a car they don’t want: by not providing them with a safe, cheap and green alternative

yeah, from anecdotal experience amongst my peers, most of them would say 'we didn't really want a car, but....'.

 

[Chz]

You CAN make someone buy a car they don’t want: by not providing them with a safe, cheap and green alternative

Quibble - No such thing as a green car.
That said, there are plenty of cheaper, smaller cars that are just as safe and get similar if not better fuel economy and emissions. So I'm not sure what your point is?

 

[Orang Utan]

Quibble - No such thing as a green car.
That said, there are plenty of cheaper, smaller cars that are just as safe and get similar if not better fuel economy and emissions. So I'm not sure what your point is?

I agree.Your response belies your blinkered thinking that the only alternative is a car

 

[Chz]

I agree.Your response belies your blinkered thinking that the only alternative is a car

Sorry, I thought you were entirely referring to the way the lesser selling small cars are getting phased out.
Though I'm still not sure what alternative isn't being provided. Surely there are plenty of those, as well?

 

[Orang Utan]

Sorry, I thought you were entirely referring to the way the lesser selling small cars are getting phased out.
Though I'm still not sure what alternative isn't being provided. Surely there are plenty of those, as well?

Not realty. Public transport provision is woeful and cycling infrastructure is not fit for purpose

 

[klang]

'Alternatives to car usage are adequate' can only come from someone with very little experience regarding public transport and cycling.

 

[Chz]

'Alternatives to car usage are adequate' can only come from someone with very little experience regarding public transport and cycling, eg a car driver.

Or a Londoner.

Edit: I certainly don't need a car living in the city, and indeed ours is rarely used. It's a luxury item (though not a luxury car).

 

[klang]

Or a Londoner.

Cycling provisions in london are not sufficient and tubes are very expensive. Buses get stuck in (car) traffic all the time.

 

[Chz]

Cycling provisions in london are not sufficient and tubes are very expensive. Buses get stuck in (car) traffic all the time.

Tubes are not more expensive than driving. And I'm not sure how you're driving through traffic that buses get stuck in. We are talking alternatives to cars here, not ideal transport in heaven.

 

[klang]

Or a Londoner.

Edit: I certainly don't need a car living in the city, and indeed ours is rarely used. It's a luxury item (though not a luxury car).

I personally don't need one either, but lots of people seem to need one.

 

[klang]

And I'm not sure how you're driving through traffic that buses get stuck in.

?
You've never been on a bus stuck in traffic, caused by too many cars around you?
In London?

 

[Chz]

?
You've never been on a bus stuck in traffic, caused by too many cars around you?
In London?

No, I'm saying how is a bus worse than a car in those circumstances? The suggestion was that buses are inadequate because they get stuck in traffic, therefore they are not an effective alternative to a car. How does the car avoid this traffic? Buses are fine. The only sin of the bus is being more expensive than a car journey when the whole family heads out.

 

[editor]

You CAN make someone buy a car they don’t want: by not providing them with a safe, cheap and green alternative

Exactly,

 

[SpookyFrank]

It’s not illegal outside London

Blocking a pavement completely or preventing wheelchair access is illegal everywhere. On paper anyway. Police won't enforce it, councils aren't allowed to.

 

[Orang Utan]

Blocking a pavement completely or preventing wheelchair access is illegal everywhere. On paper anyway. Police won't enforce it, councils aren't allowed to.

Aye, I just meant parking rather than blocking, though in my view parking IS blocking as it narrows the pavement

 

[editor]

The point being, you can't make someone buy a car they don't want. As I specified above, there are plenty of small cars on the market and yet they don't sell as well as the small crossover segment (the Corsa and the Mini are the only small cars that have done well in the 2020s). Is advertising a part of that? Sure. But the fact remains that you can spend £20M advertising shit in a bag and very few people will buy it. I take offense at the notion that the buying public are just mindless slaves to whatever gets the most advertising money spent on it. Remember that something like a Puma starts at £25k, but a Fiesta (which is near identical) starts at £19k. No amount of advertising alone is going to make someone drop an extra £6k just because the telly told them to. And Ford doesn't exactly sell them on a "random people will want to have sex with you" platform either. (That's Jaguar)

"Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have on something they don’t need.” (Will Rogers)

The shareholders rarely care about anything, so long as the money rolls in. It just doesn't work that way.

So, naturally, they would exert huge pressure on the company to push and promote their more lucrative lines at the expense of less profitable products. It's basic capitalism ad I'm baffled why you can't comprehend.

Here - read this:

The Audi CEO, Duessmann, said in an interview in February 2022:

“We have realigned Audi as a premium brand. We will limit our model range at the bottom and expand it at the top. In the Group, we try to secure the overall result. That’s why we prioritize models with higher profits. Specifically, we have decided not to build the A1 anymore, and there will be no successor model of the Q2 either.

The BMW CFO Nicolas Peter expressed it like this:

“The goal is to generate more earnings per vehicle”.

Established Automakers Restrict Production of Smaller, Cheaper Models, and why that's a BIG problem! - Fully Charged Show it.

 

[Chz]

So, naturally, they would exert huge pressure on the company to push and promote their more lucrative lines at the expense of less profitable products. It's basic capitalism ad I'm baffled why you can't comprehend.

And it has always been that way. Nothing new under the sun, but the SUV trend is different. People are upselling and upsizing - this didn't actually happen in such a large way before. And it's not like the auto industry is swamping people with ads; overall advert spending is down.

To requote with different emphasis:

“We have realigned Audi as a premium brand. We will limit our model range at the bottom and expand it at the top.

To which I say, well duh.

Audi is not the car industry. Moving Audi back up-market, to where they used to be before they started selling rebadged Polos, is not a larger market trend. I listed before a dozen small cars that continue to be built, but sell in smaller numbers than before. People aren't not buying them because they've gone away. Even in Audi's case, they haven't actually stopped selling A1 and A2s yet. And BMW hasn't sold a small, cheap car since the early 80s anyhow. Anyhow, to quote something from the same article:

The small and mid-size vehicle market is shrinking rapidly in unit sales since 2019

The market. Not the number of available cars, the market. Sales are tanking because people aren't buying them, not because the cars don't exist. And because of that, now less small cars will be built. The carmakers might rather sell a high profit car to a low profit one, but they sure as hell want to make any profit rather than have a car sit on a lot for 5 months. So long as the market exists, someone will fill it. To suggest otherwise is absurd and flies in the face of the past 100 years of history. No-one is buying a new SUV because they can't buy a small car. It might prove difficult in the used market because of the way new car sales are going, but now that we're post-lockdowns (and I have already admitted that only the highest-profit cars got parts during lockdowns) there isn't a shortage.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Britain's addiction to cars is built on a financial house of cards | Tom Haines-Doran

Saving the industry means saddling consumers with ever more debt. The fumes of 2007 are in the air, says political economist Tom Haines-Doran

www.theguardian.com

This article nicely torpedoes Chz's argument that it's all down to consumer choice by detailing how people are conned into buying new, bigger cars they don't need and can't afford.

Just looking at any PCP finance deal the incentive to get shot of a perfectly good vehicle and buy a new one is obviously built into it. My sister is stuck in this loop where she's forever paying for cars but never owns one. A lot of people are.

 

[Rob Ray]

The argument that consumers can't be led by a combination of marketing and restricted offerings didn't need much torpedoing tbf, it was pretty silly.

 

[Elpenor]

Just looking at any PCP finance deal the incentive to get shot of a perfectly good vehicle and buy a new one is obviously built into it. My sister is stuck in this loop where she's forever paying for cars but never owns one. A lot of people are.

I keep telling my friend she needs to get out of the PCP track but she insists it’s the right solution as she needs a reliable car.

 

[kebabking]

I keep telling my friend she needs to get out of the PCP track but she insists it’s the right solution as she needs a reliable car.

That's not a PCP problem, it's a 'refusing to read anything, talk to anyone, and being thick as catshit' problem.

Anyone who believes that reliability can only be found in a car that's less than 3yo and that's done less than 30k is probably someone who falls for anything. If it wasn't a PCP, it would be a religious cult or a Nigerian Prince....

 

[ska invita]

the trend seems to be that even people buying cars and not SUVs are buying larger, more powerful vehicles. . A lot of that has to do with the minimal cost of a vehicle these days. Even the tiniest, wheeziest hatchback will run you up to £14k.

what planet are you on? cars are expensive, filling them up costs a fortune, SUVs are particularly expensive on all fronts. - are there a lot of rich selfish arseholes in this country - yes.

 

[MickiQ]

That's not a PCP problem, it's a 'refusing to read anything, talk to anyone, and being thick as catshit' problem.

Anyone who believes that reliability can only be found in a car that's less than 3yo and that's done less than 30k is probably someone who falls for anything. If it wasn't a PCP, it would be a religious cult or a Nigerian Prince....

my current Audi cost me £16K as a cash buy 6 years ago, it was 3 years old at the time and cost £35K new so it lost £20K in value in just 3 years, probably lost half that as it drove off the lot. It's been fine these past 6 years. It's been serviced, had new tyres, brake pads etc the sort of things you expect to have to replace on a car.
The only unexpected faults I've had is that I have had to replace a couple of the rear light clusters since rain got in and shorted them out. Other than that fine, I've had no problems with the engine, transmission, suspension etc. It still has the original battery and exhaust.
Ironically the main reason I'm currently replacing it is that it is a Euro 5 spec not a Euro 6 so not ULEZ compliant and whilst I don't live anywhere near London I expect ULEZ's to spread, my wife's native Liverpool has been talking about one for years. (Well that and the fact that since she bought the Yaris Mrs Q seems to be losing the ability to drive a manual transmission without stalling it)
I've never bought a new car, the thought of the deprecation makes me gulp, I'd probably be better off just chucking banknotes on the fire every time we have barbecue.

 

[Chz]

This article nicely torpedoes @Chz's argument that it's all down to consumer choice by detailing how people are conned into buying new, bigger cars they don't need and can't afford.

I don't see how it makes SUVs particularly more attractive. The PCP deals on regular cars have always been better value. As someone says above, SUVs are fucking expensive. People don't buy them for the LOLs. You get a nice, base Merc C-class for the same price as a loaded Qashqai (yes, that surprised me too), and a it's a lot better drive. There's nothing driving you to choose one over the other, except personal preference.

It's also a rather after-the-fact argument. PCP rates are insane now, and it hasn't changed buying habits.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I don't see how it makes SUVs particularly more attractive. The PCP deals on regular cars have always been better value. As someone says above, SUVs are fucking expensive. People don't buy them for the LOLs. You get a nice, base Merc C-class for the same price as a loaded Qashqai (yes, that surprised me too), and a it's a lot better drive. There's nothing driving you to choose one over the other, except personal preference.

It's also a rather after-the-fact argument. PCP rates are insane now, and it hasn't changed buying habits.

Step one incentivise people to buy new cars with loaded finance deals.

Step two make more SUVs and less non-cunt cars.

Subtle and intricate I know, but you can just about puzzle it out.

 

[Chz]

Step one incentivise people to buy new cars with loaded finance deals.

Step two make more SUVs and less non-cunt cars.

Subtle and intricate I know, but you can just about puzzle it out.

There is no shortage of non-cunt cars on forecourts to buy. Slight flaw in your logic. EU-wide, the Dacia Sandero and Puv 208 still sell in the hundreds of thousands, with no shortages. It's just in the richer countries that the SUV craze is dominant. You don't want to buy an SUV? There's dozens upon dozens of vehicles to choose from. The idea that people can only buy an SUV is a logical fallacy.