Remember that the US auto companies spent billions of dollars in marketing and lying to people that they "need" vehicles the size of tanks.
The fact is that modern cars have astonishingly effective safety features that are likely to get you alive out of most crashes regardless of the size of your vehicle. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety publishes data that shows that larger vehicles are safer but it is not like you die in the smaller car most of the time, but rather you are more likely to break your ankle or something.
If your vehicle goes under the tractor pulled by a semi (any size) or if it flips over the guardrail because it's too big to be held by the guardrail you do die.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
I go for walks in the morning and there's a road bottleneck and it's hilarious and sad to see the cars queueing up on both sides, huge ones, with a single person in them, every morning.
I do own a station wagon, and it's shorter than most SUVs, and I use it for long trips, but let's be realistic, that's not what most drives are.
Most of the time people drive sedans alone.
If people bought based purely on passenger need 99% of vehicles on the road should be 2-seat coupes, pickups and vans.
It seems like a different world but before the pandemic if you wanted to buy a compact car you would go to the dealer and find out they don't have any new ones, you'll have to settle for used, they say factory washed out in a flood. Well they have 100 SUVs made in the same factory lined up that nobody wants to buy that are $7000 off.
Even if I lived outside a city, what do I gain by driving a smaller car? Going from 35 to 55 mpg? Parking is plentiful and equally convenient for big cars these days.
cities are better with fewer cars and better public transit. and you dont need a tank. i didnt know your viewpoint even existed.
I personally don't understand how you could consider an SUV better for handling or fun, but denying people's views doesn't make them not hold them.
1: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S22146...
This is an imagination problem. There are certain categories of automotive use cases which SUVs are designed to be superior. In those, being in a vehicle designed to handle better at the task is better fun!
For example, taking an SUV off road.
Not even. Buying thrift store furniture is a wildly different experience in a modern crossover than it is a sedan or even an old station wagon.
We have more sedans here in the city (Seattle) because our parking space frankly are too small, and even then I see way too many SUVs trying to cram into a parking space labelled compact.
Or at least, a vehicle the size of a Hummer H1. But, would be willing to try out a Marauder, because they look like they’re a blast.
I had tiny sports cars growing from 16-30 years old. They were fun in a different way.
1. https://www.topgear.com/car-news/modified/behold-500bhp-295k...
2. https://www.motor1.com/news/27190/marauder-armored-vehicle-f...