Comic Strips

The biggest reason that was never mentioned is ..

They need a vehicle that can accommodate and carry a 300lb human.

I have a friend who is over weight, his wife is over weight and their four teenage children are all overweight.

One of their previous vehicles was a small car and it looked like a clown show to see four of them stuff themselves into an average sized car and watch the suspension dip.

I couldn't believe they got a newer F150 that they paid about $50,000 for ..... a used vehicle! It's a great truck and they got it just to fit four of them comfortably. They parked next to my 2010 F150 and theirs looks like a transport.

And when they step into the truck, they look normal and you no longer notice how big they are because their truck is huge.

My Subaru Forester is not a tiny SUV. I was parked between two pickup trucks the other day, and my roof was only slightly higher than their hoods. The Simpsons' Canyonero is no longer a parody.

I live in Germany where people usually drive reasonably-sized cars. Something like a Škoda Karoq SUV is already considered unreasonably large.

A while ago I saw someone drive a Ford F-150 past our house. That thing is almost 1m (~3 feet) longer and 30 cm (~1 foot) taller than those SUVs. In its smallest version. How the hell do Americans live like that?

CAFE standards base fleet fuel economy targets on wheelbase. It’s cheaper for manufacturers to produce large trucks and SUVs, which don’t have to meet as stringent a standard due to their large wheelbase.

Those are also classified as light trucks, which means they don’t have to comply with the higher safety standards that “passenger cars” do, another reason they’re cheaper to produce.

How do we sell those? Marketing to make people think they need them.

First guy on the second line looks and sounds like a blonde Ron Swanson

(Ron is not that bad of course, but he can sound like he is)

There's one big one missing, no viable public transit options. America has half a rail system and a tenth of the bussing it actually needs. We're blessed and cursed with an abundance of space, and we sprawled out across the land on the assumption that everyone would have a car.

There isn't an easy fix. It's not just a matter of adding more busses, it's where and how people live and work. It's how highways and neighborhoods are laid out. I'm fortunate to live close to a rail hub, but I still have to drive there from my house, and I would need a car at any destination. We don't even have sidewalks or bike lanes between here and there.

The last one is understandable from the standpoint that she needs an mpv to transport all those kids

Thanks, I hate it

One of the sadder reasons: I need a pickup but they stopped making small pickups in the 90's.

The cheapest cars start at like $25k anyway and depreciate much faster than a truck/full-size. Plus fuel cost is massively subsidized. I've seen even eco-conscious friends of mine get FlexFuel F150s because it just doesn't make sense to buy a small car. It's like movie theatre popcorn pricing

Also: Because my truck can't be smaller than my neighbor's.

Americans can't count because that is eleven reasons.