Pedestrians, cyclists and drivers are at increased risk as the rapid rise in monster US pick-up trucks on Europe’s roads is set to accelerate after the…
I mean, selfishness is one thing, but these things literally won’t fit in most parking spaces and even a number of garage spaces.
You can technically buy a bus, too, but most people don’t think it’s practical.
The race to size already happened in Europe once, when 4x4s started getting marketed to scared housewives under the pretense that they were safer, if that sounds familiar. I know a few people who were tempted.
Then they looked into it and got over it pretty quickly.
I’m sure you’d see some (I saw my first local Tesla the other day, the guy had blacked out the badge to avoid having it vandalized). I’m not sure we’re going to see a race towards Europeans as a group buying humongous, impractical, extremely expensive cartoon trucks.
Everyone is driving compact SUVs or “crossovers”. That’s the biggest segment in Europe, as far as I can tell with some googling. The second biggest is even smaller SUVs.
Admittedly, what I can find also says that big SUVs are growing faster than compact and small SUVs. But still, large SUVs are like 3-5% of the market.
Why the “compact SUV” is a thing when a T-Roc is the exact same size and pretty much the same shape as a Golf GTI is anybody’s guess. I don’t sell cars for a living, you’d have to ask Volkswagen what the difference is supposed to be.
That angle almost helps its case because that’s mostly large cars for the EU parked rather loosely in a spacious spot (guessing those two things are related). The Mercedes kind of breaks the illusion that it makes some sense.
That thing would take two spaces and definitely go past the max length in the average underground parking lot.
My neighborhood is relatively new. Trucks don’t fit in garages here, so they park them on the driveway.
In rural areas, the parking spaces are extra big. In the city? They’ll happily take over half the sidewalk or multiple spaces. Did I mention they leave their metal hitches always installed?
We need to implement a law in the US where size of shadow cast from 8 angles determines your vehicle class and minimum tax. I am an adult. You can barely see my head above the roof of a pickup.
Have you seen people driving SUVs a lot? Those things generally don’t fit in parking spots, doesn’t stop people from trying and happily occupying two spots.
And the ones that I am familiar with out there, mostly from people who used to like cars but now have too many kids to fit into a hot hatchback, tend to fall into the “compact SUV” subsegment, which totally does fit in parking spots and meet current EU regulations.
Also I wouldn’t underestimate the size of the US monstrosities. Made me look it up. The most popular American pickup is 20 cm wider and a whopping 2 meters longer than the most popular EU SUV. I had to double check that, that’s a tall NBA center longer. You could park a whole Smart FortTwo behind your SUV and still almost fit in the footprint of a Ford F150.
You could also buy both the SUV and the Smart and still have money left over before you can afford the Ford. And that’s not accounting the US prices may not be listing taxes.
Seriously, regulations aren’t the only reason car tastes have diverged. It’s not like Ford doesn’t sell cars in Europe. A nontrivial part of this has been Trump and his idiotic followers making shit up to justify things they don’t like.
Well, if they pay for two…
In my city, there is no public spot above ground left where you don’t have to pay for parking.
The underground parking lots I’m frequenting, however, will not accommodate any SUV, period. Meaning maybe you can wiggle your way in, but you physically won’t get out. It’s a crowded continent…
Don’t fit yet. The US is just way ahead of Europe in bulldozing the city to make room for more cars and now oversized trucks. All Europe has to do is start knocking down anything in the way to widen lanes and make bigger parking spots.
Yes, it can happen here if the people let it.
I lived through the same thing in the US and the results are horrifying.
I mean, selfishness is one thing, but these things literally won’t fit in most parking spaces and even a number of garage spaces.
You can technically buy a bus, too, but most people don’t think it’s practical.
The race to size already happened in Europe once, when 4x4s started getting marketed to scared housewives under the pretense that they were safer, if that sounds familiar. I know a few people who were tempted.
Then they looked into it and got over it pretty quickly.
I’m sure you’d see some (I saw my first local Tesla the other day, the guy had blacked out the badge to avoid having it vandalized). I’m not sure we’re going to see a race towards Europeans as a group buying humongous, impractical, extremely expensive cartoon trucks.
Have you spent the last 10 years under a rock? Everyone drives an SUV nowadays
Everyone is driving compact SUVs or “crossovers”. That’s the biggest segment in Europe, as far as I can tell with some googling. The second biggest is even smaller SUVs.
Admittedly, what I can find also says that big SUVs are growing faster than compact and small SUVs. But still, large SUVs are like 3-5% of the market.
Why the “compact SUV” is a thing when a T-Roc is the exact same size and pretty much the same shape as a Golf GTI is anybody’s guess. I don’t sell cars for a living, you’d have to ask Volkswagen what the difference is supposed to be.
So no, not living under a rock.
Yes, they don’t belong here.
That angle almost helps its case because that’s mostly large cars for the EU parked rather loosely in a spacious spot (guessing those two things are related). The Mercedes kind of breaks the illusion that it makes some sense.
That thing would take two spaces and definitely go past the max length in the average underground parking lot.
My neighborhood is relatively new. Trucks don’t fit in garages here, so they park them on the driveway.
In rural areas, the parking spaces are extra big. In the city? They’ll happily take over half the sidewalk or multiple spaces. Did I mention they leave their metal hitches always installed?
We need to implement a law in the US where size of shadow cast from 8 angles determines your vehicle class and minimum tax. I am an adult. You can barely see my head above the roof of a pickup.
Have you seen people driving SUVs a lot? Those things generally don’t fit in parking spots, doesn’t stop people from trying and happily occupying two spots.
Large SUVs? Not many, no.
My point exactly.
And the ones that I am familiar with out there, mostly from people who used to like cars but now have too many kids to fit into a hot hatchback, tend to fall into the “compact SUV” subsegment, which totally does fit in parking spots and meet current EU regulations.
Also I wouldn’t underestimate the size of the US monstrosities. Made me look it up. The most popular American pickup is 20 cm wider and a whopping 2 meters longer than the most popular EU SUV. I had to double check that, that’s a tall NBA center longer. You could park a whole Smart FortTwo behind your SUV and still almost fit in the footprint of a Ford F150.
You could also buy both the SUV and the Smart and still have money left over before you can afford the Ford. And that’s not accounting the US prices may not be listing taxes.
Seriously, regulations aren’t the only reason car tastes have diverged. It’s not like Ford doesn’t sell cars in Europe. A nontrivial part of this has been Trump and his idiotic followers making shit up to justify things they don’t like.
Well, if they pay for two…
In my city, there is no public spot above ground left where you don’t have to pay for parking.
The underground parking lots I’m frequenting, however, will not accommodate any SUV, period. Meaning maybe you can wiggle your way in, but you physically won’t get out. It’s a crowded continent…
Don’t fit yet. The US is just way ahead of Europe in bulldozing the city to make room for more cars and now oversized trucks. All Europe has to do is start knocking down anything in the way to widen lanes and make bigger parking spots.
Yes, it can happen here if the people let it.
I lived through the same thing in the US and the results are horrifying.