Imagine how much nicer driving around in the suburbs would be if the majority of vehicles were town cars like Honda Fits, mini-mini-vans like Honda Freed, pre-2003 Tacomas, and kei trucks/vans instead of the usual mix of unreasonably tall and boxy crossovers/SUVs and brodozer trucks.

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ericmay 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Well I don't think it would be that much different, truthfully. The problem of the suburbs is a matter of layout and zoning, not so much the vehicles used. If you fix the layout and zoning it'll naturally reduce vehicle size.

	▲	jaredklewis 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Would better zoning have a bigger impact? Of course. But it would definitely make an impact. If you are driving a Honda fit, there is no distance at which you can’t see my kids. In a ford f-150, the driver probably needs to be at least a dozen feet away to see my kids

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Amezarak 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think you probably know this because you used the US name for the car (internationally known as the Jazz), but for those who don’t, Honda discontinued the Fit in the US market due to poor sales. For every internet comment bemoaning the lack of these vehicles there’s the actual fact of revealed consumer preference in the US market.

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cosmic_cheese 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Much of consumer preference doesn't originate from the consumers' own minds, though. It's shaped largely by marketing, and in the US car companies have been pushing bigger, boxier, more plush, and more expensive with its ad spend and incentives for decades now. It's way easier to find a dealership offering 0%-2% financing on some aircraft carrier of a vehicle than it is on a small car.

	▲	kube-system an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Americans' appetite for small cars seems to be linked pretty closely to the inflation-adjusted price of gasoline. Automakers always want to push more premium vehicles, because they make their margins selling to people with more money to buy more features, more space, more performance. The low end of the market is lower margin and you have to make up for it with volume. When we hit another recession, we'll see smaller cars appear again.
	▲	Amezarak an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		This is a roundabout way of saying Americans are willing to spend more money on bigger car because they like them better. Aside from urban cores with limited parking and lots of narrow streets, it’s obvious that “bigger” means more utility regardless of marketing. You can fit more people and more stuff more comfortably (apparently people really prefer the spacious people room even above room for stuff). People are not being brainwashed by ads.