Quote:
Originally Posted by Kal
It is not too uncommon to see everyday people driving around in Ford F400's and such.
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Andrew - that's absolutely not to say that they all do, but there certainly are a few who do.
I think that it really depends on where you are. West and Midwest, probably true to some extent. New York/New England - mid-sized to small cars are really becoming the go. I lived there for a number of years just recently, and actively observed that the trend downwards in size was inexorable. Large SUVs (both 4 and 2 wheel drive) were frowned upon by average people, and that went for the people I worked with. Our company's largest car was a Ford Taurus - a mid-sized car over there. The rest of us had small cars.
The blokes on the other side of the country - on the WHOLE - are following the trend in their own way, but you really do see a lot of large 4x4s as well. Don't forget that they have over 10 times our population, so the density of them as seen on actual roads will obviously be a lot higher than we're used to over here in Oz. In real percentages though cars, on average, are almost certainly smaller than they used to be 20 years ago. What I also found was that people actually thought that it was good to be concerned about the size of car they drive - wheras 20 years ago they certainly did not.... well.. apart from the fuel crisis times. At least this is a step in the right direction.
I find it amusing that people sit wherever they are and cast their own expectations on the Americans over their cars and car industry. They introduced the affordable car to the masses and refined the process that the whole world took on to build their own. Now we blame them for starting the whole thing while we still enjoy our own freedom of movement that the car has given us. I guess a parallel is how the Europeans sit there and criticise Australians (note: not 'Australia", but 'Australians" referring to you and me personally) for not immediately having our government stop our coal-fired power stations and installing nuclear today. Neither what you or I say will change that, but in time, if we all say it together, it will change - and hopefully for something better than currently used anywhere else in the world - be it solar, geothermal or better nuclear. Everybody will always have a problem with how others do what they do in their own environment. Back when, large cars in the USA were purely a reaction to the price of fuel at the time. It was cheap - so the market did what it does best and answered the call. We had them here too. Big V8's weren't the sole domain of the USA.
The economy of more than just the USA will most likely suffer horribly if the US car industry goes down in a screaming heap. It will affect everyone on more levels than we'll probably ever know. Yes, I agree that it eventually has to be shut down and something better built in its place, but it should be a gradual process, not a cataclysmic one. Given that, I suppose that the US has no choice but to bail out its car industry for the time being - hopefully in the knowledge that it won't go on forever and that plans must be made to wind it up. I hope that we discover/develop new technologies that will maintain our travel freedoms without a radical re-think on the way society works. Bring on the fuel cell!