>disconnect
I'm amazed at how large the full sized pickups have become and more and more are now 4 wheel drive. The mid sized pickups are now the size of an F-100 back in the 1960's.
But I can't totally blame consumers for wanting these trucks. There is a disconnect between what Detroit and the government wants and what people want.
1. Interstates are now a canyon of semi trucks. We feel safer in something bigger that sits higher so our heads are not at the same level as the semi's bumper.
2. We have let our roads go. We want big wheels so we don't wreck our cars in some gaping pothole.
3. Cars are now made to meet fleet fuel standards and wind tunnel tests, not for American people. American males are taller and heavier than ever before, we don't want to have to jack knife ourselves into a sedan, sit on the floor with our foreheads touching the windshield. My first car was a 1960 Studebaker Lark 2 door, a compact in it's day, and it had boatloads of more usable interior room than most mid sized sedans have today and a tall man could wear a fedora inside! It takes a full sized pickup to give them a comfortable seating arrangement today. Bring back bench seats and some head and leg room and you will be beating off buyers with a stick. (My first new car was a 1977 VW Rabbit which still had a lot more headroom than today's VW Golf.)
4. The current crop of EV's are even worse in all these roominess categories. Might work for Europeans but Americans are not going to pay $40K and climbing for an EV we can barely get into and have to swap out the batteries in 7 years. Better to buy the Gass guzzler you know than face to unknown costs of the battery life.
I could go on about range, $200 proprietary charging cords, incompatible fast charging standards and the like, but you get the picture. There is a large niche in the American auto market that is only being served by SUV's, *vans and pickup trucks.
PS. It does not help that nearly every car looks like a knockoff of a Camry.
