Lars Wilderäng is a Swedish author and blogger. Quick overview: his topics generally revolve around defence policies (Russia bad, moar defence), economics (low interest rates bad, housing market speculation bad) and since the war started, the war in Ukraine (send Ukraine moar weapons). He hates Elon Musk but loves his Tesla. He hates ICE cars.
He’s unfortunately one of the “EVs will solve everything” people, which annoys me greatly, but today I saw a small car-related comment on his blog that actually made me laugh.
Oh and sorry for the misspelled “cyclists”.
There are tons of hilly or mountainous regions in the US with terribly rutted unimproved roads where you need a high-clearance 4WD. Does it need to specifically be an SUV? No, but if you were in a car it would need a lift and bigger tires. Battlecars. A lot of the crossovers are just lifted wagons anyway.
I live on a hilly dirt road in Vermont and we get by fine with a Toyota Yaris and a 2007 GMC canyon with 4wd. There’s maybe 2 or 3 cumulative weeks a year when the Yaris can’t handle the road conditions, and on those days, it’d be better if everyone who could stayed home anyway.
Even my truck, which gets used for lots of construction and farm chores, is smaller and has a lower clearance than most modern SUVs. I challenge any SUV or truck owner who claims they need something bigger than I do to compare our vehicle usage. I moved a baby cow in the Yaris just yesterday. In fact, I literally bought the smallest used truck I could find. I’d buy a smaller truck tomorrow if I could.
Also, while I’m here, my tiny town of a few thousand people has a train station with service to NYC and even DC, but it takes way, way longer than driving, and it only runs once or twice a day. All these little towns in Vermont ALREADY HAVE TRAIN STATIONS but no one can use them because the service is worthless. If the train was even somewhat regular and as fast as driving, I would use it all the goddamn time.
First off - God bless the Yaris.
Anyway, this is exactly the point. Most people with huge trucks do not need huge trucks. That doesn’t mean no one does, but most people with huge trucks or SUVs are living in suburbs or whatever. They claim to need them because “road bad once a year” or “I move a chair sometimes”. It’s simply just mental gymnastics to excuse the real reason which is “I am insecure of my manliness”.
You live a life where people actually might have use for a huge truck. Yet you still moved a baby cow in your Yaris (which is so awesome btw I laughed out loud) because it worked just fine.
The right tool for the right job, and most people don’t need the truck. The few who do, great, get one.
EDIT: Just looked up the GMC Canyon. I first googled “GMC Canyon”. Then I added “2007”. What the fuck. What happened. It’s so obvious it’s just an arms race of who can build bigger.
Yeah I totally agree.
I think about this a lot for obvious reasons, especially the, as you put it, “road bad once a year” mentality. I think it’s part of this underlying capitalist pathology that we must continue to be productive no matter the weather or physical conditions. It’s as if the economy is more real than the world being covered by a foot of snow, which is an inconvenience that we must overcome, rather than a reality that we should accept, and maybe stay off the roads for the day if we can. People shouldn’t have to drive to their fucking office and retail jobs when it’s shitty out, nor should they expect the world to be fully open for business. We have this underlying assumption that we are above nature instead of a part of it. It is this extraneous thing that we have the duty and the right to overcome anytime no matter what, so we buy this giant F150 man-van, which not coincidentally contributes to the destruction of nature, because we shouldn’t be inconvenienced by nature ever
Also, not a good pic, but here’s the calf in the car!
What a mooving image!
Vermont is a little more developed overall than a lot of places in the wild parts of Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Utah etc. It isn’t usually about the steepness of the road but the condition. I have a Subaru Crosstrek with all-terrain tires & a 2" lift so I’ve got a little over a foot of clearance. I have still bottomed it out a handful of times just this year, and really utilized that extra clearance dozens of times. And trains? I haven’t lived somewhere with access to a train since I lived in Europe.
I’m sure there are some places in the US that are worse, but at that point it’s some very extreme edge cases. My canyon can be loaded up with hay and driven around icy, wet, steep, and rutted out pasture without a problem, but it’s always the smallest truck with the lowest clearance on the road. Your roads have to be completely fucked if they’re worse than my pastures in mud season. I’m sure those roads exist, but it’s pretty rare.
edit: for reference, this classic VT meme template was actually taken nearby
Then by all means, if you live in rural Colorado or whatever, get a truck. But it’s not like they are the majority of Americas population.
If you think Vermont is “a little more developed” than the “wild” parts of Tennessee and North Carolina you’ve obviously never been to Vermont. Or maybe you were only there in the summer.
Vermont and New Hampshire have literally the most brutal weather in the US as far as roads go. You’ve got four full seasons, complete with scorching heat and subzero (F) temperatures with roads that go from below sea level to ~3,000ft and regular, 100MPH gusts of wind (due to all the mountains) which take out road signs. Then there’s rockslides/random boulders, endless organic debris that needs to be removed/cleaned up (e.g. those red and golden leaves in autumn and lots of random branches that get blown down by the random winds), blizzards, occasional hurricanes, random out-of-season lake effect freezes, occasional ridiculous heavy rains, and tourists mixed in with New England drivers.
People have seriously steep driveways in Vermont which they intentionally don’t pave because otherwise they’d never get up them in the winter. Not because of snow but because of the regular freezing rain. At the top of those seriously steep driveways you’ll see plenty of regular cars (not just Subarus).
Um yeah I’ve been to Vermont. Maybe I haven’t found my roads there yet though, I love rough roads. I wish it was closer. But there is a lot more money in Vermont than rural NC so yeah even with the weather the roads get more attention.
Now that the SUV has been invented, the settlers can finally move into these harsh landscapes, which were unaccessible before.
This also explains why this phenomenon emerged in the US, because other continents simply don’t have hilly or mountainous regions.
Sarcasm aside, most of these vehicles are used for short trips on well-maintained city roads, to get to office and buy groceries. They aren’t even very useful for offroad tasks, no improvement on existing vehicles. Even worse, they are not useful to get around in cities.
But I really, really need that SUV to transport my 144 weekly loo rolls needed to sustain my 100% protein shake-only diet! Think about the gains man!
My sister used to live in a rural area with a very bad dirt road. She had 2 SUVs and insisted it was the only way to drive there.
I visited her often with my estate and countless tradies would reach the area with vans
Fun fact…both the death of wagons and the birth of CUVs, in the US, are due to CAFE.
Station wagons drag down the fleet average MPG for passenger cars. Crossovers, though, benefit the fleet average MPG for trucks. Even though they are just tall unibody vehicles.
IMO, that should be the delineation for CAFE (unibody vs. body-on-frame), instead of wheelbase.
Exempt vehicles should either require farm plates or a CDL. If you’re not using the vehicle for work, it should follow common-sense emissions requirements.
But to be fair ,the fact that we’re still selling fossil cars in 2023 is insane, anyways.
Nah. I went cross-country and climbed mountains in my hybrid sedan. Only once did I shy away from taking a road and it was because the snow was too deep. (approach to a trailhead for a Colorado 14er)
Oh I’ve done that too. Good driving can go a long way. But I also have been towed out. And I have driven roads that a sedan wouldn’t get 50 ft up. It’s what I do.
Perhaps. But he is writing in Swedish.