It's not just manliness. It's everyone. Ford hasn't made a car in two years. Total insanity.
At this point, there's a lot of engine tech that really helps to optimize for a vehicle's power demands. Ford in particular is running very small volume engines at high compression ratios to get some great fuel economy.
Current safety ratings are only for people inside of the vehicle and that is insane.
As a family person that runs to fruit market every several weeks and brings back a boot load of fruits in boxes it is hard to understand how a sedan can suffice.
Having said that huge SUVs are overkill too, something like Subaru Forester/Outback or RAV-4 seems to be the sweet spot for people with less than 3 children. With 3 children you start looking at something with 3rd row of seats.
Hard to believe that the 100 gallon boot volumes of a small sedan are insufficient for a weekly fruit&veg shop - let alone the 300 gallon boot of an estate car or the 400 gallon boot that a compact car has if you take the 30 seconds to lay down the rear seats before you load it...
And being a bit older, I do remember being driven into summer holidays with a family with 3 children, luggage and an inflatable rubber boat - in a Fiat 126 (half the length, half the width, and a quarter of the weight of today's giant pick-ups and Escalades...
That's boot of my Subi Forester and that is not the fullest it is ever been. During mango season we even take a bit of passenger space. That box of oranges is was 5 AUDs btw.
Practice is often different from theory.
Now having written that and looking at you user handle I realise that you might think that mangoes are firm and you can stack it.
Well, those firm mangoes you see in super markets are not ripe, they are green. Ripe mangoes we buy here in Australia are soft, you can damage them with you fingers and I would like to keep them for at least couple weeks.
It can be done, and it is done all the time all around the world. People just want to use their extreme case to justify both ways. We are saying “I fit my whole house in a fiat 500” and they are saying “I eat for 25 people every week so others must need it to”.
The reality is that people drive suburbans and Tahoes and they don’t even have kids just because they can. I hate to say it but the best thing that can happen to the US culture is expensive fuel. And I say this as someone who races cars as a hobby and would like cheap fuel.
I agree with everything you wrote in this paragraph in terms of SUV vs. compact hatchbacks, but I stand by the fact that if all large crossovers and small SUVs were replaced by midsized station-wagons the roads would be a better place and the drivers would lose no utility.