(Note than large vehicles are not a reasonable option in cities with poor auto infrastructure.)
It’s a classic tragedy of the commons situation, would you rather buy a car safer for you and your family or buy a small car hoping the world changes overnight?
If you disagree, the car companies must also be very wrong about what the customers want, because they keep making bigger and bigger cars and people keep buying them.
I know it’s controversial, but there’s a group of us who truly believe that yes, the car companies are wrong about what customers want, as those of us who want and desire subcompact vehicles keep being told we are wrong. Where I live, subcompacts are the most desired kind of vehicle and extremely hard to find because the car companies aren’t selling as many of them in the US as before. That is to say, they are refusing to sell them in the US market while still making and selling them overseas.
When I ask the dealer about this, they say they made the decision because consumers don’t want them. When I point out that I want to buy one and so do other people, and when used vehicles of that type come in, they sell right away, they just shrug. So here’s a case where it’s the consumers repeatedly being told they are wrong for wanting smaller vehicles. It’s pretty much a fact that the larger vehicles have been intentionally pushed on US consumers, so when you say people keep buying them, they are doing so because they have no choice.
With that said, there is and has been a bias against small cars in the US since the 1980s. There are two reasons for this. I think some of it can be traced to the original safety problems that small vehicles used to have, which have mostly been solved at this modern juncture. Second, I believe this bias against small cars might have started out as political and economic propaganda against foreign imports at a time when US car companies were still making large, oversize sedans.
I think that much of this bias is rooted in popular propaganda that has seeped its way into conventional wisdom. I have personally rarely experienced as much random visceral anger and hatred against small cars from strangers as I have regarding anything else. It’s like a form of sexism and racism that is unique to the US. If you dare to drive a small car in the US, you are treated like a second-class citizen. It’s bizarre, it’s weird, and it’s uniquely an American phenomenon.
Try using a bike as your primary mode of transit and get back to me on feeling like a second-class citizen. I can argue about poor bike infrastructure all day, but I'm just talking about the behavior of motor vehicle drivers here. So many can't just be content to pass me regardless of whether I'm in the bike gutter or taking a lane (I avoid this where possible, but if a bike lane is unavailable/not safe, or I need to make a turn I will assert my right to be in the mix with auto traffic), and insist on rolling down their windows just to hurl insults at me - even with my 10 year old daughter on the passenger seat behind me. Then the other half of the time they'll give me anywhere between 6-18" of clearance while passing me.
I don't really like generalizing people, but my experience and that of my wife seems to point to a rather common law: the larger the gap between curb weight of vehicles on the road, the more likely the operator of the heavier vehicle will be an aggressive dick towards the lighter one. Pedestrians? Unless you're in something with a ride height lower than 20" chances are you don't even notice them until they're under your tires.
I think it’s simple economics. They sit on dealer lots and move slow, plus margins are tiny so no one wants to sell them. You see this in the rental car space especially clearly where subcompacts are easy and cheap to rent because they sit on the lots. I think the issue is simply quality —- they’re uncomfortable, cheaply made, and a few more dollars gets you way more vehicle and safety margin. Market segmentation for the dealers is bad as well, they don’t want to eat high margin big cars with loss-leader tiny cars.
If you are right, and there is demand, that'a a 10-100 billion $ business opportunity right there.
Import small European and Asian cars, sell them for a decent margin.
Unfortunately, everyone who has ever tried this has failed.
https://www.accessmagazine.org/fall-2002/suvs-really-safer-c...
It should ideally be per kilometers driven.
You're also ignoring the case where the other driver causes a crash, and dies, but you live. Sure, you're probably still not going to feel great about the situation, and may suffer some emotional issues, but I don't think too many people would say they'd prefer they were in a smaller car and died instead.
If opiates were as widely marketed as large vehicles are, most people would end up being opiate addicts. People make stupid choices informed by misleading marketing all the time.
I think we used to have a wider gamut of vehicle plans and sizes, but it has since contracted severely due to regulations (at least from my understanding). Like AMC and early Subaru were wild. VW busses are iconic but nobody is fabricating anything like it, except maybe Canoo, which has some atrocious leasing option.
Anyways all the safety talk is kind of a red herring. SUVs are very dangerous and prone to rolling, as are their kindred truck brethren. Rollovers are also the deadliest form of accident. I haven't checked the statistics beyond that, but I think there are definitely misconceptions about how protective a bigger vehicle is in actuality versus how they're perceived. But I have and will continue to opt for the more agile and better centered vehicle and adopting a driving habit suited to the abilities of my vehicles, including a long leading distance at all times.