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Comment by linsomniac | Hacker News Reader

America is not a nation of light vehicles, and that is largely due to the MPG standards that have been legislated for decades. An "out" was given based on vehicle weight, with heavier vehicles not having to meet as high a standard as lighter ones. Which is part of why trucks have gotten so huge over the past few decades.

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This. Ignorant dweebs like the type who write for Slate fail to understand that the growing size of vehicles is not driven by demand, it's driven by EPA policy.

Anecdotally, this is false for anyone I have talked to. They want bigger vehicles, they want to sit up high. There exists demand for bigger vehicle, whether or be to feel safer or superior.

You can tell with the aggressive aesthetic of these new trucks that there is clearly some appeal to fragile egos as well.

They may want big, but big doesn't have to be heavy. We could have big and relatively light vehicles. Most of a cars volume is air.

But big is higher drag and higher drag is less mpg and the only way to be allowed less mpg is heavy as per EPA rules.

People you are talking to only care about image, they just buy into the macho image projected by marketing.

There are many tradesmen, farmers, etc who would love to buy one of the small trucks that used to be available. They are great for tossing tools into and going to fields, work sites, etc. But trucks with that wheel base now require an efficiency level that isn't feasible. Many have resorted to using UTVs in their place where it makes sense, but those can't completely fill the gap since they aren't street legal.

Regulations always have intended consequences.

He says exactly this in paragraph 9. What article did you read?

It isn't an exception for weight, but rather the misguided footprint regulation that incentivizes larger vehicles that are allowed to have lower fuel economy. That coupled with the silliness of hatchback cars being classified as trucks has distorted the market and ruined the options for small vehicles that are truly trucks.

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