The market is pushing for all SUVs, more than 70% of new cars sold are SUVs or Trucks. The car companies don't decide to make all SUVs, the consumer decided they only wanted those vehicles and the car companies obliged.
I love the efficiency of my small car, but the lack of safety to those outside of the vehicle is a huge concern. One can buy a 2ton vehicle off the lot today that can do 0-60 in 3.0, the hummer ev. I really don't feel safe in a small car anymore.
I'm not the only one who thinks this. It's a race to get bigger and beefier cars . Unless we put in regulations, it's only going to get worse. No wonder pedestrian deaths have risen.
Given the size of automotive lobbying in the USA, you could reasonably extend that to "the automotive lobby groups guiding the government's choice, guiding the consumer's choice, guiding the market".
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/04/07/trucks-ou...
And they are twice as likely to kill someone in a serious crash.
You don't think that should be discouraged.
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I would argue the location of its manufacture is probably the most significant factor, as it contributes the most towards what I think of people commonly think of as buying “American”—things like supporting the assembly line workers, and as much as possible keeping the economic activities surrounding its production domestic. To that end, my BMW 3-series was built in South Carolina, and would then rank as an American car. But that notion is pretty absurd to my sensibilities, so maybe it’s more of a cultural idea? So American cars could be made anywhere, as long as they’re huge, overpowered, and are a Ford F-150. By that logic, I’d call a Jeep Wrangler American, but probably not the Wagoneer (see: Range Rover), and certainly not the Compass (see: pre-Genesis Hyundai). This definition seems far too ambiguous and subjective.
Ultimately, I think globalization has effectively ended the whole idea of nationalistic car manufacturing. Like a lot of now-vestigial cultural institutions, the modern world economy has consumed these old modes of thought, and left them to be wielded as marketing by advertising agencies who eagerly leverage our nostalgia and cultural identities to craft the illusion that these brands still represent the American Way®.
It's more profitable to sell us larger/bigger/scarier cars in the vehicle size/weight arms race.
As for masculinity, anyone regardless of their gender can do stereotypically masculine or feminine things. For example men who do drag are generally dressing in a more classical feminine style. In the barbie movie, when the Kens took over they were pictured with a big hummer EV, not any of the other smaller cars we saw in the movie.
Fem is getting behind a 5000lb SUV. So it's no surprise women and families choose SUVs.
Individualism could be getting up early to bike all the way to Mt Tam, or getting up early to catch the surf. Collectivism might be taking the family out to a BBQ at the park, or going to the supermarket and doing the grocery shopping for the fam.