From the article:
>The culprit? Corporate cost cutting. As profit margins got tighter, automakers went looking for ways to make assembly lines run faster and cheaper.
I'm not so sure this is the reason. If you look at houses, current trends are black and white or a combination of the two.
I think it's more just current tastes than anything.
> I think it's more just current tastes than anything.
I guess I was wrong about what I thought a trend was, because my understanding was always that the general populace dictates trends. When I go through neighborhoods where people have freedom to choose their exterior color, the new colors I'm seeing are not white, black, or gray, but a vibrant selection across the spectrum. I'd love to see these color choices backed up by actual data, because my unqualified belief (since we're all kind of doing that here) is that the people who are choosing boring colors for new construction are not surveying consumers to find out if they actually like those colors.
It's pretty easy to see. Go to redfin, go to any city, and then filter by new construction.
Random example, Atlanta: https://www.redfin.com/city/30756/GA/Atlanta/filter/include=...
White, off white, beige, black is the overwhelming color palette for non-masonry color choices.
Builders buy what people want. And people want the trends they see on HGTV and social media. Not my preference, just pointing out what is most common.
Buyers these days can go on the Internet and read about all of this. So can Builders, and you can bet Real Estate agents have numbers to tell them what sells for just-that-little-bit-more.
So we went vertical to provide more comfort to occupants as well as to align better with things like airbags.
Most “SUVs” people complain about aren’t actually bigger than current sedans.