It's interesting that Americans seems to justify the purchase because of personal safety, leading to preference for larger cars.
This is fine in isolation but at scale it leads to a race where everyone, especially pedestrians, loses.
This is fine in isolation but at scale it leads to a race where everyone, especially pedestrians, loses.
If you've never experienced it, I think you should at least understand what you are up against. Most people aren't buying these things to be evil to each other in some big dick safety war. Go visit an FCA dealership and see for yourself. Have a sales guy drive you down the freeway in that Ram 1500 Lonestar Edition. Observe how quiet your conversation can be at 80mph. It might change your perspective a bit.
I have been driven in luxury murdertrucks before, but none have come close in terms of sound isolation to German executive sedans from a similar price bracket
I feel the same way about a similarly priced Mercedes, or a similarly priced Chinese Volvo too
Take a train some time. It might change yours.
But pedestrians can be at fault there, they’re not allowed to be with cars.
The extra dumb thing about it is that I don't believe the numbers in the US really even strongly support that preference. Yes, you're less likely to die in a big SUV than in a sedan if you get into a crash, but the difference isn't that large, and the risk of death in general is low enough that it's not worth worrying about.
I drive a sedan, but I'm only really worried about getting killed by one of these monster vehicles when I'm out walking, as a pedestrian, or while I'm on a bicycle.