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Comment by Loughla | Hacker News Reader

I get the trucks and SUV's where you need them. I live in a rural area and without ground clearance and 4x4, I literally wouldn't be able to visit my parents. But my daily driver is a Honda Civic. Because 75% of my driving is done on paved roads that are well maintained (except in the winter).

What kills me are the MASSIVE vehicles in the suburbs though. Why do you need a 3 ton suburban to drive around 2 kids on very clear, very well maintained streets? Why would you buy a 4x4 truck when the most off road you'll do is driving over wet leaves on your cul-de-sac in the fall?

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CAFE regs made USian hugecars relatively profitable, and car makers got USians to demand them via savvy marketing. That's what I reckon anyway.

The word "American" already unambiguously describes people of the USA. You don't need to make up a new word.

1. Synonyms exist in language.

2. You're on a site with a bunch of programmers who regularly use weird words for stuff that already has a name. Reading through HN is wading through a swamp of made up names and tech neologisms, you're just used to it already. I once told a software guy that our team's SWEs had migrated away from React and Node to Stork.JS and Blackadder. He nodded like that meant anything.

3. I like it and you can't stop me.

Stork.JS is a really well written piece of software, though.

devs have really got to start using NSA style naming conventions where they use the Joycean compound with random stuff that sounds cool e.g. BANNANADAIQUIRI or FOXACID.

The word "American" has many sub entries in the Oxford English Dictionary - not all of those meanings are "citizen of the USofA".

So much for unambiguous.

Have you ever actually heard it used in conversation or writing where the speaker's intention was a meaning that included people outside of the USA? I haven't.

I have, yes.

I note, also, that you didn't ask if anyone

> " heard it used in conversation or writing where the speaker's intention was a meaning that included people outside of America? "

which further explans why non-USAians like myself adopted the practice decades past of prefering clarity for precision.

> Why do you need a 3 ton suburban to drive around 2 kids on very clear, very well maintained streets?

Safety.

I’m expecting and looking to get a full size SUV instead of the current crossover I drive.

It will be a pain to park in some areas/situations, but the safety it provides to the child is much more important to me.

Modern (suburb) SUV's spectacularly suck at most tasks, you have been falsely advertised to.

A 2010 Toyota Corolla is most likely a better offroader, a 1.8t VW Passat is a better tow truck.

If not for the tax benefit these SUV's enjoy they are useless.

Towing a boat or camper is quite common - not gonna get a second vehicle just for that.

Something like 10-15% of US households own a boat or camper. Over 60% of cars sold today are SUVs, and a ton of those would not be great to tow a boat or decent sized camper.

The vast majority of people I know who daily drive SUVs and trucks do not own either a boat or camper.

You can tow a boat, caravan, etc. with a smaller Holden Rodeo crew cab at 1.5 tonne (and / or many other vehicles that are not massive over sized yank tanks).

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