Everyone I know has been begging for smaller cars for years. Idk why everyone thinks people don’t want them. No one said they didn’t want them it was just decided for us by some CEOs. That seems to be how all of the opinions of “Americans” are formed. Same way the CEO of my company says we all love to go into an empty office and do all of our work online. It’s just bullshit
You’re 100% right tho. It just means other people aren’t interested in the truth. I used to be ignorant too until someone made that comment and i looked into it a little. Between emissions and safety standards we really push the prices of vehicles up ourselves with all the rules we’ve put in place.
I think the thing is when they do make them, they’re a shitty American car and nobody wants that so the Detroit execs blame us and go back to making luxury tanks for the wine moms.
I think the REAL issue is that when they sell those little cars people do buy them, but they are people who would have bought a larger more expensive car if that little car wasn’t available.
We have a little Honda fit. Great car. Also a pretty popular car that you see on the road all the damned time. Honda still sells the car globally, but they stopped selling it in the US. Not because it wasn’t selling, but because it was selling to people that would have bought HRVs or Civics (which cost more) instead.
Yeah. I want to blame car company executives and do when I’m cranky but ultimately much of this is a problem with drivers. People want big, pedestrian-slaughtering, gas-guzzling planet-killers and as long as we allow don’t take a more aggressive regulatory approach to SUVs and bloated pavement princess pickups it’s going to stay bad.
I do still think corporate decision makers bear a portion of the blame. They’d rather make big cars, too, and are doing nothing to use their advertising to help shape consumer demand to be in favor of smaller cars or promote fuel economy. Individual demand exists and people bear responsibility, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
The fit isn’t a great car for highway driving. Yeah, they are popular for city drivers would also into mini coopers and SMART cars. There are plenty of ‘little cars’ on the market, but people don’t genreally like them because they are impactical and sucky to drive compared to compact suvs and sedans, that are more or less the same price and offer a way more comfortable experience.
after you go over 65mph it feels like the wheels will fall off, and it’s low weight and box frame makes it blow around like a leaf in any substantial winds. I chose a civic because it was so much safer and more comfortable for highway driving at 70mph+. it is a much stiffer chasis, my civic can hit 110mph before it starts to feel sketchy.
Civic and HRV and CRV are way more stable and comfortable vehicles and get the same mileage, and have more storage space.
The Smart is clearly a smaller size. The Cooper and the Golf are basically the same. There’s definitely a lot more cross shopping of Coopers and Golfs than Coopers and Smarts.
Everyone I know has been begging for smaller cars for years. Idk why everyone thinks people don’t want them. No one said they didn’t want them it was just decided for us by some CEOs. That seems to be how all of the opinions of “Americans” are formed. Same way the CEO of my company says we all love to go into an empty office and do all of our work online. It’s just bullshit
Not just CEOs. Tax and emissions law in the US discourages smaller vehicles and encourages personal vehicles large enough to qualify as “light trucks”. https://publications.lawschool.cornell.edu/jlpp/2024/11/25/the-unchecked-rise-of-trucks-and-suvs-in-america/
I bring this up every time people talk about vehicle sizes and people always treat me like a conspiracy theorist.
You’re 100% right tho. It just means other people aren’t interested in the truth. I used to be ignorant too until someone made that comment and i looked into it a little. Between emissions and safety standards we really push the prices of vehicles up ourselves with all the rules we’ve put in place.
I think the thing is when they do make them, they’re a shitty American car and nobody wants that so the Detroit execs blame us and go back to making luxury tanks for the wine moms.
I think the REAL issue is that when they sell those little cars people do buy them, but they are people who would have bought a larger more expensive car if that little car wasn’t available.
We have a little Honda fit. Great car. Also a pretty popular car that you see on the road all the damned time. Honda still sells the car globally, but they stopped selling it in the US. Not because it wasn’t selling, but because it was selling to people that would have bought HRVs or Civics (which cost more) instead.
That not true, the Fit started off strong at 80,000/yr sales but by 2020 hit 30,000/yr. Everyone is driving pickups now.
Best selling cars of 2024:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g60385784/bestselling-cars-2024/
Yeah. I want to blame car company executives and do when I’m cranky but ultimately much of this is a problem with drivers. People want big, pedestrian-slaughtering, gas-guzzling planet-killers and as long as we allow don’t take a more aggressive regulatory approach to SUVs and bloated pavement princess pickups it’s going to stay bad.
rare point of view here… that people are responsible for themselves and not everything is some psyop conspiracy wherein people have no agency.
I do still think corporate decision makers bear a portion of the blame. They’d rather make big cars, too, and are doing nothing to use their advertising to help shape consumer demand to be in favor of smaller cars or promote fuel economy. Individual demand exists and people bear responsibility, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
But we blame car companies for not making vehicles OTHER PEOPLE should buy.
The fit isn’t a great car for highway driving. Yeah, they are popular for city drivers would also into mini coopers and SMART cars. There are plenty of ‘little cars’ on the market, but people don’t genreally like them because they are impactical and sucky to drive compared to compact suvs and sedans, that are more or less the same price and offer a way more comfortable experience.
after you go over 65mph it feels like the wheels will fall off, and it’s low weight and box frame makes it blow around like a leaf in any substantial winds. I chose a civic because it was so much safer and more comfortable for highway driving at 70mph+. it is a much stiffer chasis, my civic can hit 110mph before it starts to feel sketchy.
Civic and HRV and CRV are way more stable and comfortable vehicles and get the same mileage, and have more storage space.
A modern Mini Cooper is nothing like a Smart car. It’s comparable in size to a Golf, or a Corolla hatch.
which model? the countryman is bigger, but the basic one is still barely a 4 seater. the 2 door is tiny.
The normal Cooper.
The 4 door Cooper is the same width as the 2 door, 1cm taller, and 16cm longer, based on a 2013-2018 model since that’s what this tool has available:
https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/mini-cooper-2013-3-door-hatchback-vs-mini-cooper-2013-5-door-hatchback/
Compare a 2 door Cooper vs 2 door Golf and it’s barely different:
https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/mini-cooper-2013-3-door-hatchback-vs-volkswagen-golf-2012-3-door-hatchback
Or 2 door Cooper vs Smart Fortwo:
https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/smart-fortwo-2014-3-door-hatchback-vs-mini-cooper-2013-3-door-hatchback/
The Smart is clearly a smaller size. The Cooper and the Golf are basically the same. There’s definitely a lot more cross shopping of Coopers and Golfs than Coopers and Smarts.
The 40mpg highway mileage that the Fit gets tells me that you have different priorities than I do on the highway.
I’ve also never experienced the “wheels wanting to fall off” bullshit or the wind buffeting it personally.
The only thing I don’t like about highway driving is the revs get higher when you go fast.
Which AFAIK is because the fit is geared more towards lower speed driving, but honestly it is not a problem.
Ours is perfectly stable at highway speeds and is absolutely capable of greatly exceeding the speed limit if you are patient enough.
I also love how much shit can “fit” in it, lol. I have the back seats down often, hauling lots of stuff.
my civic gets over 40mph on the highway. usually 42+
The HRV and CRV get 12-17% worse mileage on the highway and
Exactly why Stellantis is selling this in the USA in 2026:
What is this?
Is this a Fiat?
It’s no hyalux
this is basically a shitty golf cart. golf cart carries more people and cargo and has the same driving distance.
Golf cart can’t legally carry 4 people on the roads and usually has top speed limited to about half of this one.
There’s a much higher markup on large luxury vehicles so no manufacturer wants to waste their time on smaller cheaper ones.
Same problem with affordable housing units :(
I just walked by two people in adjacent cubicles on a meeting with only each other. Boggles.