this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024
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Modern SUVs can haul most things these days including boats, small utility trailers, and small campers.
Modern SUVs are actually tiny, but look big, as far as I've seen here in Sweden. I've more then once parked next to a SUV I thought was big, then as I get out of my Volvo V70 I realise it's very often just a Kia Picanto-esque car which had been raised, given a muffin top and ridiculously big wheels.
From my north american perspective, SUVs are getting bigger. Full size SUVs like a chevy suburban, toyota highlander, and even hyundai telluride are bigger than many older full sized trucks. The bumper heights are increasing and these SUVs are replacing the family minivan or hatchback to spend most of their lives just getting grocceries.
Over here the "biggest" suvs I regurally see are the size of VW Tiguan. I believe Volvos XC40 and XC60 are pretty popular amongst the richer crowd.
But the most common is probably Kia Sportage. The text book example of a SUV which is engineered to look big, but it's actually not at all and is overall a very cheap car.
Volvo V70 used to be the most popular car over here, now we've all fallen for the SUV scam :(
Currently my family's only vehicle is a Kia Sportage. At the time we had a Chevy Cruze that could not fit 2 rear facing car seats in bases in the back due to terrible design decisions, and also at the time my wife found herself commuting home on unplowed roads during the winter and bottoming out in the car so we went for the smallest most efficient SUV we could find and got it.
Since then we've not once needed to go out on unplowed roads due to a job change and a deer found itself rapidly in the engine compartment of the Cruze, so I really miss driving a sedan. We're looking at another needs change very soon due to my work laying everyone off so I might be shopping for a sedan or a cute little hatchback very soon...
Little hatchbacks are awesome. Not sure about the details for fitting child car seats but my little hatchback can fit a full ice fishing sled with hut and enough gear to camp on ice for a few days. All my friends with big SUVs and trucks are blown away by the amount of gear that fits into my "clown car" as they call it.
Honestly I strongly suspect my car seat challenge was just another example of that car being a poorly designed POS. It had all sorts of bonkers design faults, like water bottle holders in the doors that were simply the wrong size to hold any kind of sealable bottle and too aggressively angled to hold an unsealed container of any kind
Another example was that the trunk was absolutely massive, but with the places things stuck down into the trunk and the gigantic lip at the bottom fitting anything bulky or awkward was next to impossible. Or the bright screen that used tons of blues in its design language and couldn't be fully turned off while driving, and while it was a touchscreen, the angle to reach over and press anything even as a passenger was so awkward you'd just avoid using the touchscreen at all, but certain common actions required using the touchscreen to access
But yeah I love small cars, and someday I'll probably import a Kei van or car because I would absolutely rock that, and it lends itself to the joke that you're compensating for something with the super tiny car ;)
I hate blue or other bright colors on a dashboard. Red is by far the best color for driving at night. I'm very lucky that both my car and work van have orange or red for the majority of dash lighting. Im also lucky that neither one has touchscreen only settings.
A few years ago I got into a friend's Jeep Grand Cherokee and was amazed that it was the same size inside as my Jetta Wagon. But mine regularly got 40mpg and his got 20mpg
My Volvo station wagon is can tow 3000 pounds
Depends on the SUV, and trucks can generally haul larger loads. I didn’t want to waste commentary pedantically covering every eventuality, and why I said “usually”.