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My previous car is a Yaris.
When I got the Yaris I heard people make snide comments like “Anyone see that big guy get out of that tiny car?” then gas prices went up and they became “Hey, what kind of MPG does that thing get?”
I like hatchbacks. Bigger is fine but nothing huge.
My current car is an '07 Yaris. It’s totally bare bones, but everyone who has been in it comments on how spacious the interior is.
I’ve always driven small cars, because they’re economical and I’ve never needed anything larger. I hate that small hatchbacks are so scarce in the US and that our roads are overrun with ludicrously huge pickups and SUVs. We transitioned from land yachts to small cars in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, we could do it again with the right incentives.
My current car is an ‘07 Yaris too. It’s also totally bare bones including manual windows and locks and no cruise control (the only feature I sometimes wish it had). It’s economical and much funner to try drive than most bigger cars, trucks, and SUVs. And on multiple occasions I have been able to parallel park it in tight spots that cars in front of me had to pass on.
I can’t even remember what year mine was. It was the first year it was in the US. Was a decent car. Good milage. But it chewed through water pumps so bad. It was either loud squealing belt or too tight causing it to killed the pump. Never could get it “just right”
That’s too bad. I have 189,000 miles on mine (304,000 km) and it’s never let me down. I haven’t had to do anything but regular maintenance on it. I wanted to replace it with something a bit newer and nicer, but had to replace the car my wife and daughter share, instead. Fortuately, I don’t drive very much so it will probably hold out for a few more years.
Thats the way to be. I ignore the urge and ride whats paid off until it just doesn’t make sense any more. The “newer spiffy” car models will still be around when its time.
I drive an Auris station wagon Hybrid (aka, the US Corolla iM with bigger boot). I had a chance to drive multiple Yaris generations and honestly I am always surprised by how roomy it is inside. They made a perfect use of space - way better than VW did with Polo (smaller Golf), that’s for sure…
I have a 2017 Hybrid Yaris in blue like this one:
That I affectionately call “Blue thunder” 🤣
Got the same model in red but with the 1.5L motor from 2019. Love it. Already got 75k km and it’s still running like a charm.
Mine has half that 37k. It had 31k when I bought it in 2020, and I don’t use it often. I hoper it lasts a few more years.
I have a Yaris and think it’s too big. It’s 20cm longer than my previous car (2005 Clio) but somehow has less interior space, it feels cramped.
Yaris gang rise up!
Want to trade my 09 in for a more recent model, hatchback would be ideal
The ease of driving and parking in a car that small is insane. I thought my little Outlander Sport was a big difference from my last car, then I saw my buddy’s Yaris easily make a U turn on a narrow 2 lane road.
My Yaris is actually older than me. so old in fact, that it was called “vitz” and/or “echo” in some countries. i am the 4th owner. had to replace the starter, all the fluids and the clutch (cuz old people). best car ever. it has around 100.000 km on it and runs like it rolled out of the factory just yesterday. considering we euros pay up to 7€ per gallon it’s good i still get around 40mpg out of it. love that thing.
I love that this has become the hatchback and Yaris love thread. As a GTI owner it makes me happy. I do not want nor need to go any bigger. It’s almost the perfect car.
As a taller woman my wife was against us getting a subcompact until I took her to test drive it thinking I wouldn’t fit. Between seeing how comfortable and efficient it was she was entirely on board
Just got a ford focus hatchback last year after a 95 suburban. Love it. Fits everywhere and fun to drive
Honda Fit gangg
Americans need to embrace public transit. We need trains that don’t completely suck in both speed and schedule reliability.
We’re never going to convince a lot of folks to leave their lifted F-150 or massive Suburban behind for a small car. But quality, affordable public transit that is not only efficient but saves money over owning a car would actually make a difference. We’re more likely to be able to get people to just leave the F-150 in the driveway and eventually move away from it.
Much better for the environment, too, and reduces traffic / congestion, etc. I agree smaller cars would be good, but the goalpost should be getting away from the automobile.
Americans have absolutely embraced public transit. It’s just that not a lot of cities have robust systems in place, but go somewhere like NYC or Chicago and you’ll see a transit system that millions rely on daily.
Public transit needs to do what it says on the tin. People won’t choose public transit if it’s the choice between an hour commute each way and a 3 hour each way bus ride.
Embrace public transit? I would if my city and state actually invested in it, cared about it, and actually had lines where my office is. Don’t put this on me. I literally have to drive.
My dude what do you think OP is talking about. That’s what embracing public transit means ya dingus.
I wasn’t responding to OP. Dingus. Another person said “Americans need to embrace public transit.” Ya. Ok. When he said “Americans” doesn’t it seem like he’s implying people, like me need to “embrace it.” I’m responding saying how can I embrace it if there’s nothing to embrace and my elected officials do nothing about adding better public transit? Fucking read.
You live in a democracy lol
You make it sound like you’re in an authoritarian state
Sure doesn’t feel like it a lot of the time
You live in a democracy lol
That hasn’t been true since the 80s.
Normal sized cars* you mean.
Normal cars aren’t small. They’re just small if you compare them to the giant ridiculous trucks they have over that.
americans will embrace small cars like they embrace gun control
We embraced the shit out of them during the oil crisis in the '70’s. Then when gasoline got cheap again we snapped right back.
“But my SUV makes me feel so ‘safe’ and gives me a commanding view of the road!!!”
I am of the opinion that everyone ought to just get a motorcycle.
Have you ever seen Americans drive? Or the ones that ride motorcycles?
Give everyone a motorcycle and half the country would be dead in a week
Well, that’ll keep 'em off my damn roads, won’t it?
Yeah that’s a net win
They’d all get those goddamn ear splitting harleys too. Like there isn’t enough noise already.
Honestly, fuck motorcycle drivers. I know there’s plenty of them out there who operate your machines properly, but there SO MANY absolute asshats on motorcycles, always making the highway way more dangerous for everyone around them.
If I could remove one vehicle from the earth it would be motorcycles. Idgaf how fun they are for you, people can’t be trusted with them in general.
Like most drivers you probably just don’t notice the ones that aren’t loud / ridden by asshats.
Many bikes have basically the same performance as a civic, you are painting with far too broad a brush here.
In a decade running a motorcycle as my only transport, I’ve never been remotely a threat to the 5,000 pound tanks I’m forced to share the road with, but almost been taken out by left turning stop sign and red light runners more times than is reasonable.
Yep couple assholes ruin it for everyone, I recognized that already,but also, it’s a particular type of danger that isn’t posed by anything else, and I dont think your pleasure is worth my stress tbh.
To be clear when I’m talking about danger I’m talking about the motorcyclist turning into an unrecognizable pink streak on the asphalt, not “hurting my car”…
If you pull some stupid shit and die on the road next to me that affects me more than you, since youre fucking dead then, so therefore: I should get more say in it than you.
Wrap it in whatever guise you want, you’ll never convince me that riding a motorcycle is anything other than selfish.
I don’t use it for pleasure, I use it to get around. If car drivers are stressing about rider safety (I don’t get that impression) they can show it by putting their phones down and paying better attention to the world around them.
So wait. I am transporting one person, not taking up much space, obeying the rules of the road, don’t have loud pipes nor speed, and you’re telling me I’m selfish? When you literally just said you don’t care about our pleasure?
I don’t think it’s us thats the selfish one here.
You don’t like them weaving in and out of traffic and blowing past you at 40+ mph over the speed limit?
Weird right
I think there should be a separate license to drive SUVs and Trucks over a certain size. And that maintaining that license should be a bit of a hassle - like a required in-person written and practical test every 2 years. If people want that commanding view of the road and “safe” feeling that comes from endangering everyone else on the road, then they should have to put in some extra effort - not enough extra effort that it’s unattainable for those who actually have a need for a vehicle of that size, but enough effort that it would discourage the widespread use we have currently.
Also, during your SUV probationary period you have to drive a Suzuki Samurai for two years or so.
I’d love to have a motorcycle that would replace my current vehicle, but it would need to be capable of keeping me warm while handling well in heavy snow. Afaik, there aren’t any enclosed bikes out there
When you need a fucking step ladder to get into your jacked up pickup just so you can commute or get groceries you might have lost your mind.
I am of the opinion that everyone ought to just get a motorcycle.
I’d rather not die tyvm.
I am of the opinion that everyone ought to just get a motorcycle.
But only if it’s a dual sport, right? ;)
With their face?!?
Bold idea here, but maybe if we stopped fucking subsidizing SUV’s, people wouldn’t buy so goddamn many of them. Just a thought.
Take a breath it’s ok
Whenever I’m in the States I hate the fact that everything is a 20 minute car ride away. I understand why road rage can be a thing if you spend so much time in the car.
Or an adequate mass transportation system.
Or walkable zoning, lack of which is the fundamental cause of the car dependency.
I would wager (small amounts of) money that the majority of “urban areas” have “adequate” mass transportation. The US prefers buses (which are horrible) but it is there and you can usually get around cities out to the surrounding suburbs.
The problem is actually the same that even the gold standard countries like Japan have. Rural areas and remote villages/towns do not have good coverage. If you are lucky, there are two buses per day and you best catch those or you are stuck sleeping in the terminal until tomorrow. And we have a lot of those. Like, the works of Makoto Shinkai are well worth watching for this reason alone (aside from them being magnificent) because he LOVES the imagery of two lovers trying to connect with each other over a day or two of transferring between trains and buses and the emotional devastation of possibly missing your next connection.
That said: Americans still tend to love to drive even when there is public transportation. Some of that is routing. Some of that is that buses are horrible. And some is just that it is people from one “megacity” on a day trip to a different “megacity”.
Bullshit. Adequate mass transportation is competitive with a car. You don’t even have to leave North America to see an “adequate” mass transportation system: just go to Montreal, Vancouver, or New York.
Most US cities have mass transportation that’s designed to move around poor people so rich people in cars can’t see them.
Buses aren’t horrible.
- they feel safer in terms of crime, which might not be an issue you deal with but for over half the population it matters
- they can often go around problems. One bus on the same line up ahead has an issue that has no real impact on the bus you are on
- lot easier for the disabled to go on and off compared to down into a subway
- you have a small degree of privacy
- Mechanical problems? Get off the bus. No biggy.
I do understand, I was a subway guy for the longest time, my wife would take the bus every day and she converted me.
Yeah, I will never acknowledge buses as a good alternative to a subway or even an el train. If you can’t do something good you go with what you have but:
- “Crime”: A lot of that is people being generally afraid of black folk and homeless people. If you think the driver is going to do anything because a Poor sat next to you then I got a bridge to sell you. Aside from that, the vast majority of “crime” is resolved by staring out a window or not making eye contact. And the people who ARE going to actually rob you? it is a lot easier to flee onto city streets than into a crowded subway. Watch your shit when the vehicle comes to a stop. And guards/cops tend to hang out at train stations which helps in the event that something does happen.
- Going around problems: Yeah. Unless you need to get off on the stop they are now skipping. If you know the area well enough you can adjust. Otherwise you are now very confused that the stop google maps told you to take is not next and you need to figure out if it makes sense to get out at the next stop or two stops from here when you are closer to the original route. Been there, done that, made the wrong judgement call and walked an extra eight blocks in the pouring rain to get to my hotel. Also, if you are AT the stop they are bypassing because of an accident or whatever… good luck.
- Differently abled folk: Any decent subway is handicap accessible. And rolling/crutching/caning onto a subway is a LOT easier than needing to wait for the entire bus to deflate its tires, the driver to help clip you in, the angry passenger being pissed off that they are now behind schedule, etc.
- Privacy: You have zero privacy in any situation. You have not LIVED until you have had no choice but to make eye contact with someone defecating on a subway train or having an episode on a bus.
- Mechanical Problems: I will definitely give you that.
Unfuck the CAFE standards and manufacturers will quit killing off car models and producing so many “light trucks”.
I can’t be the only one who wants a 1990 Ford ranger sized pickup for moving materials around. The only options on the market are absolutely massive. The CAFE standards had the compete opposite effect from what was intended…
I wish we had utes in the USA.
Give me a new El Camino EV with a 400 mile range and I’m in.
All my road trips are around 150 miles and there may or may not be a charger at the destination.
The article says range isn’t important…if you’ve ever looked at a map of the US, you’ll see why that’s a misguided statement.
To be fair, most people aren’t driving across the US on an even yearly basis, if ever in their lives.
400 miles doesn’t get you halfway across a single state in the western US.
I think you underestimate how many people never leave their home city
But it definitely gets you to the next fast charger to get an 80 percent charge in 10 minutes.
That’s only relevant if you have a mythical car that can charge to 80 in 10 minutes. My car does it in about 90, the Solterra I almost bought has something like a 60 minute 10-80% charge time, and the fastest charging car on the market right now is the EV6 which is (IIRC) still 18 minutes to 80%.
Nevermind that the estimated 350 mile range in an ICE car is pretty spot on, where as a 250 mile range in an EV is best case scenario.
I own an EV, I think EVs are the future, but they’re not there quite yet. Not completely, and not in a way that can compete with a RAV-4, CR-V, or Forester in terms of miles traveled and minutes spent filling up. And often, locations where you want to stop, aren’t the same locations that have a fast charger.
EV makers are doing what they did for mpg with gas cars: put out numbers for “ideal” charge times and range that are way off of reality.
To my knowledge the only one that’s been caught straight up lying is Tesla.
Yup, I’m OK with a Ranchero EV with a 150 mile range.
Just city to city is typically at least 150mi one way. Maybe on the southern coasts, if I was really a homebody, could I get away with something under 150mi range.
There’s no way anyone in Texas is going anywhere in a standard range EV for example.
I drove from Minnesota to Kansas in an EV. Wasn’t too bad, just a few stops to charge. I needed to eat and go for a walk, anyways
95% of trips are 30 miles or less. Of course everyone is the exception, we’re all above average drivers here.
I guess I’m in the 5 percent? But still small cars can take long trips. That’s a frustrating thing, people assuming you need a modern day Conestoga wagon to do a road trip.
A car is too big of an investment to fail to take you from point A to B 1 in every 20 trips.
That’s a terrible statistic…of course most of my travel happens around where I live.
If anything…that actually reveals long trips are more common than you think…For every 19 times you go to work or the store the 20th trip is significant…
In other words, if your number I right…Once to Twice a month the average person would likely require an extended range EV.
The number of people breaking through 150 miles in a single trip is significantly lower than 95%. 150 mile range is plenty for them.
I’ve driven more than 150 miles once in the last three years
Something like the Maverick hybrid might be best for you.
But then you have to deal with driving a ford.
My dream car is a Nash Metropolitan converted to an EV.
That would be fucking dope. I’d love for retrofuturist cars like this to appear
That’s a pretty sweet ride.
I wish we got the Honda E. Would buy that up in a heartbeat.
Same with a 1959 Panhard PL 17. Some of those little old cars are just beautiful.
Bro if you could get a used leaf gen one (they run around 4k), you could take that thing to a drag strip and absolutely turn some heads.
I have a friend who wants to take my gen one leaf and do a conversion. He just went to an EV mechanics course on it.
You’d chop up a nash, and put an ev motor in it? I do not have kind words for you.
When I was in high school back in the late 70s you’d still see a few of those around. My friend had one, but not for long. Someone had put in a more powerful motor and if she wasn’t careful accelerating she would snap the drive shaft.
Forget small cars, we should be embracing non-motorized ways of transit. Make things human-sized again and allow us to walk and/or bike to destinations rather than having to have a motorized vehicle to get around.
Public transit is obviously a good thing to have, but I think it’s also important to have alternate forms of transit as well.
I was just on Block Island, RI the other day. It’s a 10mi^2 island with ferry service and an airport square in the middle of it. Very seasonal economy and the residents are wealthy NIMBY-types.
No trams or trolleys or any mass transit on the island itself. Lots of mopeds and bikes and a surprising amount of cars. We were on foot to a restaurant and approached a 4-way stop and both myself (pedestrian) and the bicyclist next to me were amazed at how hard it was to cross the street with all the taxis and rental cars around.
What a shame. The island should be a model of an ideal “minimal car” community, and could easily become it.
So much this. It’s infuriating to have to get in a car every time you want to go outside your neighborhood.
I recommend moving to a city
In the US, it’s really only NYC and Chicago that have functioning public transit. If you can’t go to one of those, you’re pretty much out of luck. It’s not like in Europe where every little small to mid-size town has light rail.
I have managed Denver and San Francisco many times without a car.
The question isn’t about managing, but about convenience. In some cities, public transportation is more convenient than going out and getting a car and dealing with parking and all that noise. That should be the goal, not “it’s manageable.”
You left out Boston
You’re funny.
NYC (and presumably Chicago - I haven’t been) are the best, that’s true. I’ve also been to Philadelphia and Boston and both had good train systems. I currently live in a medium-sized city that is 90% bus transit, and even that can suffice even though it’s not great. It’s an exaggeration to say NYC and Chicago are the only places you can go without a car.
That’s all fun and games until weather happens…and weather is going to happen a lot going forward.
I moved to Europe, grew up in New York near the City and decided to get a moped here to commute. It’s roughly equivalent to an Ebike but was actually cheaper than one and has a 100km range. It’s not highway legal as it has a top speed of 45km/h but can go on bike paths as long as I watch the speed.
After 3 months since I got the moped I am going to get a car because FUCK going to the office in the rain with that thing. The trains and/or busses go on strike about once a month, maybe a little less, and between delays and cancelations I can’t rely on them for my commute. I’ve literally been waiting for the bus and the driver just decides not to stop to pick me up too. Also packages don’t get reliably dropped off at my front door so I need to go into town or to the supermarket next to the highway to pick up my things which becomes untenable when they are bulky. Instead I’m taking taxis at a cost of €30 each way just to pick up shit that should be left at my door.
The dissonance is strong, I still need a car, and I still need one big enough to move bulky crap at least once a month if not more.
And before someone says rent a car, it’s €70+ a day to do so here and I have a preferred account through my employer. I need to book it in advance so it’s not a “same day” thing. Oh and the places they drop the packages off have weird fucking opening times and are often closed when they should be open so I’ve literally spent €60 on taxis to come home with nothing. That time the seller did me a solid and refunded me the €60 as an apology (it was a €350 item).
Cars have gotten bigger externally, but internally it seems storage space is actually going down. My 2014 Nissan Note has a 10% larger storage capacity than a 2023 Renault Espace, even tho the latter is 50cm larger in all three dimensions and is literally called ‘spatious’.
I drive a fucking roadster from 2001 and somehow it has more internal space than a 2021 sedan.
And the crumple zone is your legs, twice the use for the same space!
Jokes aside this whole thread could be summarised as ‘safety’ for the most part.
You’re partly right, but manufacturers aren’t just adding more crumple space, they are mainly building bigger and heavier vehicles. And that does not equal safety. Sure the crumple zone might be bigger, but the force of a crash is multitudes higher which results in a net negative, especially for pedestrians and cyclists
They also cover more and more with plastic panels. They are putting a lot into making something look sleek and that’s at the cost of usable space.
It’s 2001 not 1978, how bad do you think cars were 20 years ago?
You may be surprised.
False
I have a Volt, and I resent how few compact hybrid options there will be when I get a replacement. When I drive around, I literally struggle to see around the giant land boats cruising around. They hold up parking lots trying to stuff themselves into spaces, and if I get hit by one I’m much more likely to be injured. Average car size is kind of a tragedy of the commons. Everyone suffers when the cars get bigger, but the individuals with the dumb land boats suffer little of the cost.
I love my 2017 Volt! I much prefer driving it to my in-law’s enormous Dodge Ram and Audi Q7.
Long live the Volt!
tragedy of the commons
TILAW (today I learned a word):
The tragedy of the commons is a metaphoric label for a concept that is widely discussed in economics, ecology and other sciences. According to the concept, should a number of people enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource such as a pasture, they will tend to over-use it, and may end up destroying its value altogether. To exercise voluntary restraint is not a rational choice for individuals – if they did, the other users would merely supplant them – yet the predictable result is a tragedy for all.
Yes, the metaphor has fallen out of fashion for a lot of reasons, including that the guy who coined the expression turned out to be a real piece of shit, but the core concept is still a valid one.
No, there are really tangential analogies about how self-interested behavior can have negative consequences, but it is and has always been based around a bunch of numerous myths. Externalities is a better description of this.
Elinor Ostrom investigated management of the commons and the original description of tragedy of the commons was a complete lie. The commons were enclosed so that in this transitional stage of feudal lords could become businessmen that could profit off of using the land rather than taxing a peasant community living off of it. The enclosed commons is an asset to generate profit, where if enough of an increase in profit could be achieved, that could be reinvested, meant that exhausting the land would be an economically rational strategy. Where, if a peasant community is using it to sustain themselves, they have to carefully manage and steward that land so it is still producing for themselves years later, their children, and their grandchildren. The complete opposite of what the “tragedy of the commons” describes.
Gen1 Honda insight here to corroborate. Trucks seem to intentionally pull in front of me, even when driving reasonably above the limit, just to prove a point. It’s dumb.
Yes, and their headlights are at the perfect height for blinding me in the rear view
It’s time for Americans to stop spending so much time in their cars. Emissions from burning hydrocarbons are destroying the planet.
Problem is that American cities were designed around cars. Getting anywhere on foot, especially for those who live in suburban areas, is basically impossible.
Hard to avoid spending so much time in our cars when rent and housing prices force us to live in them.
I’m not saying you are wrong, because you are definitely right, but I just want to put some context/scale along side this.
28% of greenhouse gas emission comes from transportation. of that 28%, 58% of that is classified as light-medium duty vehicles (consumer vehicles). So ~16% (58% of 28%) of greenhouse emissions are from consumer daily life.
16% is pretty big. Id love to see a dent in that. However, another 48% of the overall greenhouse emissions is energy production (25%) and industry (23%), and I think that’s another area we can probably hammer on hard, and should probably start there since its a considerably larger percentage, and the targeted base actually has funds to make changes.
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i no your no (ya know?)
Here we have higher taxes for cars more than 4m long, so there are lots of small cars. Also, a lot of 3.99m cars.
Japan bases their taxes on engine size and gives significant tax brakes to cars 660cc and under. 3.0L and up are basically luxury vehicles there.
