thank you this is perfect, also dovetails into my extremely unoriginal thesis "the total inaccessibility of stick shifts is making us wildly less cool as a people, and worse drivers, and removes the main thing that is fun about driving, plus a stick shift is just a nice visual accoutrement in a car interior, etc. etc."
really enjoyed this 'sletter and wanted to share that in my neighborhood we have what we call "the socialist pickup truck" it's a smaller chevy pickup that is for the use of the block for hauling larger items and it's a great way to get to know your neighbors!
Completely swagless, but the death of the minivan is a big driver here. That was what you got if you had 2 kids and snagged a third whose parents didn’t pick them up from practice. Mad utility. Good mileage. The third row-ers could stow themselves without a 3 step mechanical procedure.
A favorite topic...what a fab start to the day. The current car situation, as you most excellently detailed above, is America in a nut shell. Everything, bigger, better than you neighbor, status anxiety, etc - yet also seems like it's about everything becoming the same to the point that there is no choice - it's the only option.
I also think about the "infotainment" consoles in the center dashboard. There is no way to get away from these in newer bigger vehicles, and I'm sure they make all the vehicles wider to account for them. Despite the claims of safe crumple zones, etc, these vehicles are not safe if they provide constant user distraction. I value down time away from "the internet" or over amplified constant connectivity, and there is no way around it these days. Driving in a car with a CD used to be a way to unwind and decompress - harder to do now.
It is fascinating how so many smaller cars do not come to the US market. Whenever I need to rent a car if mines in the shop, I always ask for the smallest one - then they are always trying to upgrade - and I'm like, no, give me the Mitsubishi Mirage please!!! Now, also discontinued.
In HS my best friend’s dad was a nuclear engineer for GE who hated flying domestically. He would routinely commute from MN to LA and NY in a 2-door Nissan hardbody. It had no foam on the wheel at 10-and-2 (the aluminum tubing was fully exposed), very little of the front fender due to rust, and the last time I saw it nearly 700,000 miles on the odometer. He wanted to “roll it over” and very likely did. Clearly the industry can’t allow that to happens anymore.
Props to you for this essay because I now have something coherent to send to people rather than subject them to my rants on the exact topic... this is why I still drive a 1990 Honda CRX even though it is absolutely not safe on the highway (no airbags)... desperately wish I could find someone do do an EV conversion
The Honda City E not coming to the USA is truly violence.
I did drive the GTI for a while and it rips but the electric one they made had really bad range and then they discontinued it in favor of the new id. line... but of course the id.3 (golf analog) was not brought to the USA...
I'm in France rn for harvest too and all the tiny hatchbacks are killing me. Just the perfect form factor of car.
You’ve hit upon something I notice many times a day, over here in central New England: there are no “regular” trucks anymore, nearly every truck you see (and every single individual seems to have one, like guns), has an extended cab and is jacked up on huge wheels. My guess is it coincides with America’s insecurity and deepening anxiety? The one bright spot is a dealership selling a fleet of the Honda Acty. Makes my day. Thanks for breaking the important stories, BBSP. We need you.
It has infected Australia too, where you can no longer get the extremely cool two door tradie/work ute because all that’s available are big American-style trucks. The Ford Ranger is Australia’s best selling car.
Ugh, yes. This is amazing. I went from driving a beloved Honda Fit for 10+ years to, recently, a Mini Cooper. It always shocks people when I tell them that my Fit was smaller on the outside and significantly bigger on the inside—like, the layout of that car was just unmatched. I could fit multiple bikes in the back with the seats down!! We used to MOB to parties with 8+ teenagers smushed in that thing!! I'm so mad they don't make them anymore.
The War on Cars podcast has a couple great episodes about all the "personal freedom, bigger is better/richer, look how tough I am in my giant pickup" bullsh*t that's tied up with cars in the American imaginary. (Episode 35, Suburbans in the City, is probably a good starting point?)
Beautifully said. Used to see the Suzuki Carry trucks all over Taiwan and Thailand during my time there. Never understood why they were never available in NA. We getting shafted. Also while we’re on it. Bring back the station wagon! RIP
Station wagons are considered luxury vehicles now? I think subaru makes one (the rest are technically small suvs iirc) and then you have volvo, benz, and audi left. There was some moment in the last ~2 decades where people stopped seeing better MPG as a selling point and suddenly everything is just green/not-green binary. My family's buick station wagon growing up got better mpg than all these new light SUVs and could fit more shit! maddening!
Toyota, Mazda and Subaru are all set to reintroduce a micro truck to compete with the maverick in 2024-2025. Subaru rumors to be releasing the Brat AND the Baja which should have a wrx option. mental. There will probably be an EV-hybrid option from each of these like there is for the maverick. Considering the hilux gets like 15 mpg and people ask $25k for one with 175k miles and a diesel engine, I'm stoked for these to come out.
So smart, and I think other manufacturers following suit further proves that there's a part of the market that values utility and fuel efficiency over size. I have a feeling contractors and corporates fleets are going to be full of base model Mavericks pretty soon and brands like Toyota and Mazda are trying to catch up quickly.
I deeply loved my Fit. There was something so fun about driving with the back seats folded down, it made it feel like an enclosed pickup. The height also made it so easy to load and unload heavy things without much lifting. RIP.
So I don’t know what you’ll think about this but I’ve been following a little startup called Alpha Motor Corporation (https://www.alphamotorinc.com/wolf) that is (ostensibly) making EV trucks that seem to channel the design language and more importantly, the size, of old school smaller pickups…I’m definitely a fan of the Wolf (and its slightly larger cousin the *Superwolf*, [sadly not a Will Oldham reference as far as I can tell], especially because that’s what I would have named a car when I was 7, and it even looks like the kind of car I would have wanted when I was 7, KC lights and all. You know…fuck it, it’s actually the kind of car I still want now, even if it could benefit from a less modern paint job (I think that missive was actually the first edition of the ‘sletter I read).
Now whether or not they actually end up making any of the things isn’t really the point; as with the Meyers Manx Dune Buggys and the Canoo techno-VW Bus *someone* —in this case startups (that may or may not actually be just an office and an address)—seems to be taking note of the gap in the market that the big boys refuse to acknowledge, which puts us at the mercy of…venture capital, I guess, for our future small yet badass vehicles, possibly making them inherently torched and uncool? Not ideal, but I’ll still take one robo-taliban truck please!
thank you this is perfect, also dovetails into my extremely unoriginal thesis "the total inaccessibility of stick shifts is making us wildly less cool as a people, and worse drivers, and removes the main thing that is fun about driving, plus a stick shift is just a nice visual accoutrement in a car interior, etc. etc."
100pc. We used to Drive now we just drive.
The joy of operating a motor vehicle, mastering it's foibles, understand the physics of the road ... is gone.
Now we pilot (on auto) in long lines of traffic in cushy computer.
really enjoyed this 'sletter and wanted to share that in my neighborhood we have what we call "the socialist pickup truck" it's a smaller chevy pickup that is for the use of the block for hauling larger items and it's a great way to get to know your neighbors!
That’s fantastic
Completely swagless, but the death of the minivan is a big driver here. That was what you got if you had 2 kids and snagged a third whose parents didn’t pick them up from practice. Mad utility. Good mileage. The third row-ers could stow themselves without a 3 step mechanical procedure.
A favorite topic...what a fab start to the day. The current car situation, as you most excellently detailed above, is America in a nut shell. Everything, bigger, better than you neighbor, status anxiety, etc - yet also seems like it's about everything becoming the same to the point that there is no choice - it's the only option.
I also think about the "infotainment" consoles in the center dashboard. There is no way to get away from these in newer bigger vehicles, and I'm sure they make all the vehicles wider to account for them. Despite the claims of safe crumple zones, etc, these vehicles are not safe if they provide constant user distraction. I value down time away from "the internet" or over amplified constant connectivity, and there is no way around it these days. Driving in a car with a CD used to be a way to unwind and decompress - harder to do now.
It is fascinating how so many smaller cars do not come to the US market. Whenever I need to rent a car if mines in the shop, I always ask for the smallest one - then they are always trying to upgrade - and I'm like, no, give me the Mitsubishi Mirage please!!! Now, also discontinued.
In HS my best friend’s dad was a nuclear engineer for GE who hated flying domestically. He would routinely commute from MN to LA and NY in a 2-door Nissan hardbody. It had no foam on the wheel at 10-and-2 (the aluminum tubing was fully exposed), very little of the front fender due to rust, and the last time I saw it nearly 700,000 miles on the odometer. He wanted to “roll it over” and very likely did. Clearly the industry can’t allow that to happens anymore.
amazing
Props to you for this essay because I now have something coherent to send to people rather than subject them to my rants on the exact topic... this is why I still drive a 1990 Honda CRX even though it is absolutely not safe on the highway (no airbags)... desperately wish I could find someone do do an EV conversion
The Honda City E not coming to the USA is truly violence.
I did drive the GTI for a while and it rips but the electric one they made had really bad range and then they discontinued it in favor of the new id. line... but of course the id.3 (golf analog) was not brought to the USA...
I'm in France rn for harvest too and all the tiny hatchbacks are killing me. Just the perfect form factor of car.
You’ve hit upon something I notice many times a day, over here in central New England: there are no “regular” trucks anymore, nearly every truck you see (and every single individual seems to have one, like guns), has an extended cab and is jacked up on huge wheels. My guess is it coincides with America’s insecurity and deepening anxiety? The one bright spot is a dealership selling a fleet of the Honda Acty. Makes my day. Thanks for breaking the important stories, BBSP. We need you.
It has infected Australia too, where you can no longer get the extremely cool two door tradie/work ute because all that’s available are big American-style trucks. The Ford Ranger is Australia’s best selling car.
Ugh, yes. This is amazing. I went from driving a beloved Honda Fit for 10+ years to, recently, a Mini Cooper. It always shocks people when I tell them that my Fit was smaller on the outside and significantly bigger on the inside—like, the layout of that car was just unmatched. I could fit multiple bikes in the back with the seats down!! We used to MOB to parties with 8+ teenagers smushed in that thing!! I'm so mad they don't make them anymore.
physics defying s**t !
The War on Cars podcast has a couple great episodes about all the "personal freedom, bigger is better/richer, look how tough I am in my giant pickup" bullsh*t that's tied up with cars in the American imaginary. (Episode 35, Suburbans in the City, is probably a good starting point?)
Beautifully said. Used to see the Suzuki Carry trucks all over Taiwan and Thailand during my time there. Never understood why they were never available in NA. We getting shafted. Also while we’re on it. Bring back the station wagon! RIP
Station wagons are considered luxury vehicles now? I think subaru makes one (the rest are technically small suvs iirc) and then you have volvo, benz, and audi left. There was some moment in the last ~2 decades where people stopped seeing better MPG as a selling point and suddenly everything is just green/not-green binary. My family's buick station wagon growing up got better mpg than all these new light SUVs and could fit more shit! maddening!
I’ll die on the wagon hill. Grew up with the fam driving around in Audi & Volvo wagons & I drive one for nostalgic sake.
Same. Parents had the Volvo retrofitted with the third row and it faced backwards. Time of my life driving around waving at people behind us
My wife refers to these whips as vehicles with ~Good Feel Economy~
a lot of the REALLY teeny tiny cars in france that i covet so badly are actually made for people who lost their license cuz they drove drunk too much and they only go up to like 30mph https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15345640/an-aixam-to-grind-a-sub-class-of-tiny-french-cars-that-caters-to-drunks-the-elderly-and-kids/
That’s tight
Toyota, Mazda and Subaru are all set to reintroduce a micro truck to compete with the maverick in 2024-2025. Subaru rumors to be releasing the Brat AND the Baja which should have a wrx option. mental. There will probably be an EV-hybrid option from each of these like there is for the maverick. Considering the hilux gets like 15 mpg and people ask $25k for one with 175k miles and a diesel engine, I'm stoked for these to come out.
Return of the BAJA???? Hell yes
So smart, and I think other manufacturers following suit further proves that there's a part of the market that values utility and fuel efficiency over size. I have a feeling contractors and corporates fleets are going to be full of base model Mavericks pretty soon and brands like Toyota and Mazda are trying to catch up quickly.
I deeply loved my Fit. There was something so fun about driving with the back seats folded down, it made it feel like an enclosed pickup. The height also made it so easy to load and unload heavy things without much lifting. RIP.
You said it brother
"Fears over safety as analysis shows ‘autobesity’ epidemic means cars getting wider and longer" says the UK Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/26/more-than-150-car-models-too-big-for-regular-uk-parking-spaces
So I don’t know what you’ll think about this but I’ve been following a little startup called Alpha Motor Corporation (https://www.alphamotorinc.com/wolf) that is (ostensibly) making EV trucks that seem to channel the design language and more importantly, the size, of old school smaller pickups…I’m definitely a fan of the Wolf (and its slightly larger cousin the *Superwolf*, [sadly not a Will Oldham reference as far as I can tell], especially because that’s what I would have named a car when I was 7, and it even looks like the kind of car I would have wanted when I was 7, KC lights and all. You know…fuck it, it’s actually the kind of car I still want now, even if it could benefit from a less modern paint job (I think that missive was actually the first edition of the ‘sletter I read).
Now whether or not they actually end up making any of the things isn’t really the point; as with the Meyers Manx Dune Buggys and the Canoo techno-VW Bus *someone* —in this case startups (that may or may not actually be just an office and an address)—seems to be taking note of the gap in the market that the big boys refuse to acknowledge, which puts us at the mercy of…venture capital, I guess, for our future small yet badass vehicles, possibly making them inherently torched and uncool? Not ideal, but I’ll still take one robo-taliban truck please!