F'real they're just better SUVs. I tried googling it, but the internet's very helpful answers were "they're not cool" and "SUVs are more popular." I'm convinced it's manufactured desire. What really happened to the minivan?
Edit: Apparently wagons and minivans still exist, they're just sold as SUVs.
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I grew up in the generation of "people that drive SUVs are bad" because of global warming and accident deaths. But now that's all gone and people seem to think it's ok to drive them now?
A time when the hottest joke of the minute was in line with "haha, lax safety standards and peak American 'make-it-bigger' consumerism keeps killing all these people in rollovers".
Sorry, I don't drive cars so therefore I'm ignorant. But can't one buy sedans from Toyota?
The whole crossover and SUV thing seriously pisses me off. I get that that :amerikkka: has weird tax rules that disadvantages small cars. I still feel that people who drive trucks/SUVs and don't need them for work can get fucked.
There seems to be better tax systems and less penis envy outside the US, so it's less bad in many other countries. Diving with a big vehicle in my rear-view mirror is fucking terrifying.
I feel like it has to do with the militarization of cars and car culture (and everything else) since the late 80s.
Station wagons (estates) share a similar fate to the minivan. I guess part of it may have to do with how marketing sells SUVs as a rejection of what your parents drove and for millennials, the 80s and 90s was the heyday for minivans.
Traditional SUVs were and are simpler to manufacture (body on frame as opposed to unibody), cheap gas still abounds and tax incentives even allowed deductions on Hummers in the early 00s. So they’re profitable for manufacturers and their demand is incentivized.
EcoGecko has a video on this subject although to me it leaves a few things unexplored
I think they got associated with the "Soccer Mom" stereotype (Which was basically "Karen" before Karen was a thing) in the minds of the public and it stuck.
Crossovers have basically eclipsed them as people movers, but at least they're still around. Station wagons, on the other hand...
Which is interesting considering that crossovers were basically lifted wagons like the Subaru Forrester
Yeah just jack it up a few inches and you can slap another 3 grand onto the MSRP
I assume by "shocking" you mean "it engages the shock absorbers installed in your vehicle" and not "surprising", because we've been predicting infrastructure collapse for the past four decades straight at least
I live in NJ and I really can't imagine driving anything but a small SUV at this point. Between the shitty job that the plows do and the massive potholes, the extra few inches of clearance and AWD are indispensable.
Also, the majority of roads in America are logging roads, which tend to be a little rough around the edges.
Don't forget the matte black plastic cladding on the bottom of the doors
I literally don't think there is a single new model of traditional station wagon for sale in the United States (maybe a Mercedes or BMW?? one of the luxury ones has one I think)
Edit: yeah the Outback is the only non-luxury one and it's sold as an SUV https://www.foxnews.com/auto/station-wagons-usa
There's a few compact hatchbacks like the Golf sold in the USA but they stopped selling the Passat wagon a few years ago. Most automakers stopped selling mid-size or full-size wagons in the USA at least 10 years ago.
Related question what happened to station wagons I used to drive one and they are so much better than regular cars or suvs but you can't get them anymore and its sucks. I had to """upgrade""" to a """light""" suv after my old station wagon shit the bed and it's just terrible imo. This suv is 9 model years newer but the gas mileage is shittier, there's less space inside, and it's louder. I am someone that moves a lot of big shit around but not big enough to justify a pickup and the station wagon was perfect for it but now I find that my suv doesn't have enough space. Also doesn't have a hitch so I can't get a trailer to move bigger shit around unless I go to some fucky company like uhaul to literally bet my life that a sweaty teenager can properly install a hitch setup on my vehicle after school
Because people wanted to be higher up apparently because "safety" along with being able to charge me for suvs.
Does anything that can fit a 5-gallon bucket with a seat lid qualify? I don't consider composting toilets to be any downgrade from flush toilets.
I learned from a terrible person in my orbit that Good Morning America did a segment recently about how the minivan is making a comeback. My guess is that the absurd used car market right now has gotten through all the stuff people actually want and all that's left to buy is minivans.
The problem with the car market is there is a small demographic that buys new cars, and what they want isn't the same as what the vast majority of the market wants.
It's such a common thing for the demographic that buys a truck and actually uses it to complain no reasonable sized trucks are available, that it's a meme at this point. But the demographic that buys a new truck wants a huge one, the demographic that uses their trucks buy used.
So when Ford finally introduces some smaller trucks, they aren't aimed at those people that complain new trucks are too big, they are aimed at new car buyers. They are aimed at the people who want to be seen driving a truck for status reasons, but are annoyed by how impractically massive F-150s are. That's why the new Ranger sucks so bad as an actual truck, it's not meant to be used as a truck.
The Maverick is aimed at a very specific, but large demographic. Old people who have their identity tied to driving a truck, but are too old to actually do the kind of stuff you need a truck for. That's why the solution to being able to carry drywall is to have the tailgate pop halfway open. It's just so the old man who's in denial of his body not working anymore can say "I can still haul drywall, see". Really he needs a compact car, or a minivan. But that would be admitting defeat.
And now there are compact crossover SUVs which are really just lifted hatchbacks that sometimes have AWD
Also the Chrysler Pacifica /Dodge Grand Caravan and KIA Sedona/Carnival
My parents still drive one! Hell, they have two. It's just not marketed as much anymore because of the association with soccer mommerry.
