American cars are the way they are because if you make them big enough, you can classify them as a truck. Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards. The automakers thus don’t have to spend as much on development and can make bank off of idiots that feel safer in their death traps just because they can see over the sedans.
Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards.
More importantly, they have lower standards for emissions and efficiency.
So the manufacturers would have to spend more on research and development, then build smaller cars which sell for less and fewer people buy – or they can go the other way, build bigger cars that are cheaper to make for more money to more people.
The real issue here is badly written regulations due to lobbying.
In Germany for example, a vehicle classified as “light truck” can’t have a back seat.
Which is fine for farmers and craftsmen, but not for the majority of private citizens.
And for commercial trucks above 3.5 tons, you need a different driver’s license.
American cars are the way they are because if you make them big enough, you can classify them as a truck. Trucks, because of old regulations aimed at farmers, have lower safety standards. The automakers thus don’t have to spend as much on development and can make bank off of idiots that feel safer in their death traps just because they can see over the sedans.
More importantly, they have lower standards for emissions and efficiency.
So the manufacturers would have to spend more on research and development, then build smaller cars which sell for less and fewer people buy – or they can go the other way, build bigger cars that are cheaper to make for more money to more people.
The real issue here is badly written regulations due to lobbying.
In Germany for example, a vehicle classified as “light truck” can’t have a back seat.
Which is fine for farmers and craftsmen, but not for the majority of private citizens.
And for commercial trucks above 3.5 tons, you need a different driver’s license.
So that’s why that truck i watched being tested vs it’s race variant was like an oversized Suzuki Alto with zero offroad capabilities xD