• grue@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Male insecurity is part of it, but public policy is a bigger part: specifically, the “chicken tax” and CAFE loopholes. Fix those, so that manufacturers are actually allowed and incentivized to make small trucks that people want (and disincentivized against making gigantic ones their “flagship” models), and the problem would greatly diminish.

    • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If argue another thing that is fighting against Kai trucks is the fact that I’m told that there is a dealership feedback loop. For example the reason why cars are rather black and white now is because dealerships viewed that those colors sold better. Same thing with auto transmissions. However we are now finding those cars are selling better is because there are more of them, and there are more of them because they sell better. I suspect the same thing is happening with big trucks. Bigger luxury trucks are selling better than small trucks because there are more big luxury trucks, and there are more big luxury trucks because they sell better. This feedback loop exists because dealerships force consumers to select from what they have when you want to buy a new car. When you look at the second hand market you’ll find colorful manual small trucks sell better than colorless automatic luxury trucks.

      • Sauerkraut@discuss.tchncs.de
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        3 months ago

        Could global warming also be a factor in white cars becoming more popular? They don’t get nearly as hot in the summer which is huge

        • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Possibly tho I personally doubt it. My local area is pretty conservative so not a lot of people care about climate change and I don’t have a sizable population of climate consurned people to know in person. But from what I’ve observed online people who do care about climate change don’t talk about car color at all. Instead they are more concerned about cars being electric. On top of all that cars today are pretty disposable and gas has been in the process of getting phased out. So it’s entirely possible that by the time car color becomes a concern most folks probably would have gone through 20 different cars by then. That’s all without mentioning how AC has become a standard feature on even low end econo boxes. But hey not everyone thinks rationally just look at the entire premise of mith busters.

    • Bye@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Loosen passenger safety regulations while they’re at it. It’s become insane. Cars are safe enough for occupants, and have been for two decades at least.

      Meanwhile, maybe we can make pedestrian safety more of a priority.

        • Bye@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Passenger safety features have become very expensive and make cars less maintainable and therefore more wasteful. Backup cameras and parking sensors and merging sensors/indicators.