[silon42]

I have a small AWD crossover. Prefer it because it's shorter than a station wagon, for easier parking. Only raised an inch compared to a normal car (like a VW Golf). It can also pull a small trailer which is a weakness of most small EVs and even hybrids.

[dsfyu404ed]

Your modern crossover is the Corolla Wagon of 2020. In fact it probably has less interior space than a Corlla wagon of 1990. Something like a Ford Explorer is nothing like the Ford Explorer of 1990. If you look at who buys them and how they use them you'll probably find a lot in common with the Ford County Squire and Buick Roadmaster (the big wagons of their day).

The author is attacking a straw-man. The SUV craze seems to have mostly run its course. The boring practical cars that normal people buy in huge numbers seem to have morphed into SUV dimensions but I think that's a result of modern safety requiring you to get a much bigger vehicle in order to have a similar seating position in the vehicle as cars of old, not some selfish desire to drive a land yacht.

[mschaef]

> I think that's a result of modern safety requiring you to get a much bigger vehicle in order to have a similar seating position in the vehicle as cars of old, not some selfish desire to drive a land yacht.

Agreed. Nobody [1] goes into a car dealership looking for transportation that explicitly puts other people at risk and burns a lot of fuel. A lot more of it is about trying to exert control and project status. An SUV can feel stronger, more solid, and more capable and look more outwardly prosperous. Those are feelings that, at least in my experience, tend to be sought out, and this is particularly true in an economic and political climate where it's very easy to feel very much at risk.

1] There are exceptions... the whole 'Roll Coal' thing comes immediately to mind, as do some of the decorations often found on large trucks and the like. A lowered F-450 with spikes on the lugnuts and modified to blow black smoke at a Prius... that's intended to convey threat. (Which, now that I think about it is another way to misguidedly try to seek a degree of control.)