[rubylark]

I find it super frustrating. There's been leaps forward in fuel efficiency, but car manufacturers compensate by making trucks and SUVs bigger and heavier. The newer trucks can fit a third adult in the front seat comfortably. I hope the Ford Maverick is successful enough that more manufacturers start making "little" trucks again.

[rootusrootus]

> I hope the Ford Maverick is successful enough that more manufacturers start making "little" trucks again.

You hit the nail on the head. Manufacturers aren't forcing anybody to buy big trucks. They respond to demand. If people show enough demand for a tiny pickup like the Maverick, we'll see competition in the space.

[jeromegv]

Demand is partially driven by cheap gas. Cheap gas is subsidized by all kind of benefits provided to oil manufacturers, US international policy (ie: military), removing negative externality (increased insurance rate due to global warming) etc.

So I'd say that this is an artificial demand that is driven by policy. If people paid the "true" price of this worldwide oil infrascture, I'd likely be more expensive and big trucks would not be chosen just to move your family around.

[randomdata]

If gas wasn't so cheap, more likely the price of trucks would come down to compensate and the same number of units would roll off the lot. GM makes nearly $20,000 in profit on the sale of a truck. For comparison, a Chevy Trax barely sells for $20,000 out the door. The margins on trucks are huge.

It's a tough situation for buyers. I'd rather have a car 90% of the time, for a lot of reasons, but I legitimately need a truck 10% of the time. A car cannot become a poor truck, but a truck can become a poor car, and so the truck wins.

[rootusrootus]

Another way to say that would be 'demand is not artificially constrained by expensive gas.' People want trucks, and the price of gas is not making them change their mind. The electric F150 will probably be sold out at MSRP for years

[fma]

I mean you're welcome to buy a GM Chevy Spark which is a 4 seater hatchback for like $20k...If customers wanted small cars, they'd build more small cars.