[bityard]

In my state, SUVs are classified as station wagons.

I think station wagons just mostly went out of style. I think it's dumb but the American public has always gravitated towards physically bigger and bigger cars, to the point where it's considered totally normal to commute to an office job in a 12 mpg super duty pickup with extended crew cab and duallies in the back.

[cduzz]

In the USA the roads are big, the fuel's cheap, and everyone's got a huge vehicle so you need one too to feel safe / be able to see anything; it's an arms race everyone loses.

If you live some place where the SUV's just not going to fit and energy's more expensive, you get the smaller vehicle and everyone else does too.

There are tax rules around huge vehicles in the USA -- you can fully depreciate an enormous work vehicle so there's a surprising number of vehicles that fit just barely into that enormous category.

The only way to get a "manual" these days is to get an electric car. Not exactly a manual, but more like a manual than a slush box.