[wincy]

This is like how 95% of SUVs are basically just minivans with a slightly different body. You have to research to find one with a truck engine that can say, haul a travel trailer. Another one that comes to mind is shutters on windows. People like the look but they’re just planks of wood in the vast majority of cases now.

[triceratops]

> People like the look [of shutters] but they’re just planks of wood in the vast majority of cases now.

I'm confused, what are real window shutters then?

Or do you mean the kind that are attached to the wall and don't actually close?

[wincy]

Most shutters are non functional vestigial architecture. People like the look, even though it has no non aesthetic purpose at this point. At least in the USA the vast majority of “shutters” are this way.

If you go to say, the Florida keys, you’ll obviously see real shutters, since they get hurricanes. Probably doesn’t need to be reiterated, but those shutters are fold out during the nice season (which is the “look” you see on a modern colonial style home) but if a storm is coming you you fold them in and latch them shut to protect your glass windows. I’d imagine part of it is also modern windows are more shatter resistant than older windows, so a much larger storm is required to blow out your windows without the shutters.

Canopy beds are similar (although canopy beds aren’t in style anymore). They served as a way to allow a king privacy in a large hall where courtiers and the court all slept in the same room (a bedroom being prohibitively expensive in medieval times) and to keep heat in before modern heating. Most canopy beds are just kind of nice looking but don’t serve to hold heat in to your sleeping area. We have walls and central heating so they’re largely anachronistic.

[numbsafari]

.. and here I am wanting better minivan options that can pull a travel trailer.

[doubled112]

And here I am just wanting station wagons to come back, and be reasonably priced.

The towing numbers are always higher in Europe than US too, despite being the same cars (as far as I know).

[rootusrootus]

> The towing numbers are always higher in Europe than US too, despite being the same cars (as far as I know).

Mostly due to differences in environment, AFAIK. Americans drive faster, and towing instability seems to increase with the square of the speed. Also, most travel trailers in the US wouldn't be car-towable anyway, because we have expectations on amenities and size that are predicated on using at least a half-ton pickup for the tow vehicle. Trailers with the compromises needed to be towed European-style aren't popular, so it becomes a self-reinforcing cycle.