luxury trucks, suvs, crossovers and the death of the sedan

el camino was the best car truck of all time

― the world's undisputed #1 fan of 'Spud Infinity' (Karl Malone), Monday, March 7, 2022 8:10 PM (two minutes ago)

it was ... when I was a kid, my mom's best friend, Vern, had one. I think it probably transported just about every single household appliance

lol last time we were buying an ICE car i think the main reason we didn't check out suburus is because i couldn't figure out how to differentiate their models

I deal with a TON of Sprinter vans at work, followed in popularity by Dodge Promasters and Ford Transits

#vanlife

if the sedan dies, will that mean the death of ILX?

its a huge failure that no one from this board has ever bought one of those

it's a huge failure that Acura doesn't subsidize this board

they should be giving us free sedans

theres also a special offroad edition of the outback, which idk might be something for the post modernists to delineate

https://i.imgur.com/TlF0UCG.png

but the thing is ... with these new, bigger vehicles, it limits where you can actually live and own one of these things. Like, I have to park my little mini-suv almost right against the retaining wall so I can make sure that I can get in and not be blocked by my neighbor's car in our off-street parking.

i think there's one of those special offroad edition of the outback that I see semi-regularly ... in the parking lot of Whole Foods. ... definitely requires such a rugged vehicle

you'll have to pry my little Prius hatchback outta my cold dead hands, and yeah ease of parking is key

aren't there these custom window jobs you can get on the rear window that fuck with the high-headlight people by revealing scary ghosts or something like that?

there's a fellow ilxor who i know IRL and for years we both had late-80s Toyota Corrollas ... right around the same time each of our Corrollas met their ends and he got some small Honda thing that is quite environmentally friendly and easy to park, and I got the RAV4 ... anyway, if at some point I stop being a "hauler of things," I would totally go for a little Prius hatchback.

seriously, why do I always draw a blank on the models of vehicles made by Honda????

if i lived in the big city i would like to have a small sedan or hatchback, preferably one thats zippy, to zip around in

would you be calm and debonair?

no i would be caffeinated and whimsical

im a truck guy now. well i guess two trucks... got a 07 gmc sierra z71 as my car and a 08 suburban z71 for the fam car. use both for camping and road trips quite a bit. love having a big car that sits up high tbh. the gas mileage thing is rough tho.

used to be a sedan guy but a drunk driver hit my wife head on ten years ago with two oldest kids (newborn and 2.5 y/o) in the car. the buick sedan (le sabre?) held its own but there were broken bones, cuts, concussions, trauma... so we immediately bought a suburban cos i wanted my family to be in the biggest (practical) car possible.

if the sedan dies, will that mean the death of ILX?

ILX was killed last month

Years ago a musician friend had a Volkswagen Squareback from the early 70s and in it's own way, it was the ideal ur-crossover for someone who needed to carry stuff but not 500kg of it. It also had a front trunk (I HATE the word "frunk") which gave it a surprising amount of cargo space.

https://www.ambassadorautomobileco.com/imagetag/53/11/l/Used-1968-Volkswagen-Squareback.jpg

I used to obsess over this Mustang station wagon one-off/concept from 1966. Boomers that give me "that's not a Must..." shit when I tell them that I have a Mach-E on order usually stfu when I show them this. It's a great design that should have been built.

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/amv-prod-cad-assets/images/media/51/ford-mustang-wagon-inline-7-photo-562256-s-original.jpg

Oh wow, I had to look up Mach-E. I saw one outside my grocery store a month or two ago and thought somebody was being cheeky by slapping a Mustang horsie emblem on their electric.

xp I haven't seen that Mustang study before, ET. I'd call that a shooting brake, but maybe the the tweed and shotguns imagery doesn't work for a Ford. I really like that body style.

I would consider purchasing a well used but well loved ILX vehicle, at the right price

as a driver of an outback and a forester the main difference is that the outback is longer than the forester which means its easier to transport ikea billy bookshelves home in the outback

good way to remember this is it's "out" in the "back"

and the forester is made for moving wood in the form of bookshelves

lOad
Up
The
Bookshelves
After
Cashier at
iKea

the difference between the Honda Fit and other competing subcompacts is that it is Fit to serve all your driving needs

the honda fit is the result of a least squares regression on a plot of "cool vs car attributes"

lol

I use a zippy little Mazda 3 hatchback, it does fine holding a full drumkit, three or four guitars, assorted amps and whatnot. It has a roof rack for Ikea trips and each year's Christmas tree.

Volkswagen Squareback from the early 70s

my mom had one of these when i was a kid that she used as her delivery vehicle when she worked for the post office. she delivered mail to rural areas, and rural carriers had to use their own vehicles, as opposed to the USPS vehicles.

guy who delivers my mail has a rav4 but its some ridiculous limited edition in electric blue, really funny car to get a special one of

the ultimate small zippy car is prob the bmw 2 series, audi 3s are nice too and a lil more practical, volkswagen golf too basically same car as the audi tho, i would like to have the audi s3 i believe

my mom has had vw golfs for the past two decades (she no longer is a mail carrier) ... she loves to zip

when i once tried to 'relationship up,' i ended up driving my bf's s3 around and it felt like a beast (much larger, more powerful) than the economy yaris i was used to driving. but somehow less space for hauling stuff.

i don't think i could ever have an audi, because one of my regular "words or phrases that get stuck in my head to the tune of ..." is

douchebag in an audi
i know
i know
it's serious

whenever i see the four hoops i reflexively think 'douchebag' tbr

and my ex was a douchebag. i don't see any need for additional data points here.

my "stupid annoying coworker" is also an audi owner, though he is only sometimes a douchebag, but when he is a total douchebag, you better believe i sing to myself "douchebag in an audi, i know, i know, it's serious"

ive owned a couple audis, if you like nice cars you kinda just have to roll with the douche affiliation

out of he german lux badges id prob be most embarrassed to drive a benz, id do it tho if the right one came into my life

A lot of "small SUVs" just look like sedans on stilts to me

yeah theyre just tall cars

BMW way douchier than an Audi.

Drove an Audi A3 hatchback on vacation a few years ago. Perfect car, but they don’t sell them in the US.

yeah i wish they still had those here, they even look a lil more like a small station wagon than a typical hatch which is p sweet

We own a Mini Cooper S, which is fun to drive but has the worst ride ever (stiff suspension plus low to the ground plus run-flats).

idk i feel like benzes have more street cred than audis -- i mean, janis had a song about a benz, and there are rappers that rap about benz ownership -- audi doesn't have that; kinda feel like BMW is a bit more retro ... like Audi is as douchey now as BMW's were in the 80s

roughly how i break it down

bmw: the drivers car
benz: the luxury car
audi: the competent car

obvs theres a lot of crossover and if you get a huge bmw suv its not going to drive differently than the other guys but on the other hand bmw does still make a lil rwd manual coupe thats just going to be more fun than the equivalent audi, you get a benz and itll have like 20 ways you can adjust the seats and a really over the top interior etc, audi generally will be a lil more minimal germanic no nonsense experience that just feels quality and well made but not specifically fun or opulent

xxp - the mini countryman wagons are super cute

We are gradually starting the process of looking into an eventual replacement for the 12-year-old accord and want an electric, but not an SUV. It's surprising how few options there are, esp if you don't want a Tesla. Nissan Leaf maybe?

Or maybe one of these electric "compact" or "sub-compact" SUVs is close enough to a sedan that we won't feel the difference. Also just don't want anything too ostentatious looking or that we will be too afraid to ding bc H is gonna commute to the Bronx in it.

i would totally get the MG EV wagon if i were getting a car but i am not, so

probably not available in the US sadly

reason why so many electrics are crossovers is cause the battery goes in the floor raising the height of the car and a crossover is basically just a tall car

and then theres just that america has abandoned the car

i like the hyundai ioniq 5, its bigger than an accord but not super big about the size of a subaru forester

https://file.kelleybluebookimages.com/kbb/base/evox/CP/50143/2022-Hyundai-IONIQ%205-front_50143_032_2400x1800_SAW.png

its gotten good reviews

i gotta say in defense of the crossover a hatchback is so much better than a trunk, you can fit so much more stuff in there especially when you consider putting the seats down, you can even sleep in there, tho it is too bad there arent more wagons which is the true sweet spot

i keep a sleeping kit in my subaru outback (wagon shaped crossover) at all times, tho tbh ive never slept in it without planning ahead to sleep in it, still i like having the sleeping bag sleeping mat camping pillow in there i feel ready, this is my version of prepping thinking that i might go on a fun spontaneous drive some day

Yeah, both a neighbor and a relative have one of those and seem to like them. And I think they look kinda sharp.

I hear you on the hatchback too, other car is a CRV, have managed to haul pretty large pieces of furniture from facebook marketplace and such, good for the occasional music gig, oversized duffle bags to sleepaway camp etc.

yeah i like how they look feel like hyundai is blazing a trail away from the super cut madface look that dominates the industry which is nice

St. Louis Police told my parents to keep their Prius keys in a lead-lined box.

I do not know whether this is even remotely* true, but there is apparently an idea out there that a decently clever person can clone your keys from a distance.

* no pun intended

You don't need a lead-lined box, just an RFID pouch. Ten years ago these were all tech demos at hacker conferences, now it's easy enough that you can buy theft devices on the cheap. This is a legit threat - thieves here in SoCal all know which makes and models are vulnerable. Flipper Zero makes this stuff look like gaming.

I suspect we'll see ever more blurring of the sedan/crossover/SUV definitions as the manufacturers realize that you can completely rethink design. I'm fascinated by construction of the Silverado EV where the body is the battery, or the battery is the body - whichever.

One big plus to Hyundai's Ioniq 5, is that it (and Kia's EV6) have significantly faster charging rates. This could be a big deal depending on your situation, use-case, etc.

lol, apparently Toyota has now gotten into the game as well with the "bZ4X" - possibly the most "we ran out of names" name I've ever seen.

Looks cool though
https://www.toyota.com/bz4x/?srchid=SEM:700000001483645:GOOGLE:71700000105010941:58700008358242166:p76039051254:655190536031&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQjwldKmBhCCARIsAP-0rfxsLtiEAGhW0Wv1n6PuzbH1dvprgyBkjARg6rXlPLlHsZonZRvI3Z0aAt5SEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

i think thats the one they made to fulfill some regulation barely made any of them and everyone says its horrible

their ceo resigned a few months back over the whole not bothering to make electric cars situation

toyota make a compact electric pickup trust me bro

Toyota is all-in on hydrogen

think thats the one they made to fulfill some regulation barely made any of them and everyone says its horrible

― lag∞n, Thursday, 10 August 2023 22:26 (yesterday) link

Yeah, that might explain the half-assed name too

https://www.motor1.com/news/706424/suvs-too-fat-european-roads-study/