Quote:
Originally Posted by 377Z
I am perplexed at the reasoning behind the viewpoint common to many detractors, that basically amounts to:
"It is not an attractive option to me, so no one should be allowed to choose."
I'm sorry, but that's juvenile.
Another common sentiment is the need to cater to the lowest common denominator & turn every car into a tank. This one is easier to understand, since the gub'ment is taking on more nanny duties as time goes on. "But think of the Children!" Personal responsibility is dead. Maybe now they'll mandate that all cars must also float so that when our crumbling bridges collapse there will be fewer casualties, or when crash testing with planes will begin so that people don't die when airliners go off the runway & into traffic.
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It's a bit funny too, since these are often the same guys who cry foul when someone threatens their guzzlers with special taxes, or otherwise tries to deny them their favorite choice of vehicle type. They're perfectly fine with doing it to us, and shrugging at motorcycles with a snort as if they were irrelevant to the conversation.
I think deep down they are afraid that if more Americans embrace smaller cars, that the "need" for giant tanks will be exposed as a fraud, and an issue of personal taste.
They may well be afraid that a proliferation of Kei style cars or tiny vans and trucks will end up with people realizing just how much can be done with innovation in smaller vehicles, and will find resources spent on large trucks by automakers dwindle to support the reality --- only where they are needed for heavy duty farm-type applications, or as rare as exotic sports cars for those who choose the largest vehicles possible (like a Chevy Kodiak with a truck bed).
So in essence, the resistance to small vehicles is not about safety, but about insecurity that their own favorite vehicles will somehow become obsolete or as out-of-favor as a 1970's Disco Van.
Sure, there are some with legitimate concerns about safety, but a user with a name like MrBigRig, is hardly to be trusted to be imparial and objective on small cars when he just doesn't like or want to experience small car culture.
The worst of it is that there are those who in my opinion will assist with the downfall of GM out of their own selfishly narrow tastes -- GM fans who think that small cars are and should always be the domain of the Japanese or Europeans (even while the Japanese encroach on the SUV and Truck market), and resist or ridicule GM for trying to edge in on the small car market. They are the same sorts of folks you see around here with a Suburban on one side of the driveway, and a Civic on the other....while simultaneously saying things like "I'd never buy one of those crappy small GM cars".