Australia is obsessed with big cars, and it’s a problem
www.abc.net.au
Australians love big cars, and it's undoing the good work of the shift to more electric and hybrid vehicles.

Australians are driving bigger, heavier, dirtier cars and it’s alarming both climate and road safety experts.

A decade ago, sedans and hatchbacks were the most popular cars in Australia. Today, Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and American-style utes dominate new car sales and advertising.

    • dueuwuje@lemmy.world
      9·
      1 year ago

      I literally see everyday these idiots with their giant “trucks” pulling their caravans up the east coast. The funny part is they can’t even seem to tow them with any degree of confidence or at a suitable speed most of the time. I then see someone in a more humble vehicle that is towing a similar caravan with speed and confidence. It is more a mental issue of size,size,size makes me better.

    • YoungLiars
      4·
      1 year ago

      Saw an ad on Facebook for a ranger the other day, 2 years old 21k km, description read never been off-road, mainly used to go from home to the office. Was selling to upgrade to the new model.

      Also I don’t believe these fancier utes are very suitable for actual work, to much precious body work and paint around the bed of the truck. We have some single cab utes at work, and what gets put on the tray I wouldn’t want to be doing on anything I cared about the looks of. Also the height to get to some of the trays is ridiculous.

      • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        The bed of mine was factory sprayed with a thick rubber/plastic layer - it’s very hard wearing. Pretty sure I could hit it with the blade of my extra heavy 11kg crowbar and barely leave a scratch and you can buy aerosol cans of the stuff at SuperCheap for 40 bucks. It’s easy to repair.

        Single cab isn’t an option, I have kids in the back seats all the time. Also the family complains when our camp bedding gets covered in mud/dust/etc.

        The bed of my tray is 900mm off the ground and I prefer that height to anything lower. For example it’s a lot more comfortable to unload load bags of cement or shovel sand/gravel out of the tray when it’s already at waist height. I do need some sort of step (esky/etc) to stand on while roll my motorcycle up with a ramp… but that’s no big deal.

        As for being environmentally friendly, that’s what my eBike is for. Pretty much only drive the dual cab when I need to.

        • YoungLiars
          2·
          1 year ago

          All fair points. I don’t follow the whole no one should own one as put forward by a lot of people here. There is just a lot of people don’t need one. Know someone who drives a patrol from one side of Melbourne to the other side everyday as a commute to the office, one person no kids with no equipment , and they have another 4WD so there is no excuse there. My environmentalist mate has a land cruiser as that’s how he can explore our beautiful country, and rides a bike to work.

    • DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com
      47·
      1 year ago

      I can’t speak for others, but I definitely do use mine for off-roading as much as I can.

      Is it as much as I’d like? No - I have to earn the money to afford the hobby. But it’s absolutely worth it, especially when I get to show my daughter some of the awesome things we have to offer.

      The reality is that we’re a rough, tough country, and getting to see lots of it requires special vehicles.

      The reason this seems so recent is because, previously, 4WD vehicles were either purpose-built, or expensive if they were tricked out to be daily drivers. That made them uncomfortable or expensive.

      With the death of our local car market, it’s opened up a much wider, cheaper, more refined set of offerings, so more people can afford to get into the hobby.

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
        7·
        1 year ago

        How often is “as much as you can”, honestly? We don’t care that it’s your hobby. Pick a different hobby or move to a rural area. Big cars kill people at far higher rates.

        Please, watch this video, it summarises nicely the argument against bigger and bigger vehicles and likely addresses most of the excuses you’ll come up with:

        https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo

        It’s about the US, but a lot of it is applicable to Australia also.

          • Obi@sopuli.xyz
            4·
            1 year ago

            Money saved on the cost of the vehicle, gas and taxes should more than offset the cost of rental once or twice a year. If it doesn’t, tax more.

              • Obi@sopuli.xyz
                4·
                1 year ago

                I’m sure if they’re renting offroaders they’re aware of that. I did that in Iceland and everything was covered and the vehicle was bent and scratched already when I got it.

                • abhibeckert@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  1 year ago

                  The ones in my city cost about $500 per day, and they take an $8,000 deposit. If they can’t fix it for $8,000 then they charge an extra fee on top of that, and they will restore it to new car showroom condition - which means just scraping a tree branch could cost more than the deposit.

                  Worst part is though, they specifically ban all of the popular dirt roads within about ten days drive of the city. The roads you’re allowed on, I’d happily travel in my Mazda 3.

                  The thing is though - even if you set aside all of that… the main thing stopping people from going off road is time, and you’d waste half your weekend picking up the car, checking it for damage, signing paperwork, and then after the trip cleaning it and doing all that again.

                  It’s cheaper and easier to just buy one.