this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
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[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 42 points 5 months ago (5 children)

The Chevy Suburban is about the same weight now as in 1973 (5837lbs then, 5785-5993lbs now, according to Wikipedia).

It was huge then, it's huge now.

The BMWs pictured are not the same class of car either


one is a coupe/sedan, one's an SUV, so of course they will be radically different.

Don't get m wrong, I think modern cars are too big and, in the case of BMW, way uglier than they used to be.

[–] Jilanico@lemmy.world 16 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Exactly. This pic is comparing apples with oranges to get a rise out of us. There are irrefutable arguments for saving the planet, we don't need this low IQ rage bait.

[–] mondoman712@lemmy.ml 20 points 5 months ago (3 children)

People would find some way to complain no matter what cars were chosen for the comparison, but the fact is cars have been getting bigger on average.

[–] mike805@fosstodon.org 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

@mondoman712 @Jilanico This is ironically due to the emissions rules. Bigger vehicles are classed as commercial and allowed to burn more gas and pollute more.

My dad has a 1999 Chevy S-10 with a small cab, a 4-cylinder engine, and a long bed. Nothing like that is made today. Handy when you need to move stuff though.

[–] mondoman712@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago

In the US, but worldwide car companies push consumers towards larger vehicles because they are more profitable.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 1 points 5 months ago

Right


and I think that is a real issue that deserves real attention, and closing these bullshit carveouts for high GVWR vehicles should absolutely happen.

That said, I take some issue with ragebaity posts when less ragebaity posts (such as the article you linked) are more informative, offer fair comparisons, and ultimately are more critical of the problem.

Just my 2¢.

[–] Jilanico@lemmy.world -1 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] mondoman712@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

👍 Well done. But we were talking about the cars in the picture.

[–] Jilanico@lemmy.world -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There are mobile phones in the picture too.

[–] mondoman712@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago

👏 Good job. Can you tell me what else is in the picture?

[–] aleph@lemm.ee 13 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Sedans were the default back in the 80s, now SUVs and pickups account for around 75% of all new sales (in the US, at least).

So, in terms of what the average car looked like then versus now, it's a perfectly valid comparison.

[–] aleph@lemm.ee 15 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

That's not an average representation of the increase in the size of pickup trucks, though.

Just look at the Ford F150:

F150 in 70s versus today

Even if you compare like with like, pickups are around 30% heavier than they were in the 90s, and around 10-15% taller.

https://www.axios.com/2023/01/23/pickup-trucks-f150-size-weight-safety

[–] SaltyIceteaMaker@lemmy.ml 7 points 5 months ago

Nah the actual space you can use shrunk while the truck got bigger. That's insane

[–] grue@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Compare a '90s F-150 to a 2024 Ranger. Then compare a '90s Ranger to a 2024 Maverick. Arguably, what Ford really did was that it added a third, bigger-than-full-size, truck and shifted the names one notch up.

[–] aleph@lemm.ee 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

The Maverick is new and while it does buck the trend of "bigger is always better", all it signifies to me is that Ford are diversifying their range of pickups now that they don't make any small cars or sedans in the US any more, which is kind of emblematic of the whole problem.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

That's a good point.

[–] xenspidey@lemmy.zip -1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That's comparing a regular can with a crew cab.

[–] aleph@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

They didn't have crew cabs back then, which is kinda the point.

Edit: correction - they did, but it wasn't until the mid-2000s that they became common.

[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 months ago

As opposed to now, where I have to do a double take whenever I see a modern single cab. AFAIK, they are now special order and some models don't even offer them.

[–] then_three_more@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

The point is the smaller model was popular what was popular then, and the giant SUV (or even worse those massive truck things) are what's popular now.

[–] AVincentInSpace@pawb.social 2 points 5 months ago

You're telling me that tiny little sedan on the left is 3 tons!?

[–] banana_lama@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Here's a link if you want to include in your comment.

It's a site that compares car sizes. This link is for the 3 series

https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/bmw-3-1997-sedan-vs-bmw-3-2018-sedan/

And here's a dodge challenger which surprisingly is fatter but slightly shorter and higher

https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/dodge-challenger-1969-coupe-vs-dodge-challenger-2015-coupe/