Why are "big cars" still being built with their massive engines, resource wasting and polluting properties?

Question

As we all clearly know we need to cut emissions etc., but big limousines and 4x4's are still being built for years to come-why?

Answer 1

i own a shop,and if you asked half my customers that question they would say they feel safer in a large vehicle ,than a small one,that's why there being built right now,mainly because that's whats selling good ,especially for people who have large family's,and need lots of room.eventually they will have shrink the size of them down some,but for now ,people believe the bigger the better,,i will agree with them on one thing,bigger is safer,but not always better,good luck with this,i hope this helps.

Answer 2

Mainly because people buy them.

And people buy them because they have been taught in the last twenty years or so to expect ever more comfort, safety, power, and gadgets from their cars. They might as well since they spend ever more time in their cars...

Why are people being conditioned like this? Because that is the only way for manufacturers and advertisers to hold the price of cars high. The cost of producing a car of a standard specification is dropping all the time, they are more and more built by robots, and production volumes increase, allowing to amortise fixed costs more easily. In fact even at a lower cost, simply because of technical progress, with the same general specifications, you still could not help building a better car, more reliable, better finished etc..

So instead of getting cheaper cars, the consumer gets a choice of cars where the price is no lower than years ago, but with more stuff in it, more weight, bigger engines etc... And not a single manufacturer tries to produce a really cheap car.

It is exactly the same with mobile phones by the way. How else would they get money out of the consumer, when the marginal cost of calls and texts is nil, if the handset was also a quarter of the current price? In emerging markets, Nokia & Co produce much cheaper models that work perfectly well. Introduce them in Europe and their margins will be savaged.

Simple really.

Answer 3

Very simply, it's all down to market demand. I wouldn't want a tiny, screaming car that can hardly hit 70mp/h, and most of the UK feel the same way.

Car manufacturers know this, and so produce what we want. If everyone wanted a 1 litre strangled pig on a hamster wheel, Ford wouldn't build a Mondeo, Vauxall wouldn't build a Vectra and Land Rover would be out of business.

However, like I said - People don't want slow cars. Frankly (and I know you'll hate me for this) emmissions are a small price to pay for stress free living and transportational enjoyment. I've had so much Climate change and emissions crap cramed down my throat by the BBC, I just don't care anymore. So I want a nice car, and so do 75% of the buying public...

Basically, car companies are keeping us happy. People always seem to assume that Ford, GM, etc. keep making nice cars just to be really annoying. They're not. They're simply responding to the demands of you and I.

I want a Mondeo, so Ford sell me one. You want an Aygo, so Toyota sell you one. At the end of the day, their just keeping the masses happy... Simple as that...

Answer 4

Big cars are generally safer for the owners. Big cars show status. Big cars show wealth. Big cars are popular among the rich and famous. The political correctness does not apply if you are a lawer, judge, actor, politician, doctor, or own a record label. They will tell you that we need to cut back then have themselves a custom stretched bulletproof Hummer built for their self. All while telling themselves its OK for them they deserve to pamper their self. Us ally with earnings generated by us the poor slobs who watch their movies, buy their CD's, vote them into office. On the other hand there is good use for Big cars and 4 x 4's for work, large family's, farming, easier travel ling. A large van for instance can hold over 20 immigrants and you can only get 5 into a VW comfortably.

Answer 5

Some of them have uses that cannot be replicated by smaller vehicles.

Others are just counterproductive (like every car bigger than an Elantra in South Korea).

They're still made in quantities larger than they would be purely as tools because a lot of people think more=better. And in some ways, it can be. Large (and mid-sized) luxury cars are the safest vehicles for the occupants AND for the other parties in an accident. For other vehicles, however, it's just a false perception of safety. High seating position, the knowledge that your car would destroy a smaller one, make you feel safe...which can in fact make you (as the inferior driver you, as a person who would think that way, doubtless is) less safe.

Also, a lot of people just like POWER. And as long as people can afford to feed those beasts, they'll buy them. Eventually, torque addicts are going to have to go diesel or electric, but for now, they don't have to.

And finally, there's the United States, where the best way I've heard it put, is that people value space over refinement. To a typical American (even one who isn't obese), the space in a Crown Vic = luxury, even compared to, I dunno, a 3 series, or a VW. Better design doesn't count for much if it isn't BIGGER.

Answer 6

Because people still need them i.e Farmers.
Also, I have a 'Gas Guzzler' yet I only do approx 5000 miles a year in it.
I pollute less than a so called "Green' car that does 2000+ a year...why should I be penalised.
Another stealth tax for the government.
Rant Over lol.

Answer 7

Well being that we are a free society, not to mention capitalistic......If there is a market it will be made! Yes we want to reduce these things, but in our self gratify market where we want things now and do not think of the future do you realistically think that everyone is going to just suddenly stop buying the big luxury cars? NO! And the idea of freedom is that if they want it they have the right to have it! Eventually we will have these on Hydrogen and that will be the answer...till then we must persevere and try!

Answer 8

Because people want them.
If any major manufacturer decided to only build small cars, they're market share and profit margin would fall drastically, and they would go out of business. People who wanted large cars would still buy large cars, but from another manufacturer.
The manufacturer making the large cars would make significant profits.

smart has not made any money since it was launched - it is propped up by sales of Mercedes-Benz cars.
The manufacturer making the most profit per car is Porsche.

Car manufacturers exist to make money, not for environmental reasons. There is less profit in small and/or environmentally friendly cars.

If you can persuade everyone to only buy small cars, then manufacturers will not build so many large ones, but so long as people want large cars, manufacturers will build them.
It is called the law of "supply and demand"

Answer 9

In a weird kind of way we actually NEED more cars.

Top Gear in the UK made me aware of an amazing fact that is actually true.

If you drive a modern car through a smoggy city, the air coming out of the exhaust pipe is actually cleaner than the air being sucked into the engine!

So if we were to fill our cities with new cars, they would eventually clean the air!

Answer 10

Spot on! as well that, the time period "perverted" ability "became aside", and is utilized to sex as expressing the opinion that the sex stress is getting used for some thing except that's meant real purpose (they don't look to consider expressing affection or construct up relatives or social solidarity to be between sex's "real" applications). So would not sublimating the sex stress, making use of that power to gas different non-sexual pastimes like sturdy works, also should be seen "perverted" in which have of the note? And, at the same time as we are on the overall difficulty, I carry at the same time one Catholic argument adverse to birth control is that it deprives some souls of the bodies they could favor to achieve salvation (does this recommend God sends unconceived little ones to hell?), so why would not that argument be basically as valid about all birth control procedures, including rhythm and abstinence? To be consistent, Catholic ladies should be doing all of it day lengthy.