If you had the power, how would you force/convince people to downsize their cars?

There's also the Type-1 Inspired by Hitler. Simplicity does help, I guess...
 
My point was that a bike isn't better in every possible way compared to a car.

Considering the topic of the discussion a bike would actually be better in every possible way. You can't really downsize any more than a motorcycle (scooter is also technically a very crappy motorcycle)

I suggest everyone drive the light bikes from original Tron. Covered for cold weather performance :)
 
800px-Minibike.JPG
 

Still wastefull, it has paint on the plastic bits, Paint! Heavy pointless paint, and maybee even some stickers, heavy stickers making it look bloated and awfull and un-eco.

All that unnecessary weight will cause its feulconsumption to rise!
The polarbears, won't someone please think of the polarbears??! We can't allow people to drive around on such gasguzzling monstrosities, something must be done!





*Do I even need to give you a 'but seriously' ? .......... No? Didn't think so *
 
Still wastefull, it has paint on the plastic bits, Paint! Heavy pointless paint, and maybee even some stickers, heavy stickers making it look bloated and awfull and un-eco.

All that unnecessary weight will cause its feulconsumption to rise!
The polarbears, won't someone please think of the polarbears??! We can't allow people to drive around on such gasguzzling monstrosities, something must be done!





*Do I even need to give you a 'but seriously' ? .......... No? Didn't think so *
Gotta make it electric :)
 
Seriously it is pretty wierd how the size of cars differ between europe and the US, I mean it's not like we have different needs?

The European population is more urbanized and close together than the U.S.
 
Ow dear.....
 
You missed the part about "on fire." As we all know from Top Gear and from the French press themselves, the final destiny of ALL French cars is to be upside down and on fire.

"As we all know from Top Gear", sportsbikes are ridden by middleaged men because their parents didn't allow them to, and that you look ridiculous in a leather romper suit.
There are lots of things Top Gear teaches us about Americans as well.
 
I am American and lived in Italy for almost a year. The main difference that I noticed is that the European roads are very small and congested, and when you reach your destination there is nowhere to park at all. If you had a Suburban (or vehicle of that size) it we be almost impossible to use it in a timely manner on a day by day basis (this is not mentioning how much gas and insurance would be on it). When I lived in Italy I had a 2008 VW Polo and there were many times I could not find a spot to park for this "larger" car.

When I got back to America, I walked out of the airport and the first thing I thought was how large the roads and vehicles were. Here in America we have grown a good portion as a country with the automobile being an everyday part of our lives. My view on this thread is that if you have the space and money to afford a large vehicle then do it. If it is going to make your life a pain in the ass then pass and by a small car.
 
Larger distances alone do not require larger cars. People covering 30000km+ in Germany every year are fine with their Euro-sized cars.

You are missing the point here.... Larger land mass and more spread out population allows for wider roads that are better able to handle larger vehicles. Also larger parking spots. Also fuel and cars are relatively cheap so we can afford to own and maintain larger vehicles. Look at luxury cars from Europe, they are not small by any means. Even the smaller ones A4 and such are damn near the size of the A6 and such from even two generations ago. Same thing with Jags, Lexi, Infinitis and so on. If people in Europe wanted smaller cars Europeans would not be making such large luxury cars.

Considering that Audi doesn't even sell the RS6 in the US I would assume that they are doing quite well with EU sales so they didn't feel the need to go through the pain of getting it certified stateside.

You are talking as if Europeans don't want larger cars and that they would take a smaller car over a larger one any day. It's down more to the fact that Europeans can't afford larger cars as easily as Americans can and larger cars are generally a bigger pain in the butt to own in Europe. Just think of that episode of Top Gear where JC said that he couldn't get on a bridge because in his Ford GT because it was too wide, its impossible to find streets that could not accomodate the width of the GT ANYWHERE in the US (aside from like back alleys) even the very narrow streets in the older parts of NYC are more than wide enough and this is one of the oldest and most European (in the cramped sense of the word) cities in the country.
 
The question was "different needs", not "different possibilities". Wider roads allow for larger cars, but do not require them.
 
Well you don't need a 60" TV either. We should all get 22" TVs because I think that is all anyone needs. No one requires a large TV unless maybe you have vision problems so they are the only people who should buy them.



In another note, larger country with larger space between houses means larger yards. My yard produces about 30 full leaf bags of debris every year. Now we actually have a truck that comes around and collects them but if the town were to cut that service, which is quite possible, we will need to borrow a pickup truck just to cart the leaves away.
 
Space doesn't really make bigger cars more necessary. Canada's got way more empty space than the US and our popular models skew smaller.

It does make bigger trucks more necessary, since they can do a lot more in a trip if you have the space to drive them.
 
Space doesn't really make bigger cars more necessary. Canada's got way more empty space than the US and our popular models skew smaller.

It does make bigger trucks more necessary, since they can do a lot more in a trip if you have the space to drive them.
But is it more expensive to run cars in Canada? (I honestly don't know). Part of the reason we use larger cars is that we can afford larger cars due to insurance, purchase costs and fuel being quite a bit lower than EU.
 
But is it more expensive to run cars in Canada? (I honestly don't know). Part of the reason we use larger cars is that we can afford larger cars due to insurance, purchase costs and fuel being quite a bit lower than EU.

Prices are higher as a rule, and gas is more expensive. I think at the end of the day people just like spending $20-25k on a car, and that's going to be your popular model, but between the two countries smaller models do well here, and they don't do as well in the US. We're also more willing to buy small people carriers - stuff like the Kia Rondo is really popular here, while they frequently don't move at all in the US, so much so that the Rondo is now a Canadian exclusive - so it's probably more complicated than that. I'm just pointing out that it has nothing to do with population density.

Lots of empty space really only affects what working vehicles are popular - it's really obvious in commercial trucks, slightly less obvious but still apparent in personal trucks.
 
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Prices are higher as a rule, and gas is more expensive. I think at the end of the day people just like spending $20-25k on a car, and that's going to be your popular model, but between the two countries smaller models do well here, and they don't do as well in the US. We're also more willing to buy small people carriers - stuff like the Kia Rondo is really popular here, while they frequently don't move at all in the US, so much so that the Rondo is now a Canadian exclusive - so it's probably more complicated than that. I'm just pointing out that it has nothing to do with population density.

Lots of empty space really only affects what working vehicles are popular - it's really obvious in commercial trucks, slightly less obvious but still apparent in personal trucks.
I think you misunderstood my point. I never said that lots of space will automatically equal larger cars. I was simply pointing out to narf that size of cars is a composite of the cost (insurance/fuel/car price) and space (wider roads, more parking, etc..).

Obviously if large cars are cheap but don't fit well in your roads you wouldn't want one. On the other hand if you have the space for large cars but they are out of the price range of "average" people you wouldn't want those either.
 
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