They are wrong but there is a grain of truth to this. NTSA regulations about fuel efficiency and emissions are part of the reason that car manufacturers made vehicles bigger and more expensive. It is significantly harder to meet emissions standards and fuel efficiency standards in the US in a sedan or small compact car and on top of that car manufacturers know that people aren't generally buying compact cars for $80-150K so it's a win win for them. It's greed, and them gaming the system in order to use the fact that larger vehicles aren't beholden to the same emissions standards or fuel efficiency standards. So car companies convinced consumers they don't want small cars, that instead they want SUVs and trucks and perhaps crossovers. And they lobbied to game the system and to continue pocketing money doing it.

https://www.distilled.earth/p/the-loophole-that-made-cars-in-america

It was basing standards on vehicle footprints. Starting in 2012, a Toyota Corolla had less-strict emissions and fuel economy standards than a compact truck, so they stopped making the compact trucks after 2011.

They brought back the Ranger, but it's larger than some of the older F150s.

And as standards got tighter, it impacted more an more vehicles. All the compact cargo vans (Transit Connect, ProMaster City, and NV200) were discontinued in 2022 because they no longer meet standards at that size.

No, it was the standard that made large vehicles. Not enforcement. And yes smog is a real thing.

And the law made the cars bigger

Lame-brained people who think LLMs are an authority on anything.

People who work in environmental compliance. I worked for carb for 10 yrs

That's not what the CEO of gm and ford said when the epa started these rules

It's largely the being glad the epa is gone and using ai as a source

Cafe standards created a perverse incentive, that's not disputable by reasonable people. What is disputable is the EPA's involvement in this specific act of congress that was administered by the NHTSA.

Thanks. This is exactly what happened. And when vehicles started becoming larger, consumers wanted to feel safe so it become an arms race of size. Now we have a whole generation of drivers that demand large vehicles.