Within the "truck" class of vehicles, EPA fuel efficiency standards are based on weight. It's easier to build heavy trucks and SUVs that meet those standards, than light trucks.

Effectively, the US government legislated heavier trucks and SUVs.

Video that explains it.

I think this is USA only. Maybe mention that in the title. They don't sell half of those cars here.

We got here because fuel economy requirements are tied to the size and type of vehicle, and so it's easier to make and sell larger, less efficient vehicles.

https://afdc.energy.gov/data/mobile/10562

Why make a smaller vehicle with a smaller margin that requires more engineering time to reach fuel economy standards when you can sell a larger, often more expensive vehicle that has the same fuel economy as last year's model?

Consequently they have become best selling vehicles because there are increasingly fewer small vehicles on dealer lots to purchase.

I just want my wagons, specifically sport wagons back :(

Stop buying bigger and bigger cars.

I drive a station wagon because I need to fit two dogs in the booth plus and entire family in the same car. But this is a transitory need. At some point I'll either get a small van, for carrying the dogs, or a small hatchback and have the backseats always folded down.

You should buy according to your true needs not market pressure.

Unless you work in construction, or have a similar need for a pickup, fuck you for buying one.

Here's a fun anecdote: I live in California, where these vehicles are (mostly) limited to those who need them. In 2018, I visited family in the midwest. We played a game of counting the pickups while walking a short trip from a hotel to a chain outlet. We hit 99 pickups by the time we got to the doors. I was irritated that we got to 99 and not 100 cause that would have been so awesome, but seriously. 99?! In just several minutes. People drive them for fashion, not for practical need.

Every pickup driver that doesn't "need" a pickup is my enemy.

This is far from new. The best selling vehicle in the US has been the F150 for some 30+ years now and the top 5 spots have typically been pickups from GM and Ram/Dodge.

The headlights can be angled downwards but fuck it, it's not themselves they're blinding

Trucks have been bestselling models for literally decades.

It's because there's a 25% tariff on importing trucks. It was put in place nearly 60 years ago by Lyndon B Johnson; it's called the "chicken tax" because the excuse for passing it was as a retaliatory tariff against France and Germany taxing American factory farmed chicken.

Because of the chicken tax, fairly few foreign car companies in the US sell pickups.

And because being a "best selling" model is good marketing, truck makers generally sell very few models of truck. For example, the best selling vehicle right now is the Ford "F series". So that's the F150, F250, and F350, in all of their assorted trims. There's a couple other models they sell - the Maverick and the Ranger - but most of the trucks Ford sells are F series.

So a truck driver has been much more likely to drive a F-series for decades than a car driver was to be driving a Civic.

Most best selling cars

in the US 😒

Partially because people are selfish narcissistic cunts, and partially because being a selfish narcissistic cunt has become normalised.

Am I reading this wrong? By all means plenty of people who don't need trucks buy trucks.

But the majority of this list is sedans and compact crossovers? These are barely more than hatchbacks with a different name. Obviously the top few spots are dominated by pickups that have ballooned in size. Legitimate criticisms are easily made.

But after reading the title I was pretty surprised at the list because I expected lots of large SUVs. But most large SUVs are missing from this list.

I'm going to point one that hasn't been mentioned. Infrastructure.

Highways, roads, streets have way too many lanes that are way too wide. This encourages drivers to drive faster. Faster driving makes overall the roads and vehicles to feel more dangerous, because they are. People's response is to want and acquire larger, heavier an faster vehicles that make them feel safer in those hostile roads.

This is what contemporary urbanism is talking about when they say that infrastructure determines behavior. You can alter people's behavior by changing the shape of infrastructure.

The problem in most of the western world is that the answer of authorities (heavily misled by car and oil industry) has been to make more lanes that are wider. In the false belief that this would make roads safer. When in reality the result is the opposite. Other measures like police enforced fines, speed limits, etc. Are also useless to mitigate the lack of safety and carry a huge set of problems with them like systematic discrimination and endemic corruption.

The answer is to make narrower lanes, with fewer lanes in densely populated area, less parking, traffic calmed and car traffic banned zones. Protect bicicles and pedestrians with concrete traffic segregation. Impose aditional fees and taxes for vehicles above a certain weight and parking space take up. Those things will signal people that it's fine to drive a smaller, slower vehicle, it's fine to use public transport instead. Along with more public transport options available.

Can you name the truck with four wheel drive, smells like a steak and seats 45? Canyonero! (Yahhh) Canyonero.

I dunno. I had to drive a truck over the weekend, to move 3 cords of wood. I rented an F250, which is a big truck. It was useful to have; there's no way that I would have been able to move that much wood with a smaller truck and trailer, and, if my driveway wasn't so tight, it would have been nicer to rent a larger dump trailer (I'm pretty sure that I was over the maximum load rating on the trailer for each trip).

...But it's not a fun truck to drive. Power is slow compared to the compact car I usually drive, and very slow compared to my motorcycle, steering feels sloppy, brakes are feel mushy, fuel economy is terrible, and it was so goddamn big that I had to drive very carefully to be sure that it wasn't over any of the lines on the road. Aside from the ability to move a very heavy load--greater than a ton--it really doesn't have much of anything going for it. I can't imagine why most people would want one, compared to a vehicle that allows them to react quickly.

...Or compared to functioning public transit.

Now? Ford F truck is the best selling vehicle in the US for decades! It's not now.

Serious question: what's a good option if you live in semi-rural suburbs that gets snow in winter? Safety would be my main concern--something with four wheel drive and larger tires makes a difference there.

Well, we needed a vehicle that could fit two children and related sports gear and, ideally, haul bikes at some point, and the had the cargo capacity for the yearly road trip vacation with the extended family. A small SUV was the winner as no car measured up and a true truck was overkill.

Shocking though it may be, for many, the use case may be valid.

While we’re all bitching about this, is there anything I can do as someone with astigmatism to make driving at night less dangerous besides buying a higher car? I like my small car but it’s beginning to feel like a legitimate safety problem when I drive at night.

they don't make anything else.

i just want an EV Honda Acty truck

Rappers flexing with driving SUVs are one cause for this trend here in germany.