An Overwhelming Majority Of Americans Think Trucks And SUVs Are Getting Too Big

An Overwhelming Majority Of Americans Think Trucks And SUVs Are Getting Too Big

Truck owners and non-truck owners agree that they’re not safe for pedestrians and cyclists.

If you’re between the ages of 30 and 50, you’ll know that cars have grown ridiculously big over the last two decades. During this time, we’ve also seen the rise of the SUV, which slowly replaced the humble sedan and hatchback.

Despite the fact that we know this to be true, a quick comparison is in order. Out of the 25 best-selling cars in America in 2023, only five are what we’d consider a traditional sedan. They are the Honda Accord and Civic, the Tesla Model 3, and the Toyota Corolla and Camry. The Camry is the most successful of the lot, in eighth place with 290,649 units sold, while the Toyota RAV4 is the most successful SUV/Crossover, with 434,943 units sold. As always, the Ford F-Series is the best-seller in the USA, with 750,789 units sold last year.

All three of these models are legacy models and were available 20 years ago, so let’s see just how much bigger they’ve become over the past 20 years.

If we dial the clock back 20 years, we land on the doorstep of the second-generation RAV4. The five-door model was 155.5 inches long and 63.8 inches wide, weighing 3,186 pounds. The modern equivalent is 181 inches long, 73.4 inches wide, and weighs 3,615 lbs.

The Ford F-150 from 20 years ago (11th generation SuperCrew) was 217.8 inches long, 78.9 inches wide, and weighed 4,758 lbs. The modern equivalent is 231 inches long, 79.9 inches wide, and weighs roughly 250 lbs less than its older brother. In case you missed it, the current F-150 is all-aluminum, so it weighs less.

The XV30 Camry was 189.2 inches long, 70.7 inches wide, and weighed 3,252 lbs with the 3.0-liter V6 engine. A modern Camry V6 (TRD trim) is 192.1 inches long and 72.4 inches wide and weighs 3,549 lbs.

As you can see from the above figures, cars in general have grown significantly. According to Bloomberg, pickup trucks have added an average of 1,300 lbs since 1990.

In 2020, automotive analysts predicted that the vast majority of cars sold in the US in 2025 would be trucks. (For the purposes of this article, the term “trucks” refers to pickups and SUVs.) The exact figure is 78%, and it’s not hard to believe. Manufacturers like Ford gave up on the sedan a few years ago already, focusing entirely on trucks, SUVs, crossovers, and sports cars.

Why do people love their trucks so much? There have been many studies conducted on this topic, and the answers are always the same. You get better visibility, loads of space, easier ingress and egress, and more safety.

The only problem is that the whole safety thing is a bit of a myth. If we look at the physics of a car accident, one can’t deny that it’s better to be in a bigger car. The three most common accidents in the USA are rear-end collisions, head-on crashes, and getting T-boned, in that order. In every one of those cases, you’d be better off in a bigger car.

But now that almost everyone has a truck, are you really safer? If you want to be in the safest car possible, the best option is the Hummer EV Pickup. It weighs over 9,000 lbs and will crash through anything. In fact, the IIHS had to benchmark its safety test systems from scratch to prepare for the increase in EV sales. A recent study also found that EVs are too heavy for the guardrails on American roads.

According to a YouGov survey, roughly half of Americans own a truck. The actual figure is 47%, which makes it the default choice of the average American. The distribution is even across the country, but some groups are more inclined to buy a truck. 55% of people over 55 own a truck, while only 33% of people between 18 and 34 have a truck. Parents are twice as likely to own a truck compared to people without kids. Speaking as a parent, I get it. Our main goal for the family car was to get the highest possible safety rating because said car would be transporting what’s most precious to me. It’s a mind-numbingly boring car, but it serves an important function. For the record, the family car I picked is not a truck because I think it’s a waste to have that much body for two adults and two kids.

But what I think doesn’t matter. Instead, let’s focus on the biggest problems with trucks from feedback provided by truck drivers and non-truck drivers.

There is a surprising amount of consistency between truck drivers and non-truck drivers when it comes to the main issues with trucks. It seems truck drivers are willing to admit their vehicle’s flaws and accept it as just part of owning a larger car. For the non-truck drivers, these are obviously deal breakers.

The most surprising response was the statement that trucks consume too much fuel and are bad for the environment. 56% of non-truck drivers agreed, while more than half of truck drivers agreed. It may only be 51%, but it’s a majority. The figures were also quite similar when the survey stated that trucks were difficult to park, dangerous to others, difficult to drive, and dangerous to those in the vehicle. The disparity between truck drivers and non-truck drivers was never larger than seven percentage points, with the most contentious being that trucks are a danger to others.

There was also an “Other” categorization. These were the people who highlighted less common problems, like the trucks being hard to see around if you’re in a smaller car behind one and the lights being mounted too high and blinding other road users.

We’re most interested in the safety perceptions, where there is a bigger gap between truck drivers and non-truck drivers. Only 45% of non-truck drivers agreed with the statement that these cars are safer for the driver and passengers, while 68% of truck drivers agreed. 57% of non-truck drivers agreed that trucks were more dangerous to cyclists and pedestrians, but only 43% of truck drivers said the same. As for the danger trucks present to other vehicles, 57% of non-truck drivers agreed, but only 40% of truck drivers agreed.

Now, let’s look at what Americans, in general, had to say. 49% of Americans agreed that trucks are more dangerous for other vehicles, while 56% agreed that they’re safer for the driver and passenger. When it comes to trucks being more dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians, the USA is split right down the middle at 50%.

In another surprise, the majority of Americans want some form of truck size regulation, whether it be voluntary by the automakers or enforced by the government. 30% of truck drivers were fine with automakers doing this voluntarily, but only 24% wanted the government to interfere. 24% of non-truck drivers want to leave it to the automakers, but a rather sizeable 39% want the government to interfere and set clear regulations. This is the biggest disparity and the most contentious issue.

“Evidence is mounting that large vehicles are a hazard to others on the road, especially pedestrians and cyclists. It appears that there is also significant public appetite for something to be done to mitigate this danger, even if it means that the size of cars cannot keep expanding,” the YouGov survey stated.

The government already plays a role in vehicle design. Designers and engineers already work within tight constraints, not just based on American law, but laws of countries across the globe. You can’t have sharp edges, and any part of the car that might hit a pedestrian or cyclist’s head must provide a soft landing.

European law requires the tires to be entirely covered by fenders. US-bound cars must also have a windscreen, so McLaren had to design an Elva specifically for the American market. The Europeans banned pop-up headlights, but they’re technically not illegal in the USA. We’re also not allowed to have cars with center seats like the GMA T.50 or cars with cameras instead of side mirrors. You can bring the T.50 in under the Show and Display law, however.

The most famous example of a must-have American design element is marker lights.

While the government has legislation in place, automakers are doing their best to make their trucks safer. Last year, Ford filed a patent for an inflatable bumper to better protect pedestrians and cyclists should the worst happen. Ford also filed a similar patent for the Bronco. And let’s not forget about the constant advancements in camera, radar, and LiDAR technology, which will prevent these accidents from happening. The feds already stated that they want to make automatic emergency braking obligatory in every new car.

We can’t see the government enforcing a rule stating that we’ve gone big enough and that cars won’t be allowed to get any bigger, but at a certain point, larger vehicles will inevitably become too big for the road. Just take a look at the Cadillac Escalade ESV. What kind of reasonable person could possibly want a car bigger than that?

It’s easy to say that the government should step in and say that we’ve gone big enough and that it’s time to dial it back a bit, but the libertarian in me realizes that it’s a slippery slope. If we start banning automakers from doing one thing, what’s to stop the government from prohibiting other elements? Nobody needs more than 500 horsepower, but I don’t want to live in a world where bonkers cars like the Dodge Demon 170 are banned. Along the same lines, you could argue a case for putting an 85 mph speed limiter in every vehicle because that’s the fastest you can legally go in the USA.

Still, trucks like the Cadillac Escalade IQ, Hummer EV, Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T, and R1S, as well as all of the upcoming electric trucks, make me nervous because they weigh so much. If one of these T-boned me, my humble yet safe sedan wouldn’t stand a chance.

Perhaps a better idea is to implement a weight limit for production cars, with exemptions for heavy-duty trucks and vans that actually work for a living. But again, banning stuff is a slippery slope.

Do you have a solution for this problem?