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Australians are driving bigger, heavier, dirtier cars and it's alarming both climate and road safety experts.

A decade ago, sedans and hatchbacks were the most popular cars in Australia. Today, Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and American-style utes dominate new car sales and advertising.

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[-] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

A cautionary tale of what we don't want to become (and are on our way to becoming): These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us

[-] elkazz@aussie.zone 1 points 2 years ago

Are we all just going the ignore the fact that the FCIA director's name is Peter Griffin?

[-] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 0 points 2 years ago

Yeah, well, sedans and hatchbacks don't tow my caravan into the Victorian High Country.

I'll gladly switch to an EV offroader once I know it's capable of getting my family and I to where we're going, and home again.

[-] Ilandar@aussie.zone 0 points 2 years ago

This, or something similar, is what many people think. I wonder how many days in a year these vehicles are actually seeing that intended use, though. So many people seem to buy these large, inefficient vehicles with the intent of using them off-road and/or on family holidays, but what they actually end up using them for 99.9% of the time is just daily suburban commutes. It makes zero sense.

[-] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 0 points 2 years ago

I can't speak for others, but I definitely do use mine for off-roading as much as I can.

Is it as much as I'd like? No - I have to earn the money to afford the hobby. But it's absolutely worth it, especially when I get to show my daughter some of the awesome things we have to offer.

The reality is that we're a rough, tough country, and getting to see lots of it requires special vehicles.

The reason this seems so recent is because, previously, 4WD vehicles were either purpose-built, or expensive if they were tricked out to be daily drivers. That made them uncomfortable or expensive.

With the death of our local car market, it's opened up a much wider, cheaper, more refined set of offerings, so more people can afford to get into the hobby.

[-] FippleStone@aussie.zone 0 points 2 years ago

And what an awful hobby it is

[-] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 2 years ago

We bought an electric recently. Was very upset to have to choose the Kona in order to fit 2 tall people and 2 big dogs. It's a great car but being realistic there's no need for it to be so big.

It seems like the styles now being sold are small hatchback, sedan, and everything else is SUV. Very disappointing to see there's not much middle ground lile the station wagon space or slightly larger hatchbacks. Especially with EVs. Most of my trips are like 40 km at most. I don't need 500 km range with a full car...

this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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