Have any of them been to Western or Northern Europe in this century?

You misspelled “lobbyists”.

One thing to notice there is that the gas tax is far more regressive in the US than in Europe, since in the latter people of more modest means will either take public transportation or share a (modest, frugal) car rather than need one vehicle per working age adult.

European regulations will trickle down to the US market. Any vehicle sold in both regions usually maintains the Euro-spec safety and emissions in the USA.

That’s part of why I got rid of my Silverado for my Cruze. The gas savings alone is almost half the car payment

Yes, regulation works. The issue always largely about how regulation is implemented - and how government is perceived. The goal of any regulation should be to guide the country towards a particular objective - whether that is electrification of the vehicle fleet, or simply making buildings safer with fire suppression…

That depends on your perspective. The incentive that the EU (and China and...) are giving manufacturers directly and indirectly to develop good EVs speeds up development of this technology quite a bit. I think it’s safe to say that these vehicles will be ‘ready for prime time’ faster because of it.

This is the kind of argument that sounds good until you dig into the details. Yes, the US is big and spread out in general but most people aren’t driving great distances. More than 80% of people drive less than 50 miles a day, even before covid. Most people rarely leave their county even on longer trips. I think a car…

surprisingly, anything above $5/gal is enough. That’s what convinced me to get a 2013 Nissan Leaf - it cost less to buy the car JUST TO COMMUTE WITH than to pay for the gas. After that, all the pieces fell into place and I sold/traded-in all my gas cars 2 years ago.

I think it shows that the EUs needs are different than the US’s.

Also, American companies don’t like to do anything that doesn’t raise the stock price ( and therefore the executive bonuses) in the next quarter.

Fuck all that. I just want a decent compact pickup with the correct number of doors. That is 2.

Do you guys live on some mystical investment island? Magical riskless returns here, paranormal lo-cost loans there. I bet your investment costs are cryptically zero too. I wanna visit.

Every truck needs to look pissed because a significant proportion of truck buyers never use their vehicles to carry payload in the truck bed, they buy the truck to compensate for shortcomings below their waistline - i.e. big car/truck, small d--k.

As the American heartland has been missing out on the coastal economic growth of the past decades, people are becoming more insecure. That has to have played a part in the current fad of “weaponised” car design, especially in the US market. And the loosened lending regulations ensure that every poor financial…

... or they just want to look like they do work or adventurous stuff.

As a gay man, I can say from experience there is a definite inverse relationship between the size of one’s vehicle and the size of certain parts on the male anatomy.

this is entirely true. (white) men need to be deprogramed in this country that its ok to not hve a dick compensator HD5000 and lots of guns and a BMI >> their age in order to be a real american. Its a real fucking problem.

The majority of people would be just fine owning a small sedan and occasionally renting a truck from Home depot or a van from Uhaul twice a year when they absolutely need one.

because men are very, very fragile snowflakes in this country, that is why. I agree w/you..