Self | Culture | Global Warming
Why Americans Are Obsessed With Huge Cars (It Isn’t Toxic Masculinity)
The trucks keep growing and it’s everyone’s fault.
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A sweeping aerial shot of a mountain landscape cascades downwards. The setting sun bathes the Earth in its glow.
A deep, authoritative voice booms, “In a world where adventure begins where the road ends…you need options.” A truck barrels through a dirt road. Its all-terrain tires grip the ground and splash the mud away.
Cut to a shot of the truck’s bold grille and muscular lines. Cut to a shot of the Ford logo. Cut to a shot of Brett Favre in jeans smirking at the camera. Cut to a shot of the exhaust pipe blowing black smoke rings at the sun.
“Built to conquer any terrain, the Ford XXXL² EcoTrash will trigger them alarmist hippies.”
But seriously. I finished researching this article and groaned, “Have we learned nothing?”
American vehicles are only getting bigger. The top three selling vehicles in the US in 2023 are all enormous pickup trucks.
- Ford F-Series (382,893 units sold)
- Chevy Silverado (264,070 units sold)
- Ram Pickup (223,049 units sold)
Even more alarming: of the top 15 vehicles sold, only 3 were sedans. The remainder were either an SUV or a truck.
I was initially skeptical of this data so I did a quick eyeball check while running errands yesterday. I was shocked: Tampa has turned into a monster truck rally.
Giant trucks and SUVs flew by one after another. And then, climactically, an 8-foot-tall red truck roared by, honking, speeding, and spewing thick smog in its wake.
With the rise in global warming and heat records being set around the world and hurricanes now hitting southern California, I’d have thought smaller cars would be falling in fashion, if only for self-preservation.
How naive of me. It’s only getting worse. So what gives? Why are Americans so obsessed with huge cars? There must be reasons beyond global warming defiance.
