Wide Cars

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12 yards long, 2 lanes wide, 65 tons of American pride, Canyonero!

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Not a cheap vehicle, but that's a medium truck with presumably a pretty incredible tow rating. Not really a passenger vehicle.

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To be fair that is the largest consumer model and essentially the most expensive OEM package you can get. And it is very powerful and capable tow vehicle, but the majority of people just use them as passenger vehicles and maybe tow their rv a few times a year(which can be done with was less of a truck).

If you know modded trucks, whether that's purpose built towing or just mall crawler, there are way more trucks over $200k than you would realize. If you ever see a welding truck, big 4x4 lifted trucks with custom beds, those are an easy $250k. But they are being used. Those guys make a easy 6 figures while living in hotels with nothing else to spend it on.

Ephera

Yeah, I was expecting it to be a joke like:

Introducing Longtrucks.
Impress even more strangers of the superior person-hauling capabilities with 32 seats.
Includes a light-up sign so you can proudly show to strangers where you're headed.
Access a world-wide network of pick-up bays for you to pick up strangers from.

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It's also literally the motto for the Pontiac Grand Prix.

"Wider is better"

Scrubbles

And to boast that it's the absolute Pinnacle of society. It's the only version they've seen but they're convinced there are zero improvements

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Artist nailed it outlining people's obsession with personal freedoms versus society's rights as a whole.

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And that was in 1998

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Don't give them any ideas

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Am I understanding you correctly? There is a standard somewhere that says you can't have tires of a certain width on a car unless the car is also broad?

Why is that even a requirement? I thought broad tires were safer, why would the width of the car have anything to do with it?

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So... The car equivalent of adding those extra cucumber slices to the burger so it doesn't count as a confectionery item?

Zement

Remember the times when Humvees were considered big and stupid to drive in civilian applications?

Alex

To be brief, some boneheads ages past decided to class vehicles based on footprint rather than simply weight.

🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️

I like how the wing mirrors look like actual wings.

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No, you're not understanding me correctly. Mostly because I misspoke, so that's on me, not you.

The contact patches I was talking about are the corners of the rectangle. Everything between the wheels is the footprint.

The area of the footprint basically determines the minimum MPG you can have. (The more complicated point is that it is related to all the vehicles you produce rather than a specific minimum, but that overcomplicates the issue. The point is that CAFE standards provide strong incentives for manufacturers to increase the "footprints" of their vehicles. The larger the footprint they can claim, the less MPG improvement they need to make. So, longer and wider wheelbases.

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*NHTSA, but yes.

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In all honesty, the wideness of modern cars may actually be their downfall. I live in a suburban area (Not US, but that doesn't matter it's become everyone's problem.) and the roads were designed for cars to be parked on either side and two, narrow lanes in the middle where people could, slowly, get past each other, with a certain amount of tolerance (i.e. space).

Then came an EPA ruling in the states (late 90's I think) and trucks were immune to sensible laws and all the car companies made trucks that were immune to being too wide (among other things). They became objects of desire. Cars followed, because everyone wants a thick phallus I guess, or maybe needs to see the road when there's a fat car next to them, or one with tinted windows, and I'm nowhere near to a legal solution in a global economy.

Practical upshot, local roads are only one lane wide because of fat cars parked on either side with no regard to practicality, add endless renovation because property development is the one true way to richness /s, even though rich people already own the good land, and control their local environment.

TLDR, fat cars break suburban roads.

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This comment has been made before, and the feedback from people who actually drive them is nobody is driving a dually for fun, the suspension just isn't set up to be driven empty. Also, they're massive vehicles even by US standards.

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Top of the line in utility sports, unexplained fires are a matter for the courts