Comment on The cheap ones leave the best residue
Sordid_Seraphim@lemmy.zip 5 days agoIf I were to hazard a guess you guys are also probably less reliant. Here vehicles are used to get anywhere and an increase to this much even if less expensive then you guys is enough that some people can’t afford food anymore.
Molvorin@feddit.dk 5 days ago
Personally I have 5 miles to the closest grocery store and 11 miles to work.
Its not crazy long, but long enough to need a car because there are no busses or trains and cycling or scooters isn’t always safe in the weather that we get here.
My confusion though is, why cars over there use so much more gas when, as you say, people need them. I’d assume that smaller more economical cars would be more popular in a country where distances are long
Further more, I think that the issue about not affording food, comes down to wages and not gas prices
Sordid_Seraphim@lemmy.zip 5 days ago
Nobody can afford economic cars, vehicle arms race, and light truck legislation.
The vehicle arms race is the increasingly large vehicles. SUVs are considered light trucks and light trucks have legislation which allows for them to be less fuel efficient. This encourages less efficient vehicles to roam the street and makes riding bikes and motorcycles much less safe which further encourages the arms race.
Molvorin@feddit.dk 5 days ago
Very interesting. I didn’t know this
We need two cars. One of them is annolder microcar (Suzuki Splash) and it does fine on our roads with 80 mph speed limits
Cars here are taxed every half year depending on how economic they are. The more they use the more they cost
Sordid_Seraphim@lemmy.zip 5 days ago
Microcars aren’t able to travel above 25mph for the most part because of safety regulations. So what we do have here are a bunch of LSV rated microcars which can’t be used on many streets.
kestrel7_7@lemmy.world 4 days ago
This is a great point, it kind of ends up being both in the USA right now, especially the price of gas keeps increasing while many peoples’ wages have remained pretty stagnant.
USA min wage, 2000: $7.25/hour. Average gas cost for the year was around: $1.40/gallon
USA min wage, 2026: $7.25/hour. Average gas cost today: $4.36
Sure, lots of people make more than minimum wage, but lots of people make less, too (if they get tipped).
I am also confused about this one 😂 despite living here my whole life. I have a small hatchback of a particular model that’s pretty common in Europe/Asia and kinda rare in the USA. People are often shocked by how small it is. My ex-gf’s mom (from a rural area/“big truck country”) was like straight up offended by how small my car was. Every time I travel in Europe I’m like “omg, everyone here has cars like mine, this is so nice” People don’t even understand the fringe benefits beyond fuel efficiency. My car is easy for others to see around, so traffic flows better around me. I can park it anywhere, because there’s almost always a place that the huge American cars gave up on trying to fit into. I even get discounts on ferries because my car is so small!
I think most Americans just don’t understand how much fun small cars can be, they want more room to haul more stuff and people (even though most of us already have too much stuff & not enough friends, boom roasted)
Molvorin@feddit.dk 4 days ago
Now I am curious. What car don’t have?
We gave a Suzuki Splash. It is still a small car but not even close to the smallest ones I often see around here.
Sure its not as comfortable, especially on long drives on the motorway (speed limit 80m/h) but the benefits counter that by quite a lot!
kestrel7_7@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Yeah that’s basically the type of car I’m talking about. Mine is a Toyota Yaris but yeah. When I was in Italy I drove my friend’s Chevy Matiz and I was like. This is made by an American company, but they don’t sell it in the USA! It’s bonkers