CUV's and #45 Are The Same (Updated)

"flatisflat" (flatisflat) 10/01/2020 at 15:52 • Filed to: None

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(Update: proof for this pudding — I put a 2" lift and a trailer hitch on my Clubman. Because ‘capabilities’ and peace of mind.)

(I aim to not get ...much... more political than the allusion made in the title)  

We’re all aware of the general disdain that the rising swarm of SUV’s, CUV’s, and UV’s (Ah!) are receiving. They’re everywhere and there doesn’t appear to be much of a change in course for our near futures.

While not a new concept, my belief is that the proliferation of ‘utility vehicles’ in America is a direct result of our general existential insecurities, and here’s why:

While it can be easily argued that many of the utility vehicle offerings on the market today are hardly any better (if not worse) than the capable cars and hatchbacks they have inevitably replaced, its the philosophical premise by which those cars exist that has led to their market dominance.

To start, what all do ‘utility vehicles’ offer?

Ride Height: or, in practicality, the seating height of the pilot.

Interior Capacity: (we’ll touch on the actual vs. perception of this one later)

Off-Road Capable: (again, same here)

Ride height, or simply the driver’s eye-line height, has been covered before and it is more or less accepted that the ‘commanding view’ available from a slightly higher seating position is a benefit. Yes, with all the cars getting larger, this can become moot, but having both a longer / wider field of vision betwixt the other land yachts around ye, and also having an advantage over the option of a normal car which is set even lower amongst the behemoths, the increased ride height becomes an automatic ‘yes’ for many. The trend has already been established: we like big (and we more often than not have the space for it in this country).

Interior capacity is more tricky. I believe it was items such as the Nissan Juke where a CUV had demonstrably worse cabin capacity versus its hatchback variants, so what’s the point? And I believe this comes down to the options, and the fact that there aren’t really any. If a manufacturer is set to design a CUV, and style it in such a way that they hope will garner the views, then whatever space they have leftover is simply what they’re left with after they’ve engineered all the necessary packaging. And it’s (except for the Germans) not like they’re going to design a CUV sedan — but that in itself is a privileged ‘clapback’ against the premise I’m touching upon in general here. The CUV is going to have a bubble-butt; it’s going to be a tall hatchback; it will default to a shape that takes advantage of its footprint, because the illusion of ‘options and capabilities’ is primarily what is at stake here, and the appearance of more can win out in the end.

Off-road capability: this is moot because it doesn’t matter, and thus has been reduced to a styling exercise in nearly all cases. We are not all off-roading. We are hardly dirt’ing. And it better be hard-packed and named on Google Maps.

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So, why is this all happening? Because Americans are generally insecure about their present and their futures, and have been for some time.

The argument that “everybody doesn’t need a 3-row SUV” is really just a variation of the general truth that “nobody who desires any one thing neeeeeds that thing full-time”.

Insecurity is a fickle b****. A desire for a 3-row SUV isn’t necessarily birthed from a conscientious choice. A desire for an increased ride height and the fiction of off-road capabilities isn’t either, necessarily. These things are, I believe, a consequence of the choosing to ‘not go without’ when faced with purchasing a new vehicle. They could choose a car, but not have the added ‘what if’ capabilities of a hatchback. They could choose a hatchback, but miss out on the ‘what if’ capabilities of not feeling swarmed by the taller vehicles around them — which also applies directly back to the car option. And in the case where they may have previously preferred a car over a hatchback, the ‘what if’ insecurities that a CUV / SUV answer immediately bypasses that buyer straight from sedan to CUV, thus negating the entirety of the “why don’t they just buy a hatchback?” because they weren’t looking at hatchbacks in the first place.

It’s the accepted aesthetic of the ‘strong’ SUV vs. the ho-hum oldschool wagon (or heaven forbid minivan!) that also has accelerated this general market push. But again, when purchasing a new vehicle these days, who wants to spend $40K on something they feel they’ll have to defend the purchase of — whether overtly or just internally?

All of this is part and parcel to our insecurities, and especially as it applies to big ticket items such as a car. We’re asked (plainly or discreetly as an effect of technology advancements) to do much more with our time and resources than perhaps ever before, and yet it is pretty clear that there are generations currently living a life with weakened and shifting career options and a salt bae sprinkling of economic downturns over the past 20 years to make matters worse. Communities are now online and global, but that also means you likely don’t know most of your neighbors and can’t borrow their truck in a pinch. Both parents work which also likely means that either will be responsible in a moment’s notice to pick up the kid(s) from practice-oh and could you also give her teammates A and B a ride home? The answer is not Miata.

Things simply are not as secure for us in this country as they have been before (everyone walking around with a $1K computer in their pockets is not an example to the contrary), and we all react in kind. At that point, a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . And for a number of people, so too does an unhinged candidate that isn’t actually the better option, because insecurity is a fickle b****.

Jb boin > flatisflat 10/01/2020 at 20:11

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To be fair, CUV are also a big thing now in Europe but most are small, like... Ecosport sized to a Tiguan.

I also don’t like it much but at least those are not really about insecurities but rather about being slightly more practical and comfortable for the average people and i think the looks as it’s slightly more massive while not having to be longer and larger (size maters in Europe but in reverse compared to the US ) .