No doubt, Americans are slowly getting pushed out of their trucks and into smaller, fuel-efficient cars. People who drive trucks probably don’t care for small cars, because they don’t want to give up their high view of the road ahead, the interior space, the brute power and the impression that they’re king of the road.
And what’s wrong with small cars, anyway? Will your neighbours think your career is going down the drain or your mortgage payment has skyrocketed just because you traded in your Ford Explorer for a Fiesta? Ok, maybe they will. Materialists.
The problem is that the passenger vehicle has become a status symbol; what you drive is what you are. The logo on the grille of your car or truck is soooo important. Now who created this mess? Us, the buying public, or vehicle manufacturers who convinced us that buying bigger, more powerful and more-expensive vehicles was great for our image? Hmm…
Well, the human being is like that. And you can’t blame manufacturers for starting this type of trend. After all, a dealer makes more profit on a $60,000 luxury SUV than on a $30,000 car. They can charge more for maintenance and repair costs on the luxury SUV because their owners have more money to spend on it.
But now, manufacturers are forced to drastically lower the fuel economy average of their product line-up, and because being environmentally-friendly is cool, small cars are dominating the show car circuit right now.
This year, look for the Ford Fiesta, the Mazda2 and the Scion brand to arrive in Canada. Chevrolet will eventually introduce either a new Aveo or the Spark, or both. Mitsubishi might very well bring the Colt to North America, and VW will sell the Polo here too. We’re also expecting Chrysler to launch the Fiat 500 within the next year.
Oh, and if you haven’t driven a subcompact lately and still think they’re cheap, noisy, slow and unsafe, guess again. They’re as refined as ever and now loaded with plenty of airbags, electronic stability control, heated leather seats, navigation systems and killer stereos.
It’s time to realize that trucks are out and small cars are in. And that’s good for us consumers. Can we collectively agree that driving a subcompact car isn’t shameful?
And what’s wrong with small cars, anyway? Will your neighbours think your career is going down the drain or your mortgage payment has skyrocketed just because you traded in your Ford Explorer for a Fiesta? Ok, maybe they will. Materialists.
The problem is that the passenger vehicle has become a status symbol; what you drive is what you are. The logo on the grille of your car or truck is soooo important. Now who created this mess? Us, the buying public, or vehicle manufacturers who convinced us that buying bigger, more powerful and more-expensive vehicles was great for our image? Hmm…
Well, the human being is like that. And you can’t blame manufacturers for starting this type of trend. After all, a dealer makes more profit on a $60,000 luxury SUV than on a $30,000 car. They can charge more for maintenance and repair costs on the luxury SUV because their owners have more money to spend on it.
But now, manufacturers are forced to drastically lower the fuel economy average of their product line-up, and because being environmentally-friendly is cool, small cars are dominating the show car circuit right now.
This year, look for the Ford Fiesta, the Mazda2 and the Scion brand to arrive in Canada. Chevrolet will eventually introduce either a new Aveo or the Spark, or both. Mitsubishi might very well bring the Colt to North America, and VW will sell the Polo here too. We’re also expecting Chrysler to launch the Fiat 500 within the next year.
Oh, and if you haven’t driven a subcompact lately and still think they’re cheap, noisy, slow and unsafe, guess again. They’re as refined as ever and now loaded with plenty of airbags, electronic stability control, heated leather seats, navigation systems and killer stereos.
It’s time to realize that trucks are out and small cars are in. And that’s good for us consumers. Can we collectively agree that driving a subcompact car isn’t shameful?