I recently inherited an older Toyota Sienna and it's made me realize the current crop of 3 row SUVs and gigantic trucks is mostly sold to people who would absolutely love a minivan but just don't know it.

• I've got more cargo space than any truck I pass on the road made in this century
• I can fit my entire family plus drag along multiple friends and still have space for everyone's bags
• I can stand and walk through the interior if desired, even climbing to the far back from the front seat
• the sliding doors mean you can get in and out of the vehicle from any parking spot without a door in the way
• it's got a turn radius so short that I can do a full U-turn without reversing on any road or parking lot
• the high seat+low nose means I can nussle up within inches of a vehicle in front of me and still see the bumper
• the engine is has enough power to be comparable to some small locomotives.

I would never have bought a minivan on account of the gas milage (~20mpg just ain't great, and filling up the 25 gallon tank every week hurts the pocket book way more than my crossover that I got before I knew snow tires were a thing) but holy crap having this much space for people/stuff is incredible and I thoroughly enjoy playing bus/truck with it for all of my friends and family. For anyone who's considered a truck/3-row SUV to be a requirement, they need to do themselves a favor and try out a minivan

WV

Ah, the Wolksvagen.

I drive a 2001 Toyota MR2. My 7 yo step daughter is taller than the entire car. When I'm next to most vehicles, the top of my car is below their windows.

Even drive thrus I'm usually lower than the window.

I love my little car, it's more capable than people think. I can easily get all the groceries I need, I've picked people up from the airport with their luggage in it. (I have a luggage rack on the back.) But I am concerned about people seeing me and am wary of it.

I really want a large electric station vagon, or even better an electric camper with decent range.

Hopefully its just a few years away.

Convertibles and coupes are also a dying breed.

this is the only new car I would consider buying. Of course, if they did offer it in my market, it would be full of touch screens and spyware, so I still wouldn't buy it

Here in Australia there's the new Deepal E07 which is a weird and interesting concept. Looks like a sedan / truck / station wagon all in one.

I love mt Subaru Levorg (aside from its fuel consumption), I wish they made a new version with an electric drivetrain, instead they made the fuckin Solterra

Yes! Me too. I think the only option at the moment is the MG5 here in Europe.

VW ID7 was advertised as the new Passat stationwagen.

It ended up just being a standard sedan with more tacky LEDs on the outside starting at like € 70k

Taycan Cross Turismo or Sport Turismo is incredible. It had better be for its sticker price tho. But they're probably great on the used market.

In the interim, the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports Hybrid is an excellent alternative. Versatile, spacious, fuel efficient, reliable, and dare I say quite attractive as well. The Toyota Prius V / α also deserves a shout out

There’s also the Opel Astra electric.

Back before any good electric vehicles I drove a station wagon and I was following all the EV news in the hope of converting it to electric (the V6 ecotech was thirsty).

There was an Australian consortium of car industry companies proposing that the Australian car industry could continue, specialising in electric muscle cars, and their demo was the sedan version of the same model as mine

That came to nothing

Then there was the US company AC Propulsion which was producing kits for converting a car to electric, but the lead acid batteries of then would prevent the car carrying a load

That got funded by Musk and became Tesla. Tesla has never made a wagon

I think Chinese Volvo sells a wagon, but I don't really need one anymore

And it probably fits more stuff!

Hi, it's me your long lost cousin!

I don't see SUV's much, but I frequently see 90's (or other decades).

In the case of SUVs, it's not primarily the oil lobby, it's car manufacturers. Put simply, they get to charge way more than the extra materials costs, for a "premium" vehicle. They're making bank out of this shit.

Make cars a choice again. Not a necessity!

And watch car ownership rates plummet. Turns out most people would gladly save their car money for something else if they could.

Hell yeah, I want to have a horse and a wagon

Montana does this actually. Cars can do 60 for example, semis must go 50. Granted its not divided up for bro trucks and huge SUVs like it should be. Every state should. And speed limits slow down at night!

It'd be a difficult calculation to make. Bigger cars usually have better brakes and wider tires and in sporty trim levels of premium cars those can even help them stop faster than smaller cars.

Audi RS4 with it's sporty brakes, stops 1800 KG down from 140 km/h to 0 in 65 meters. Corolla 1.8 hybrid will do 130 to 0 in 66. Weighs about 1400 KG. Yes I cherrypicked it, but that's the point.

The extra weight actually helps grip so that cancels it out somewhat.

And yes, you'll be hurt more if you're hit by a bigger car at the same speed - but speed matters more (energy equals mass times velocity squared after all) and if the bigger car is able to stop faster, that means it's more survivable, assuming the driver or some driver aid system does indeed try and slow down the car - if not, then the heavier car is for sure more dangerous.

My grandad had one, a 1.4 "Eclipse". Granted he was a mechanic and very handy at fixing his own cars but that thing was super reliable. Now the Orion he got it to replace was another story, utterly useless hunk of crap. Technically the same car but still...

Deeply insecure men buy pickup trucks with hoods I can barely see over. SUVs and their perception of "safety", storage space, and ride height are why women are the primary purchasers.

AFAIK, they only sell full-size minivans in the US. I don't think I've seen any smaller ones since the Mazda 5 was discontinued.

The availability of crossovers in every size category means you can get the size you want.

SUVs exist because they cost roughly $1,000 more to make but consumers are willing to pay $3-4,000 for an SUV than a car. That's it. As always. The answer is our Lord, and savior - Money.

https://youtu.be/JPm4de6-eTg

Turning a corner was like opening a submarine hatch. The brakes locked up causing more accidents and deaths. The suspension allowed the cars to roll easier. And if you were hit by one of them, you had a much higher chance of severe injury or death due to the lack of crumple zone.

People really need to stop looking for solutions to modern problems by looking to the past at the things that were the reason we ended up with the modern problems.

I mean they were built for the 70's gas crunch, it makes sense they were good on gas. The SUVslop and TruckSlop we see today is largely emissions control dodging, feature carcinization, alongside a healthy dose of Jevons Paradox. Reject modern car design, demand smaller cars.

Friend of mine always buys Honda, starting in the 1980’s. At the time it was an Accord and civics were tiny, but the consistent choice made it easy to watch it grow. At some point, I think early 2000’s, he switched to Civics, because they were bigger than his original Accord

Minivans/MPVs are so much better family cars in practice it isn't even funny.

They are comfier. Less ground clearance drives better and is more economical. They are actually effective at occasional cargo hauling. And so on. Luckily they seem on the uptick, SUVs are a devolution in practical aspects.