I’d guess it’s mostly about fuel efficiency which is legitimate. I think the Tahoe falls into a light truck category because it’s on a truck frame. Not sure about the newest models, but it was on a truck frame for most of its existence, and those towing ratings are higher than ever.
“Light trucks” or vehicles like large SUVs don’t have to meet the same efficiency standards as most cars, minivans and smaller SUVs which often use more of unibody frame. It’s bad regulation at work.
Okay. How close are we to that? How about giving a huge bump to minimum wage and tying increases to inflation, now? Even the Dems aren’t running on this.
That’s honestly crazy. I used to joke that the van has 13 cupholders and 7 seats because in Korea it’s a 13 seater. But in what world are you using 18?
Ah, so they’re going to go with the ol’ “At least we’re not Republicans” strategy. How about better wages? Medicare for all? Fucking stand for something, anything! I guess they do though: continued wars, wall street and neoliberalism.
It’s already been built wrong, and redoing those places will take decades and will cost trillions. They have been adding little token projects here or there, but our zoning still doesn’t even require sidewalks or bike lanes for new construction. So honestly we’re generations from it at the pace we’re moving. We could pay living wages now though.
I know a lot of people around here aren’t a fan of cars, but minimum wage workers need to be able to afford one. And even used cars have gotten crazy expensive. Even if you can find a cheap used shit box it’ll need expensive repairs quickly.
I know there are places where this isn’t true, but where I live, if you don’t have a car, you can’t get to work, the grocery store, or anywhere really. If you try to ride a bike, you will die. If you try to ride an escooter you’ll get ticketed for riding it in the driving lane, and even if it were legal it wouldn’t be an option in the winter when they don’t even clear the whole road of snow and ice. People go homeless before they give up having a car.
I live in a pretty conservative area. I might pay $15k for a brand new one.
I currently own a Kia Sedona but as I explained in another comment I only use it to drive two miles or less on flat ground. It came in two wheelbase lengths, and we have the longer wheelbase so there’s a decent amount of space for luggage, but I can’t drive it anywhere I would bring luggage.
Most modern minivans are smaller than that Sedona and have significantly less cargo space. If you’ve never driven or ridden in a Tahoe, they are bigger on the inside, no question. Yeah they’re higher off the ground, but they’re taller, wider and longer. So if everyone has a small suitcase and a backpack, even if only the suitcases fit in the back, the backpacks can fit in the seating space much more comfortably than in a van.
Also, I’ve never intentionally rented a Tahoe. I try to rent a minivan, I get a Tahoe. But they are more comfortable for a group of six, and that matters if you’re driving 17 hours straight or something like that.
Wow. My old broke down Kia minivan has thirteen cupholders.
That is really cool, I wish it was more practical for me, and that is more than just the expensive price tag. I’ve purchased quite a few new vehicles, but none of them were ever over $22k. I do like a lot about it, but I also regularly drive long distances on remote dirt/unimproved roads and sometimes drive cross country for 20 hours nonstop. So for now a smaller vehicle with more ground clearance and range makes more sense.
Yes, technically I own one but it has major issues and we use it only as our version of a truck to go the two miles to the local Home Depot. It loses all power and will stop if you try to drive it up a hill. But I can fit a full sheet of plywood in the back with the middle seats out. We’ve tried renting minivans, but we’ve had two problems.
One is that they’re never available - they’ll take your reservation but when you show up to get it there are none available so they substitute a large SUV like a Chevy Tahoe. A Tahoe has way more space and would cost more to rent, which are benefits, but they’re also far less fuel efficient which isn’t great.
The other problem is space. A minivan can move six people but modern minivans don’t really have space for luggage for six people for nine days in the back. I even own a nice hard sided roof luggage carrier I use with my Subaru Crosstrek, but rentals never have the roof bars you need to mount it up there.
For now, our little cars are decently fuel efficient. I would consider buying another minivan but our youngest is 15 so I think at some point soon we’ll need less people-carrying capacity.
We have pretty small cars but we often are transporting six people. So we end up driving two cars pretty regularly. It’s not so bad when we’re just going across town, but we’re traveling to Toronto and Florida for two trips this summer. We have rented a big SUV for trips like that before, but it costs more overall and sometimes it’s nice to have two vehicles while we’re there because we don’t all six want to go the same place every moment of our week.
Most big SUVs I see have one person in them though.
This is mostly true, especially in communities like this. I do know a couple of guys who are the complete opposite politically - ultra conservative Christians. But when they need forum support and encounter this part of the community it just makes them stronger in their opinion that the world needs Jesus.
A lot of us are here because we burned our Reddit accounts and walked away.
These went up all over my area in 2024. They’re at every major intersection. You can’t go anywhere in town without passing them continuously. There is no route to avoid them. I fucking hate this shit.
Point taken! I was just trying to not completely disagree to be nice. I guess I didn’t think it through. The US government is a beast that has tried to hide itself from the people with lies and propaganda for a long time. The info that came out about JFK’s assassination recently gives a glimpse that it’s been going on for a long time.
I’m not a fan of Trump, but neither is the deep state war & money machine. They’re trying to stir up violence from the left to goad Trump into further eroding our right to protest and other rights. It’s why they fund both parties and widen political rifts. They win no matter who wins any given election.
My area is deadly, you can’t walk or bike. Seriously no one bikes. You WILL die. A few people walk, but mostly drug addicts, prostitutes. Most people, even if their license is suspended for DUI, they just keep driving. It’s super dangerous to do anything else.
One time I dropped my car off at the tire shop two miles away and decided to walk home because it was going to be at least a few hours and I knew I had a ride back later. I was dressed semi-nicely so I looked out of place walking the road. In a 3/4 mile strip of road I had four cars stop to offer me a ride.
The US has shit for manufacturing. There are so many deserted towns because it all moved to China and Mexico, Bangladesh or wherever because companies said line must keep going up.
Finally, an actual shitpost.
The DNC is bought and paid for by oligarchs. Almost all of the richest US billionaires lean Democrat. Musk is an anomaly, and look how he’s been targeted. I’m not saying it’s entirely unmerited.
So of course the oligarchs want the working class disarmed. And they don’t want populist candidates who want to improve people’s lives and cut into profits which is why the Democrats haven’t had a real primary in awhile.
The oligarchs also fund republicans hoping to control them the same way, but Trump got elected anyway. You might actually hate him 20% less if the bought corporate media hadn’t been weaponized against him. A lot of his positions were Democrat positions twenty years ago. Hillary had some crazy “deport the illegals” quotes back in the day.