Why do people buy SUVs?

[MuskIsACnt]

I need a new car and I’ve always had a small car but it seems every other car now is an SUV, so I’m wondering why and whether I need one.

The boot space is often the same as smaller cars, they’re more expensive and arguably harder to park. Am I missing some great benefit that I should be considering? Or does driving a big car just make people feel big (I used to drive a Luton van and that made me feel big)?

I was out driving today and concluded part of it must be fashion.

If you think of the best description I can come up with for a SUV, big car, boxy in shape and raised of the ground.
I'm sure vintage cars like Model T ford would fit that description.

So we have gone from high up boxy cars, to the 50s curvey cars, to low down hot hatches, back to high up boxy cars.

Part of it is fashion part of it is they are easier to get in and out off.

The interesting thing about this test is that it replicates a head-on collision between two identical vehicles each travelling at 40mph. It would’ve been interesting to see the Fiesta and Landrover head-on at 40mph.

I'm going to give credit to Fiesta my neices was written off by a truck, bounced of barriers, both occupants walked away. Result! The car did its job protected them.

That is an interesting point. In the real world the bigger and heavier a vehicle is, the more likely its driver is to survive a collision.

If you poke around on the IIHS website you can find statistics that confirm this.

https://www.iihs.org/ratings/driver-death-rates-by-make-and-model

It’s a head on collision with a concrete block not a similar vehicle. However, the fiesta may come off worse in a collision with a Land Rover than the concrete block, particularly if it’s oncoming and adds force. The Land Rover is still going to come off worse whether it’s a concrete block or a smaller car because it doesn’t have the protection built in. It will crumble at various points on impact that the fiesta is designed to withstand. I’d guess, and it is a complete guess, that a concrete block weighs more than a Land Rover. Someone else can google that.

I don’t think that’s how science works. The car may be heavier but if it’s not designed to take the impact well, then in won’t.

It*

The concrete block represents the other vehicle. A single car into a concrete block at 40mph is the same as two identical cars head-on each travelling at 40mph. All three of those cars effectively have to dissipate their own kinetic energy within their crumple zones and so the damage will be virtually identical.

It’s all about the energy involved though, in Fiesta vs Land Rover there’s more kinetic energy to dissipate than in the Fiesta va Fiesta scenario.

I understand it’s the energy involved but hitting a concrete block would not be the same as hitting an identical car because it simply isn’t an identical car and it’s a static object.

Yes, it really would.

If you doubt the science, read the accident statistics gathered by IIIHS. As a driver of a big car you are less likely to be killed in a collision with another car than the driver of a small car. By some margin.

I’m not doubting that a bigger car causes more damage. I’m saying that just because a car is little, doesn’t mean it is less safe than a big car.

To clarify, a large and small car both hit the same fiesta. The large car will cause more damage. Any car hits the Land Rover and the Land Rover will receive more damage because it is not designed to take the impact.

Then why do proportionately more people die while driving small cars and fewer die driving big ones?

I was surprised too, but unless I have misinterpreted the tables, it seems clear from the link posted above.

It is designed to take the impact. Because there is less energy transferred from the Fiesta to the Freelander than there would be if a Freelander hit a Freelander, the damage to the Freelander will be less severe.

It's because the large cars are using the small cars as their crumple zone