[Ex Finn.]

is snow not that bad to drive on

Snow is really fun to drive on, helps to have some traction thou. Ice, need to have studded tires.

[ChrisPlatt]

One problem with driving in snow now is that most new cars have very low ground clearance.
Several inches of accumulation and that front spoiler becomes an easily damaged snowplow...

Chris

[monochrome]

One problem with driving in snow now is that most new cars have very low ground clearance.
Several inches of accumulation and that front spoiler becomes an easily damaged snowplow...

Chris

The bottom of the radiator is right behind that splitter, too, as my son can attest from our last moderate wet snowfall.

[ThorSanchez]

One problem with driving in snow now is that most new cars have very low ground clearance.
Several inches of accumulation and that front spoiler becomes an easily damaged snowplow...

Chris

Here in Maryland it seems that almost everyone does their 30-mile commute in a large $40-70k 3-row SUV or jacked up crew cab pickup truck or Jeep Wrangler that gets 17 mpg because three days a year it snows 4" and there just might be a meeting they absolutely can't miss.

[monochrome]

Here in Maryland it seems that almost everyone does their 30-mile commute in a large $40-70k 3-row SUV or jacked up crew cab pickup truck or Jeep Wrangler that gets 17 mpg because three days a year it snows 4" and there just might be a meeting they absolutely can't miss.

In St. Louis Suburbans and Escalades are driven by 5’2” women ferrying their children to and from parochial school and endless after school select soccer and volleyball, dance recitals and Catechism. Men in ties drive 6.2L Ford Raptors with car seats in the rear cab section. A Wrangler Rubicon LWB hardtop is the vehicle of choice for all female teen drivers.

.:

[timw4mail]

In St. Louis Suburbans and Escalades are driven by 5’2” women ferrying their children to and from parochial school and endless after school select soccer and volleyball, dance recitals and Catechism. Men in ties drive 6.2L Ford Raptors with car seats in the rear cab section. A Wrangler Rubicon LWB hardtop is the vehicle of choice for all female teen drivers.

.:

I despise large vehicles, so I drove a Scion iQ...then that was totalled, so now I drive a Mitsubishi Mirage,

The Mirage has its winter shoes, so I'm ready.

[lesmore49]

I despise large vehicles, so I drove a Scion iQ...then that was totalled, so now I drive a Mitsubishi Mirage,

The Mirage has its winter shoes, so I'm ready.

I don't fit in small cars. I'm 6' 3" +, 240 lbs. +, have broad shoulders, long legs and have a knee that I need to straighten out, due to a hockey injury (played defense) many decades ago. I have tried just about every small and medium car on the market and I invariably don't have enough leg room, shoulder room or my head hits the ceiling of the car...so if you're bigger than average...what do you do ? You buy a large car , truck or SUV that you can fit in.

You use the word 'despise' large vehicles...why ? I drive two large sedans that get pretty good highway MPG...in fact just about 1.5 to 2.0 MPG less on the highway, than our 2007 Toyota Matrix with it's 1.8 liter,4 cylinder...and...for example... we can take 6 passengers in our large Buick sedan with it's 3.8 liter V6...much more cost effective driving on highway trips. I fit comfortably in the large Buick, don't fit well in our Toyota Matrix...which was my wife's car...she's small, 5' 3"...so fits in smaller vehicles.

[monochrome]

When I did drive a 4WD Suburban in the 2000’s it had 5 or more passengers plus their personal gear inside 125 days a year and the front transfer case was engaged 2 days out of 7.

[timw4mail]

I don't fit in small cars. I'm 6' 3" +, 240 lbs. +, have broad shoulders, long legs and have a knee that I need to straighten out, due to a hockey injury (played defense) many decades ago. I have tried just about every small and medium car on the market and I invariably don't have enough leg room, shoulder room or my head hits the ceiling of the car...so if you're bigger than average...what do you do ? You buy a large car , truck or SUV that you can fit in.

You use the word 'despise' large vehicles...why ? I drive two large sedans that get pretty good highway MPG...in fact just about 1.5 to 2.0 MPG less on the highway, than our 2007 Toyota Matrix with it's 1.8 liter,4 cylinder...and...for example... we can take 6 passengers in our large Buick sedan with it's 3.8 liter V6...much more cost effective driving on highway trips. I fit comfortably in the large Buick, don't fit well in our Toyota Matrix...which was my wife's car...she's small, 5' 3"...so fits in smaller vehicles.

Mostly generalizations like: they are driven recklessly, the headlights are too high (especially trucks), the bumpers are too high, they take up more space on the road (often without extra passengers), and bigger vehicles always seem to have terrible visibility, especially at the sides/rear, and have large blind spots.


Not to mention the dwindling options for people who want small vehicles, because of the large vehicle buying trends.

[ThorSanchez]

In St. Louis Suburbans and Escalades are driven by 5’2” women ferrying their children to and from parochial school and endless after school select soccer and volleyball, dance recitals and Catechism. Men in ties drive 6.2L Ford Raptors with car seats in the rear cab section. A Wrangler Rubicon LWB hardtop is the vehicle of choice for all female teen drivers.

.:

You never know when the trip between your suburban housing development and the nondescript office park and the soccer field might require fording a river.

---------- Post added 10-23-18 at 03:03 PM ----------

I don't fit in small cars. I'm 6' 3" +, 240 lbs. +, have broad shoulders, long legs and have a knee that I need to straighten out, due to a hockey injury (played defense) many decades ago. I have tried just about every small and medium car on the market and I invariably don't have enough leg room, shoulder room or my head hits the ceiling of the car...so if you're bigger than average...what do you do ? You buy a large car , truck or SUV that you can fit in.

You use the word 'despise' large vehicles...why ? I drive two large sedans that get pretty good highway MPG...in fact just about 1.5 to 2.0 MPG less on the highway, than our 2007 Toyota Matrix with it's 1.8 liter,4 cylinder...and...for example... we can take 6 passengers in our large Buick sedan with it's 3.8 liter V6...much more cost effective driving on highway trips. I fit comfortably in the large Buick, don't fit well in our Toyota Matrix...which was my wife's car...she's small, 5' 3"...so fits in smaller vehicles.

You're probably in the 95th percentile of human size. Most folks can get by with a moderately sized car that has moderately sized car handling and fuel economy and fun.

---------- Post added 10-23-18 at 03:05 PM ----------

Mostly generalizations like: they are driven recklessly, the headlights are too high (especially trucks), the bumpers are too high, they take up more space on the road (often without extra passengers), and bigger vehicles always seem to have terrible visibility, especially at the sides/rear, and have large blind spots.

Not to mention the dwindling options for people who want small vehicles, because of the large vehicle buying trends.

I love that the hood of what passes for a normal sized pickup or SUV is taller than the roofline of my Audi S4. It's nice of them to put the bumper at the optimal height to decapitate someone with the audacity to drive a car.

[Just1MoreDave]

When I'm parking my wife's car, I look for an end spot and put the car all the way to one side, to reduce the possibility of someone else opening a door into it. Frequently we come back to the car and find a full size SUV next to us. It feels like they are out to get me. What I think happens is the SUV sees the wide space I created, ideal for docking the barge.

[Canada_Rockies]

If you are driving anything larger than a Mini Cooper, it seems the companies pack more parking spaces into a place than it can reasonably hold. Our Tundra isn't all that big, and it is a pain to park in some parking lots. I'm really happy when my wife comes along. She's handicapped. With sticker. With need, too, unfortunately.

[lesmore49]

If you are driving anything larger than a Mini Cooper, it seems the companies pack more parking spaces into a place than it can reasonably hold. Our Tundra isn't all that big, and it is a pain to park in some parking lots. I'm really happy when my wife comes along. She's handicapped. With sticker. With need, too, unfortunately.

I agree with you and know exactly what you mean. Parking lot space in the past 25 years seem to have become smaller. To the point that I now park our vehicles at the edge of parking lots where few others park. I do that primarily to avoid door dings...from careless drivers/passengers who when they get out, whip open their vehicle doors into whatever car is next to them. However as I get older, I can see the end of this practice stopping for me. I won't have the energy to walk the extra distance in another 10 years or possibly less.

About a decade ago I asked a buddy who has civil engineering background how companies determined how many parking space could be put into different sized lots. He replied that companies have a formula they use. Essentially they consider the different sizes of the vehicles that will use the parking lot and then determine what would be a reasonable space in terms of square feet to accommodate vehicles.

Once they determine that a certain amount of square footage for each parking space is required to reasonably accommodate 10 vehicles of varying sizes, they than subtract the square foot total by a factor of one third and cram as many vehicles into that given space as they possibly can.

I may joke about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if that is how parking space requirements are figured out.

---------- Post added 10-23-18 at 03:30 PM ----------

Y
---------- Post added 10-23-18 at 03:03 PM ----------

[/COLOR]

You're probably in the 95th percentile of human size. Most folks can get by with a moderately sized car that has moderately sized car handling and fuel economy and fun.

---------- Post added 10-23-18 at 03:05 PM ----------

I could well be in the 95th percentile. One thing I've noticed over the past 10-15 years however is that people my size are no longer out of the ordinary. With each generation, there seem to be more people who would fit the large or XL category..and I think manufacturers if they're wise, will start designing to accommodate larger drivers. The areas I'm familiar with are Canada, the USA and western Europe.

[monochrome]

Most municipalities have a requirement that a commercial building provide a minimum number of parking spaces per square foot of floor space available for rent. Then they have zoning ordinances and hearings to negotiate the size of any parking garage associated with whatever building is proposed for a piece of land. Neighbors often don’t want a hulking behemoth parking garage abutting their property and existing commercial office buildings don’t want a new building to be more attractive than their outmoded, half emptty properties.

The two forces - ordinances and zoning review boards - often collide*, and the only malleable item is the size of the parking spaces.

* Standard sizes range from 8’ x 20’ to 9’ x 24’. That extra foot between cars (6” on either side of the line) is the difference between easy ingress/egress and pretzel contortions.

[Racer X 69]

I don't fit in small cars. I'm 6' 3" +, 240 lbs. +, have broad shoulders, long legs and have a knee that I need to straighten out, due to a hockey injury (played defense) many decades ago. I have tried just about every small and medium car on the market and I invariably don't have enough leg room, shoulder room or my head hits the ceiling of the car...so if you're bigger than average...what do you do ? You buy a large car , truck or SUV that you can fit in.

The early Datsun Z cars have lots of room. At just under 6' tall, I can move the seat back as far as it will go and not be able to reach the pedals. A 7' tall person can fit comfortably, and still have some room to slide the seat back a bit.

They get good fuel economy too.

And they are fun to drive.