That’s vehicles classified as “light duty” — pickup trucks.
All other vehicle classes are down in curb weight over that same period.
Yeah, show us the average numbers for all vehicles used for private personal transport then.
https://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/average-car-weight.html
The average weight of passenger and commercial vehicles has varied over time. The pickup truck, which is America’s best-selling vehicle style, has bulked up considerably since the mid-1970s. As of 2024, the pickup truck has an average weight increase of 30% from 1975. Other vehicle styles, such as sedans and wagons, have slimmed down by 10%.
You know, eventually you’ll need to learn how to use a search provider on your own.
You know, eventually you’ll need to learn how to use a search provider on your own.
Watch it. The only reason your comment didn’t get removed is that @Jiral found your link useful.
soft
Ah, ad hominem. Always nice.
Your quote does not answer my question, but the source you linked to actually did.
Average vehicle weight by year
2014: 4060 pounds
2024: 4419 pounds
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But those searches don’t tell me what I want to hear!
Another issue is that more people are buying “light duty” vehicles…
It’s infuriating. The number of trucks with their ass hanging out of driveways and parking spots is a legitimate public safety emergency.
And it’s probably worse than that graph seems to show… Since people are moving to a larger vehicle class mostly due to marketing rather than use case…
square metres
US-americans will get a stroke
I guess that will lessen the number of insanely sized cars and drivers then…
12 yards long, 2 lanes wide, 65 tons of American pride!
Can you name the truck with four wheel drive?
Smells like a steak and seats thirty-five.12 yards long, 2 lanes wide,
65 tons of American Pride!
She blinds everybody with her super high beams,
She’s a squirrel crushing, deer smacking, driving machine!
Top of the line in utility sports!
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
Fat people want big cars. You can overlay these graphs.
This would be interesting to see with height as well.
Anecdotal but I’m 6’1", vehicles like the Miata or BRZ or Tacomas sometimes make me wish I was shorter… and didn’t have chronic nerve issues in my legs that make small cars painful to sit in
I’m 6’3" and only drive small cars. The form fit the industry uses is the same from trucks to hatchbacks, but fat people prefer taller SUVs and trucks for entry/exit.
No, there is significantly less leg room in lower vehicles, which always have higher floors. I can go from comfy in a Tundra to knees in my chest in a Tacoma.
Ride height? Or height of the people?
If the former, that tracks. If you’re heavy-set, getting in an out of a sedan (for example) is just plain uncomfortable. Meanwhile, having a seat you can just swing your hips into, or even climb up into, probably works a lot better.
Yeah, meant people’s height.
There is a plausible causal relationship between these two measurements, though. Not proven (at least, not by anything @SaveTheTuaHawk wrote), but plausible.
Fat people are more comfortable in taller/wider vehicles. Ever watch a fat dude get out of a sports car? hilarious.
The 5 square meters are no accurate display of the pavement covered by those cars, because they’re much longer than just their wheelbase.
Has the average ratio changed over time?
I would’ve expected the ratio to actually shift the other way, where the wheelbase represents a larger percentage of the overall length/width of the vehicle, because American fuel economy regulations actually rewarded vehicles for having larger wheelbases. This killed small cars like the Honda Fit and small trucks like the Ford Ranger.
Also, it seems to be much easier to park vehicles whose front wheels are as far forward as possible. The greater the ratio of wheelbase to overall dimensions, the easier it is to maneuver, and anecdotally it seems easier to maneuver modern cars than cars from 25 years ago.
About double. American cars tend to be bigger so 5m long and 2m wide is probably a fair approximation. Hell, even in Europe the average car is probably something like 4,5m by 1,7m
The true measure is dick to floor.
After swimming or before?
I’m not sure it’s reasonable to directly complain about fast 0-60 times. Slower acceleration removes options and makes merging more difficult; not all high speed roads have onramps of adequate length.
Definitely agreed on weight.
The Y scale on the third graph is a joke; that’s like a 4% change over 20 years. Wheelbase is not the same as vehicle length.
I’m not sure it’s reasonable to directly complain about fast 0-60 times
It is certainly cause for concern when heavier and larger moving objects that are able to reach high speeds quicker are being controlled by increasingly more irresponsible people.
This is why there is an increase in SUVs crashing through shops when grandpa hits the wrong pedal.
0-20 times and 0-60 times are not necessarily closely correlated.
Could argue that’s due to a reduction in manual vehicles, or a reduction in driver competence / medical status.
Something that’s twice the weight with twice the horsepower only accelerates the same speed. Double the weight and keep the horsepower and you’ll go half as fast.
The graphs aren’t entirely 100% related to each other. The twice as fast acceleration average isn’t because of the double horsepower, that only works if the weight also isn’t doubles.
EVs have massive torque from zero speed. Horsepower is just a fake number derived from torque. A Model Y is both heavy and makes 500ftlbs torque immediately.
Horsepower is just a fake number derived from torque.
I don’t really disagree with your earlier comment, and I agree that the shape of the torque curve matters a lot when it comes to the practicalities and experience of driving a vehicle, but, uhh, what you said here is just completely wrong.
Force and speed (torque and RPM) are both components of power (horsepower is torque * RPM / 5253). Saying that the RPM, or time component, of that equation doesn’t matter is the same as saying it wouldn’t matter if it takes 10 seconds or 10 years for a crane to lift a load at a construction site, since its lifting the same weight either way.
To put it another way, with a long enough lever I can exert enough force to start a passenger train rolling down the tracks with just my own arms (and in fact, people do something similar using compound levers). But what that doesn’t let me do is move a passenger train at 200 MPH like high speed rail lines do. There is no arrangement of gears or mechanical linkages that will let a single human being power a high speed rail line like that, the human body does not have enough power output.
Both are very limited comparability especially between drive types.
Torque was normally measured ahead of the gearbox and that introduces a whole pile of extra messiness.
Power is relevant once you’re into higher-speed regimes e.g. merging onto a fast road, overtaking, and climbing hills (especially if towing).
Force-speed or acceleration-speed curves would be nice.
The acceleration of Teslas is one reason they have the highest crash rate of any brand. Fucking stupid to give the public more horsepower than a 70s formula one car.
The Y scale on the third graph is a joke; that’s like a 4% change over 20 years. Wheelbase is not the same as vehicle length.
I want to see that chart (a) starting at 0 sq. ft., and (b) going all the way back to the '50s.
Yeah, American cars have had a reputation as ‘land yachts’ for a long time.
For most cars, higher acceleration I don’t think is an issue. However things like the Hummer EV weigh 9,000 pounds and goes from 0-60mph in a smidge over 3 seconds. The amount of damage that can do is insane
I don’t know if these graphs, again, I don’t know what the source is, it’s not really provided, but I don’t think they’re meant to make a specific judgment one way or another.
Well, except the note that cars have gotten bigger while also becoming more efficient.
It explicitly says “on this chart, down is worse”.
Just the empty cars and not with an average American inside, right?
There are a few different stories going on here.
One story is engineering success. The engineers squeeze out so much more performance per amount of gasoline burned, that the cost of extra weight from a fuel economy standard is significantly less than 25 or 50 years ago. If you chart the fuel efficiency over the same time period, the fleet average fuel economy went from 20 to 34 mpg, even as vehicles were getting more powerful and heavier. A 2026 Camry Hybrid has a 232 hp drivetrain (184 hp from the gasoline engine) that manages to push 3700 lbs 0-60 in 6.8 seconds. Those are sports car stats from the 80’s, and yet the modern Camry manages to get 44 miles per gallon in fuel economy. Charting emissions shows an even more pronounced improvement.
Similarly, the rise of electric vehicles has increased the average vehicle weight. Batteries are heavy, and the whole chassis needs to accommodate that.
Another story is unintended consequences from dumb regulations. The fuel economy standards were updated for the 2011 model year to allow a sliding scale where vehicles with larger footprints were allowed to be less fuel efficient. Naturally, smaller vehicles were disincentivized, and compact trucks and compact cars all but disappeared. These regs need to be updated, and we’ll see the return of smaller vehicles for those of us who prefer them.
And another story is shifting consumer preferences. For a whole bunch of reasons, Americans have expressed a preference for taller and taller vehicles, where crossover SUVs are much more common than the old wagons, the relative balance of sedans versus SUVs has shifted entirely in favor of SUVs.
Is there a metric version?
It’s 'Merica, so…no
'Merica is more metric than even USians are ready to admit.
I can convert it to bananas for you if that helps
America needs to make its own KEI car standard. at least they wouldnt be as dangerous for pedestrians, or as disastrous for the environment as the fucking rolling city blocks we have now.
Especially since we’re never gonna get a functional public transit system.
I live in Japan and drive a kei van. It’s already scary going 100 on the expressway with the lightness of the vehicle and the wind. The acceleration time is also quite slow compared to many vehicles (the limit is 660cc engine size iirc). I don’t think it would sell without first making the US highway system safer in general. The highest speed limit in Japan is 120 and many us states are much higher
I’d settle for at least legalizing Kei trucks across the country
It’s beyond frustrating that I can’t even drive my own Kei truck on public roads where I live
legalizing Kei
No can do. That would be one letter away from legalizing DEI.
I thought kei cars/trucks/etc were legal if they were over 25years old due to antique car laws?
That’s a federal law to get them into the country at all. Each state can have additional restriction when it comes to driving them on the road. There’s a whole FAQ about importing into the US.
I wonder if also legalizing 4 wheelers on public roads would improve the odds of it passing
One of the sad bits of this is that the move to EVs, while a positive in many ways, also makes our cars even heavier for the battery.
It’s an arms race. I prefer a bicycle, but am I really insane enough to ride it in between these tanks? My wife is afraid in traffic, she would never want to get a small car, just because of her safety concerns.
The only thing stopping this madness is regulations.
Relevant watch : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPm4de6-eTg
My wife and I purchased a new Japanese car last year. Nobody makes small cars anymore, except maybe Suzuki with the Swift? Our small cheap car is bigger than we had anticipated. Good car though.
When I get in some of the newer SUVs it feels like driving a boat.
No they do make small cars (maybe just a bit bigger than 30 years ago for saftey). They might just not be sold in the country where you live.
Right-sizing cars is the cheapest, most rational option for space and public money. There is no reason not to do it other than wasting precious public and private resources into building more parking spots and repairing road infrastructures more often.
