Which is where it falls apart. If we're going with generalizing and stereotyping people based on their cars, then in my experience people who feel the need for giant vehicles are even more insecure than the fancy car folk. Huge trucks and Hummers absolutely give off small dick energy. It just screams "I'm overcompensating", while a lot of the fast/exotic car people are older and it seems like they just like to show off their wealth. They both tend to drive like assholes, but the needlessly oversized truck/SUV crowd are far more common on the roads.
"needlessly oversized" and then "SUV" and "truck" (by which I assume is meant regular pickup)" seems to be the opinion that can only be held by someone who never/rarely actually does transport beyond oneself/few passengers :)
pssst.. there are a great many legitimate activities beyond going to purchase pumpkin spice latte or to the microbrewery
(no, I dont own, nor have I ever owned such a vehicle)
Wouldn’t “needlessly” exclude the ~5-10% of people who regularly need those vehicles to do something a smaller vehicle cannot? Driving around the U.S. is really weird because there are so many people driving pickup trucks which are twice as big as their 90s counterparts, and they’re almost always in pristine condition but once you get far enough away from the wealthy suburbs you find non-cosplay farmers driving either much smaller vehicles (which get 2-3 times the mileage) or battered trucks which are clearly heavily used.
(I’m obviously biased here but that’s from having gone furniture shopping at IKEA a couple hours ago and watching some guy with an $80k truck with a lift kit & extended cab who was struggling to tie some boxes in the short bed with the gate down, which would’ve fit in my Subaru without any thought at all.)
If someone has a genuine need for a pickup truck then by definition it's not a needlessly large vehicle. I've known large dog owners, farmers, and handymen who had good reason for their large SUVs and pickup trucks. I also know someone who had no reason for a truck but got it for free as a "Hand me down". Stereotypes don't always apply, but sometimes they're true often enough to persist regardless.
I'm fine with making snap judgements about the anonymous ass on the highway who cuts me off dangerously to get an extra car or two ahead, but I'm a lot more careful about the assumptions I've made when dealing a person for more than just a "passing" moment.
