Please don't ignore that every other person also has moved from driving cars to crossovers that offer no actual advantages over a regular car. Most people want to sit high, and that's what sells crossovers. The hoods are higher in them too and we can't discount this and blame it all on big trucks.
If you've got back, hip, knee, or ankle problems, then trying to bend down into a low car is an undignified exercise at best, a struggle at worst. A CUV doesn't have that problem, you just sit into it like a chair.
For a family with young children, securing child seats into a CUV involves a lot less bending over then in lower car. Bear in mind that many child seats are 40 lbs.
If you live in a snowy area, the greater ground clearance makes it less likely to get stuck in residential roads that are lower priority for snow removal. You also have better approach angles as well, which can become a concern if you live in an area that's very hilly with steep driveways.
You probably don't see advantages, and that's fine. But that doesn't mean they don't exist.
Minivan. You can get a minivan that has more room than a crossover, lower load height so that you hurt even less getting in, and you have more headroom to get car seats in and out. They're far superior in every way. But everybody quit buying them because of some "uncool" factor. It's stupid.
The ground clearance on most crossovers is a joke. I have to point out how my Lotus Elise has 6 inches of ground clearance, and most CUVs have maybe an inch more than that. They have low-hanging diffs that hang up, and no recovery points for when you do get stuck. They're still the same car, barely jacked up. They look higher, but they aren't that much higher. Your one inch of extra clearance isn't saving you. The black plastic fenders don't make it rugged or capable. Most are just FWD, and the ones that are AWD just overheat and burn out the transfer case.
I live in a rural area, in the mountains, with lots of steep hills. My long ass driveway doesn't get plowed, my street is extremely low priority for plowing, never had problems getting around with 2wd cars. You sound like my neighbors who keep saying that I need a big 4wd truck to live out here. People just keep making these excuses to buy bigger cars that sit higher, without actually evaluating if these vehicles actually have the things they're marketed to be able to do.
I rented a Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid on my last business trip. No snow (SW) but a mix of suburban and rural roads and I was surprised at how much more fun it was to drive than the RAV4 I had on my last business trip (not to mention the giagantor 4Runner I rented over the winter break - to stop that thing you pass a motion, second it, send it to the executive branch and then hope it gets signed by the time you get to the stop sign at the bottom of the hill, but I digress). Modern minivans have apparently reached some odd pinnacle of car evolution right as they are going extinct. I imagine there's an alternate timeline where we have jetpacks and a general cure for cancer but only farm hands drive pickups...
(And you definitely don't step down into anything to get into it-quite the opposite. The driver's chair even auto pulls back to let you in which is definitely geezer friendly : )
Maybe this is the way. We should run ad campaigns emphasizing that large, high vehicles are for the physically infirm. Make them as sexy as walkers with toilet seats. Show images of doddering old people getting into them.
that offer no actual advantages over a regular car. Most people want to sit high
Isn't that the advantage? In a world where SUV's and trucks are more popular than sedans, sitting higher gives a sight advantage (and probably safety advantage in a side collision with one of those high cars). I drive a midsized sedan most of the time, but when I drive the RV (which has a higher seating position than many SUV's), I love the extra forward visibility, instead being at tailgate level, I can see through the back window of the truck/SUV in front of me.
That's just led to an arms race where nobody wins. Everybody wants to get higher and higher to get a less obstructed view. Restricting the height of cars would at least put a cap on the escalation while a push for smaller cars would make it less of a problem for everyone over time.
No, it just restores parity. Sitting in your "SUV" (=CUV) you can't see over all the other "SUVs" (CUVs) any more than you could see over all the other sedans when you were in one. Get everyone back into a real sensible car and you'll see just as well from your own real sensible car as you can from your faux-macho-designed station wagon on (short) stilts now.
As compared to a lower car, it absolutely helps. (I used to drive a lowered Alfa Romeo Spider. Sometimes I could see traffic better underneath the lifted trucks in front of me...)
I can't control what cars other people buy and drive. I can control what I buy and drive.
My grandma has a minivan. It's way better than a crossover for ease of getting into. The floor height is nice and low so she doesn't have to step way up into it. The roof height is high so she doesn't have to scrunch in. It's easier to strap in car seats, it's easier to load your kids into. It's not a marketing joke like crossovers are.
What it sounds like, is that you didn't actually shop very hard for the right vehicle that actually has those advantages.
> Ease of entry alone, especially for the elderly or with young children
Betcha toddlers have an easier time getting into a 1990s sedan or station wagon than scrambling up into the silly-high big trucks people have been brainwashed to think of as "family vehicle" nowadays.
