In 1977, SUVs and trucks together represented 23 percent of American new car sales; today they comprise more than 80 percent. Meanwhile, the models themselves keep getting larger. These four-wheeled behemoths started as niche vehicles, meant to allow certain groups of people to accomplish specific tasks. Today they have become a fixture of everyday American life. They are also linked to myriad societal ills, from crash deaths to climate change to social inequality. Bigger cars make each of those problems harder to solve.
The story of car bloat—the continually expanding size of the typical American automobile—is one of carmaker profit, shifting consumer preferences, and loophole-riddled auto regulations. It is also a story of hidden costs: to the planet, to taxpayers, and to the American families whose lives have been shattered by a crash that could have been avoided, or at least mitigated, with a smaller vehicle.
But this story is far from over, and its ending far from certain. The auto industry plans to keep foisting ever-larger vehicles on the American public. The question is whether it will be allowed to.
The origins of car bloat can be traced to a now-vanished auto company called the American Motors Corporation. (Its CEO in the 1950s was future Michigan Gov. George Romney, father of Mitt). In 1969, AMC acquired and later repositioned the Jeep, a legendary military vehicle, as a car for everyday consumers. The Jeep became the first modern sport utility vehicle, targeted toward suburbanites attracted to its rugged vibe, even if the most dangerous place they were going was a supermarket. In his 2002 book High and Mighty: The Dangerous Rise of the SUV, Keith Bradsher wrote that “AMC promoted the Jeep’s four-wheel drive even though its engineers and executives knew that it had little value for urban buyers.” As many carmakers would come to realize, that was a savvy approach when selling SUVs, motor vehicles designed with features like raised ground clearance that make them capable of going off-road.
In a precedent-setting move, AMC convinced the federal government to categorize Jeeps as “light trucks” in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy/CAFE standards that were introduced in 1978. Intended to boost the engine efficiency of American cars after the Arab oil embargo, CAFE set looser fuel economy standards for light trucks (like pickup trucks) that were assumed to be commercial vehicles used for hauling, say, lumber and tools, rather than children and sports gear. Even though SUVs were aimed at consumers as a substitute for sedans and station wagons, the feds decided to treat them as though they were being used for business operations.