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Anecdotally I'm having trouble finding certain small cars in stock (e.g. crown platinum) and suspect there is some self-interest in the dealership to explains this.

I think car-buyers are often under an illusion that an suv is "more car" when actually it's exact same components and just a larger frame. They'd much prefer to sell you the high-margin product and pocket the difference.

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Sometimes I wonder too.

The big thing to me is that I drive a 10+ year old station wagon, and I seem to have more cargo space than many of these MUCH larger vehicles.

I only have two kids. I have room for the dog. I put the bikes on the roof.

What would a SUV do for me?

An extra couple inches of ground clearance.

Increased towing capacity.

Rarely needed those.

IIRC SUV also more likely to roll over in an accident due to high C of G.

Just googled that car and apprently it’s nearly 5 meters long, longer than a BMW 3 Series, it’s funny that’s considered a small car over there because that’d be considered a big one over here (not even mid-sized).

Over here: small is anything from a Smart to a Renault Twingo/Ford Fiesta/VW Polo.

Medium: VW Golf, Ford Focus.

Large: anything bigger than medium.

I’ve had this conversation with many people before.

When I had my first son, we upgraded from a Chevy Aveo5 to a Ford Focus.

Everybody told me it was still much too small for a couple with a child.

It’s a family sedan anywhere except North America. Go away.

Growing up in the 90s, our family sedan for four people was a Dodge Spirit for awhile. I saw one a couple of years ago, and it's smaller than my Honda Fit.

Now people think they need some ridiculous GMC Yukon for their one kid they sometimes have in the car, though 90% of the time they're just commuting by themselves. Then they whine about gas prices.

This "family cars must be huge" take is a weird take, too. Can a Ford Focus fit a car seat? Yes! Then it's big enough for a couple with a child. I guess I'll add rear doors; even if a car seat would fit in the rear of a coupe, I wouldn't recommend that for anyone.

If your family requires more than 4 seats on a regular basis, sure, get a minivan; but I don't understand the appeal of an F150 or other large vehicle as a "family commuter" for, we'll say, the family of median size.

Get this! We got TWO whole car seats in it!

Two children fit in the back of the Focus until we got rid of it. They were 6 and 9. By that point it got leas squishy because the car seats get smaller with age.

Littlest kid went behind the driver because it was stick.

> Can a Ford Focus fit a car seat? Yes!

Sometimes!

I'm 6'3", so it only fits on the passenger side.

> apprently it’s nearly 5 meters long, ???

3 inches longer than a Camry

Even worse, many times SUVs are built on the same chassis as cars. Honda builds both the HR-V and CR-V on the Civic chassis, the Toyota RAV-4 is a Corolla underneath, and the Ford Escape is built on the Focus. This means many mid-sized SUVs are just tall cars.

I switch bt my Camry and my partner's Sportage. The Kia is a lumbering fatsuit of a vehicle only carrying marginally more cargo and feels like a cartoon beach buggy. But as a nation organized for war, we're conditioned to worship infrastructure, uniforms, equipment, clipboards, and the like.

It feels that way because it is. Depending on the age of your partner’s Sportage, it’s a Hyundai Elantra or Sonata in a fatsuit.

> They'd much prefer to sell you the high-margin product

The obvious answer to the entire scenario. There's no reason to go looking for hidden reasons: it's in plain sight.

Part of that high margin is because emissions and fuel economy laws are looser for truck-like vehicles, so they make everything a truck-like vehicle to avoid having to comply.

The difference in gas mileage between SUVs and sedans is pretty negligible these days. They're mostly just cars with a different body style. And for the most part they're just flat better which is why they've mostly supplanted cars in the market.

It's really trucks that have gotten stupidly big these days.

Subaru Impreza and Crosstrek are a good example of that. Same engine, same electronics, same everything except a slightly differently shaped shell on the outside. Even the interior volume is practically the same!

That one is especially confusing to me because they even have the imprezza hatchback which likes identical to a crosstrek if you squint your eyes. Maybe they don’t sell that one anymore?

They actually dropped the Impreza sedan in the latest gen, it’s only the hatchback now.

I always disliked the crosstrek since it’s a heavier Impreza on an already dogged engine but they are/were the only manual version so some people were buying them for that.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Isn't the Impreza a famous rally car? With a spoiler and an air scoop on the hood?

I can think of worse things for a crossover to share an engine with.

The WRX (which is now its own model instead of an Impreza trim level) has a different engine than the stock Impreza.

The Impreza WRX was the rally platform, kind of like how you can get a fast Civic Type R or a Golf GTI as opposed to the "regular" model. In recent years, the WRX has been spun off into a separate line, dropping the Impreza name. The regular Impreza is separate.

When the chassis were lighter it was a better combo. Now the chassis are so heavy it's underpowered.