One thing I noticed going up and down I5 between Seattle and Olympia, there are so many huge lifted trucks now. Even stock, the trucks are huge. They probably get less than 10 mpg and are paying $6 or more for a gallon of gas.
these trucks are useless for carrying anything, as the truck beds are so high loading/unloading is impractacle. The lifted suspension is useless offroad for most applications. even the tires aren't made for offroading, as many come with oversized wheels and low profile tires. They are also just fucking ugly looking. The Hummer H2 was never this ugly.
but they do have utility: social utility. Because the united states is so car centric, it's advantageous to have the biggest fucking piece of shit on the road so people will get out of your way. you're buying your way into being respected through fear via size and mass difference. It's intimidation and the drivers know this, the manufactures know this. It's a generally unspoken reality. People buy larger cars for the simple reason that you drive everywhere and size provides a passive sort of physical safety in the form being bigger.
So there is just this feedback loop of insecure masculinity from living in a militarized patriarchal culture, having to drive everywhere, having your car be your identity, and we get this.
And There's more and more of them on the road, despite the price of gas. Other countries are probably laughing at us for being so stupid.