As a kid in the US it seemed silly that so many people had SUVs in a city, and as adult I wouldn’t buy anything but an SUV. Once you grow up you realize how nice the ability to transport more people and more things is. Picking up groceries, moving, buying even a TV or any type of furniture. Having to move every other year because your apartments rent went up and once owning a home the number of home improvements that require going back and forth to Home Depot.. then there’s bad weather, snow if your up north. If anything I’d be more inclined to remove cars and keep SUVs now because the utility is more than double and the price is only slightly more. A car is like a knife in your pocket, handy to have for various things, but an SUV is like a Swiss Army knife. Cross-over SUVs are perfect because they are literally just cars with bigger bodies.

What we really need are hybrid/electric SUVs and 4wds.

Obviously for electric the range would be pretty limited (afaik) with the current tech, but I'm sure even that would have a market.

It’s a bit of a chicken vs the egg problem. Charge stations in parks and at access point would really change the range requirements. There’s some parts of van island that kinda have this covered already. It’s pretty neat.

Yeah, I'm in BC, and not having 4x4 limits you a lot. I got stuck trying to get up Mt. Maxwell (the climbing area on Salt spring) in a civic. Bottomed out a lot / damaged my car a lot on Vancouver island / Sunshine Coast, and just can't get somewhere remote like Eldred Valley in Powell River.

Of course, most of Squamish is accessible, and Skaha, so yes, there's tons of climbing, but the "well-traveled" areas are realistically <50% of all potential climbing, and not the same experience as climbing remote.

Again some better tires and a lift. The gambler 500 is a good indication of what a small shit box can do with better tires. I lifted my small old Subaru, and some at tires. was a nicer ride than most trucks, and snaked into more places they couldn’t