Downsized Driving – The Benefits of Smaller Vehicles
Small cars are gaining traction amongst families and inner-city dwellers in particular, as their high manoeuvrability makes them feel tailor-made for tighter, urban roads. But this isn’t the only reason more and more people are opting for smaller rides. Read on to discover how downsized driving is revolutionising our roads.
Easy parking and navigating
It goes without saying that when you’re driving a smaller car, it’s far easier to navigate high-traffic spaces like busy car parks. And you don’t need to have a hatchback to feel the difference. If you’re looking at investing in a small SUV, you’ll be happy to hear that these stylish rides are becoming increasingly popular for similar reasons. With small SUVs, you’ll get to experience smooth car-like handling without having to deal with the inflexibility of traditional sedans, nor the awkward handling that accompanies owning a full-sized SUV in the inner city. Alongside this, smaller SUVs still come equipped with flexible storage options for those of us who live eclectically and like to take our dogs and kids out on regular camping trips. This means that even by choosing a compact SUV, you won’t be sacrificing the space and depth of traditional full-sized SUVs.
Cost-efficiency
Whilst there’s no denying that sitting in a full-sized SUV and other monstrous AWDs or 4WDs makes you feel like a pilot in their cockpit, with the road laid out beneath your elevated seats like an immaculate landing strip, when you factor in the money you’re spending on fuel, you really might as well be flying a plane. These larger vehicles have been known to be on the lower end of the fuel-efficiency spectrum, and as gas prices continue to go up and up, you’ll really start to feel the holes in your wallet more than you’ll enjoy towering over other drivers. With a small ride, you’ll be spending far less per kilometre, as you won’t have to bear the added costs that are required to get heavier vehicles moving. If you’d like to assess how fuel-efficient your car is, feel free to search for your model in the Green Vehicle Guide.
Modern features
A lot of the most popular compact cars seen on the roads today (like hybrids and small SUVs), come jam-packed with premium features that are rapidly becoming indispensable to many modern drivers. These include modern media receivers, speakers with superior sound quality, wireless phone charging, and for you safety-conscious folk, driver assistance features like speed limit alerts and in-car navigation.
Even small features like light control and cruise control are readily available in small cars, and can readily provide drivers with intuitive assistance in all kinds of driving conditions.
Safety
Finally, the advanced safety and security of small cars are not just limited to software. A lot of modern small cars come equipped with your standard multiple airbags, emergency braking, and stability control, but with your more contemporary models, you’ll start to see a more holistic approach to ensuring passenger safety. For instance, cars built with a unibody frame are intrinsically designed to create highly effective crumple zones. Unlike the bulky body-on-frame builds that we’ve seen in larger vehicles which keep occupants safe by relying on size and weight alone, unibody frames are instead designed to absorb as much impact as possible in the event of a crash as a means of keeping the cabin intact and its occupants totally untouched. It’s no wonder why we’re seeing an increasing number of small SUVs break free from the mould of larger cars.
With the growing number of smaller cars available on the market, it definitely pays to shop around and do your homework before settling on any model. Finally, as always, if you’re looking around for a new car, be sure to look up the model you’re interested in on How Safe Is Your Car to ensure you and your family’s safety on the road.
