Diversity across automobiles is on a par with “diversity” of political viewpoints among your typical college faculty. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:
It’s funny that, given the obsession with “diversity,” there is so much homogeneity. On the showroom floor, too.
Most of all, even.
Not only do most crossovers – there aren’t many cars left – look pretty much the same (especially since probably two-thirds of them are painted silver or white) but they are also functionally pretty much the same.
All of them – all of the crossovers, at least – come only with automatic transmissions. The last one that doesn’t is Subaru’s Crosstrek, which won’t anymore after the end of the 2023 model year (and you may not be able to get one before the model year ends, as production of them has probably already stopped). This makes driving them largely the same, too. You push the one pedal and it goes. You push down on the other and it slows. When there was a third pedal, you had something more to do – and something different. It made driving such a car a different – a diverse – experience.
Engines are now almost all the same, too – and not just in crossovers. In the under $50,000 price range, almost everything comes standard with a 2.0 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine. Some produce more power than others but they are all basically the same. There are no air-cooled engines or two stroke engines or rotary engines – and very few diesel engines. These were very “diverse” kinds of engines. Cooling fins instead of coolant. A sound unlike any other sound.
