Why are American (and other countries') Cars and Trucks so HUGE nowadays?

December 31, 2024

#502

Gentle reader,

I had not planned upon writing another article so quickly after the last one, but, my daughter's HUGE SUV is parked outside of our house while her family and sister are on a Caribbean cruise. 

My car, a 2005 Volvo V50 station wagon is on the left. It will be twenty years old next month. I bought it used, in 2014 and have been in love with it ever since. The truck on the right is a 2017 Ford Expedition. It was not (then) the largest Ford SUV, that was the Excursion. However it IS a three-row vehicle and now IS Ford's largest SUV.

These are our two cars. They are both compact cars. The Volvo you have met, if you are a long time reader, you have also met the Caddy. For new readers, it is a 2013 Cadillac ATS Performance 2.0T. Both cars have turbocharged engines with six-speed manual transmissions.

This is our truck. It is only the second truck we have owned in our almost thirty years being married. It is a 2022 Ford Maverick XLT AWD FV4. We bought it used about six months ago. It quickly became Nancy's and she has been customizing it. It too has a two-liter turbocharged engine, same size as the ATS. The V50's engine is a 2.5 liter FIVE cylinder, but shares the same 1/2 liter displacement per cylinder. 

Our previous pickup was a 1997 Ford Ranger Super Cab, similar to the one below. We bought it in 2001 had it for many years, but undercarriage rust finally made it unable to pass the annual state safety inspection. So, we sold it as-is. I did see it on the road a couple months later, so I hope that it was properly repaired.

These are images of one which was for sale somewhere in Colorado. Ours was very similar to it. I had added a fiberglass cap to it.

Okay, so, I have established that we have and like, compact vehicles. I am certain, that if mid and full size pickup drivers would just test drove a Ford Maverick, they would trade in their behemoth trucks, having realized that all the size was truly wasted.

The drawing above has metric dimensions. Table below has US dimensions.

And below are the dimensions of my Volvo V50 wagon.

Granted, there are more specifications than listed for the Expedition. I will highlight the important ones below:

Length:  Exp: 206 in. 17.16 feet.  V50: 177.7 in. 14.75 feet.   Diff:   28.3 in. Just over two feet in overall length.

Height:  Exp: 77.2 in.  V50: 57.2 in. Diff:  Twenty inches or just under two feet in height.

Width:   Exp: 78.8 in.     V50:  69.7 in.   Diff:  Nine inches or 3/4 of a foot in width.

Interior Volume:   Exp:  178.9 cu. ft.   V50:  125  cu. ft.  Diff: 54 cubic feet 

Weight:   Exp:  5,562 pounds    V50:   3,058 pounds   Diff:   2,504 pounds!

Okay, so now you may be thinking (or saying out loud) "Of course the bigger vehicle will be bigger in every way, it IS bigger!" And you are correct, but that is not my point.

Here you see my little V50 parked between two General Motors trucks. A Chevrolet SUV on the left and a GMC four-door pickup on the right. My car can carry the same number of people as the pickup truck can. And it slices through the air and gets WAY better fuel mileage.

Here is a Ford Motor Company image showing their various passenger pickup trucks. Starting with small on the right (Maverick) then larger (the new Ranger), then full size F150 gasoline, F150 Lightning (electric) and F250 4x4. ALL can and do do the same thing: Carry people and their stuff. Yet, the smallest one, the Maverick does so with up to 40 miles per gallon!

Just look at the specifications of Ford's various pick up trucks, above and their curb weights. The more weight, the poorer fuel economy.

These are a series of late model full-size pick up trucks from various makers.

Notice

anything

similar about them? They are as aerodynamic as a brick! 

An excellent artist's rendering showing just how much larger pick up trucks have gotten since the 1970's. And how much smaller the beds have gotten.

I want you to look closely at these images from the 1950's and 1960's I want you to figure out what you are not seeing in each image.

Yes, traffic jams are nothing new.

What

is

...missing from all of these photos? Pick up trucks. And no vans either.

(Okay, there is ONE pick up truck in the B&W image above. And it is a WORK truck. Also in the same image is a VW Beetle and a Jaguar sports car.)

Just why is that so? Because back then, almost ALL trucks of any kind or size were work vehicles, not personal transportation. Not something one wanted to show off to their buddies. Sedans and if one needed the room, station wagons were what almost everyone drove. And, most families only had ONE car.

CARS were what people bought when it was time for a new vehicle. Also note that almost EVERY vehicle in these images was made in the USA. See any Volvos? Well, yes, the green car in between the two white cars, above is a Volvo. There is also an Alfa Romeo behind the red and white Chevrolet station wagon in the in the far left lane. But, look at the other images, good luck finding anything but cars made in the good old U.S. of A. Also no SUVs (they didn't exist) nor minivans, same reason, why? No full size vans either. Because they were work vehicles. If your family was growing, your Mom and Dad traded in their old and tired sedan and bought a STATION WAGON.

This is a photo of the very first new car Mom and Dad bought. It is a 1958 Chevrolet Delray. The very bottom of the line (least expensive) of Chevrolet cars that year.

Dad, (with my middle sister) thought like advertisers as car makers wanted him to. They had drilled into people's minds for decades, that they should buy a new car EVERY year. It was the American way. US car makers spent hundreds of millions making each new model years cars look DIFFERENT than the previous years cars.

After the Delray, they bought one of those new fangled Volkswagen Beetles (official model name was "Type 1") since it was only my older sister and I at that point. 

As more of us came along, one new baby every two years, the Beetle would not do. So, they moved up to the VW Type 2, more commonly known as: Bus, Microbus or Station Wagon. The bus was barely larger than the Beetle, yet all seven of us had plenty of room inside. The VW engines back then were in the rear of the cars and they produced only around forty horsepower. Yes, forty whole ponies. Torque (the force which makes vehicles accelerate) was closer to seventy pound-feet. Oh, and no air conditioning either. Were they speed demons? No way! However, EVERY August, the Robb family piled into their trusty VW bus and drove over mountain ranges to get to Phoenix, Arizona to visit the grandparents. We always made it and Dad enjoyed way better fuel mileage than a comparable American station wagon with it's six cylinder, and more likely large V8 engines gulped.

Are you aware that the Ford Motor company in North America only makes one car? Yep, it's called Mustang. Every other vehicle they make is a truck. Even their smallest crossover is called a truck. Why? Two reasons: trucks were what advertisers convinced people to buy and the EPA, in the beginning, did not saddle car makers with the same emissions requirements as they did for passenger cars. And looser safety regulations for trucks as well. Why? Trucks were work vehicles back then. Far fewer trucks of any kind were made back then. Ordinary people bought cars: Sedans, station wagons and convertibles. Sports cars were "those low down foreign jobs" with the Chevrolet Corvette, being the lone American sports car.

To sum up my beef, and I feel I am crying to the wilderness here, please ask yourself this: Do I need a large truck or SUV or do I want one? If so, why? How often do I USE that huge bed back there? Can a smaller, more economical vehicle take me every where I need to go? Do I enjoy spending a hundred dollars filling the enormous gas tank of my vehicle? Or would I like all that freed up cash to buy things that do NOT burn up into the atmosphere?

Thank you for putting up with my ranting. I know that America will never return to simpler times when sedans were everywhere station wagons were kings of the roads. However, if you look at Europe, over there large vehicles, except work ones, are few and far between. Even their commercial vehicles tend to be way smaller than ones the US produces. Yes, the roads are smaller and more narrow, but, most of the time any large vehicle one sees is still a work vehicle over there.

This morning, the YouTube video below showed up in my feed. Watching it, I realized that the enormity of American vehicles is nothing new. Large Cars of the Early 1960s - YouTube Watch this and pay attention to the car's lengths (always in inches 200 inches = 16.6 feet) and curb weights. The main difference between now and then are the type of vehicles cars then, trucks now and the HEIGHT of the vehicles. We are all much safer in vehicular crashes than ever before, unless one is in a small vehicle impacted by an enormous pick up truck or SUV, that is, then, well, just pray it never happens. Stay safe, my friends.

Feel free to comment below or on Facebook.

Scott Robb

December 31, 2024

#502

Happy New Year!

A Tale of Two Radios: Vintage 1940's Philco Transitone AM Tube Tabletop Radios

 December 30, 2024

Updated: March 24, 2026

#501

Gentle reader,

Since writing my 500th article, the 500,000th reader of The Robb Collections read one of my articles! When I set out to do this, it was just something fun to do, I had NO idea that folks around the world would be interested in what I have to say! I am truly thankful and humbled.

Last summer, Nancy and I were visiting our oldest daughter and three grandsons who live in the mountains of Virginia. We visited a local antique store and this radio caught my attention:

The poor thing was thickly and poorly painted with light green house paint! It spoke to my heart and the seller wanted only five dollars for it. My thinking was, that I could strip all the paint off and clean up the cabinet and all the components inside. Like I did with the Farm Radio my brother-in-law gave me: The Robb Collections: Restoring a 1937 Zenith 8S154H 6B06 TUBE Console Farm Radio

I know enough about tube electronics to NOT try and troubleshoot or repair them. Plus, the lack of a vacuum tube testing machine was also a problem. Tubes run at high voltages and can be very dangerous. So, I carefully removed the chassis, held in with only one screw plus the knobs and the AM antenna which was taped to the chassis all around the inside surfaces.

As this series of images show, the parts had decades of dust and cobwebs all over everything. Plus, as pointed out by the antiques dealer, the power cord rubber insulation was crumbling. I carefully removed it so that no one could try and plug it in.

The device at the left close to the back, with the big metal wheel attached to it, is the tuning device. I don't know it's official name. It was especially thick with dust and hard to turn.

Most of the tube numbers were still visible, not that I would be able to find replacements, nor did I need to do so. Cosmetic restoration means, "Make it all look nice."

I did not want to spray any contact cleaner or other types of electronic cleaners on the metal parts as they might remove their "patina".

There is a barely readable model number right below the brown label. At first, I thought it was: 4S-250. But, it turns out to actually read: 46-250. Which means it was made in 1946, the first full year after the end of World War II which ended on August 15, 1946, with the surrender of the Japanese military and Emperor.

I could not decide which of these two images to use: Flash or none. So, posted both.

My plans changed when I decided to take a look on eBay to see if I could find a  cabinet in good condition. Why? The green one had been broken into several pieces and roughly taped back together and painted. But, before I tell you what changed my mind: first, some images I found of what the 46-250 radio used to look like:

Images above, courtesy of: Philco Transitone 46-250 Code 125.

My original plans all changed when I found this beautiful radio on eBay for only $29.99. It looks identical to the 46-250, but, is in fact a "Philco PT-10 Transitone Radio". Made in 1941, the year in which the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, "A date which will live in infamy!" President Franklin Roosevelt. Which dragged the American people into a war they really did not want to get into.

It even has the back panel and a new power cord!

You can see the orange glow of some of the tubes.

One corner of the back bottom on the right side was broken in shipping, but easily fixed with some E6000 clear glue.

The inside components are super clean and the controls work smoothly. It was obvious that someone had taken very good care of this little radio which was made in 1941, 83 years ago! 

So, I made sure it was off, plugged it in, switched it on, but left the volume at zero. After a couple of moments, I saw the tubes were glowing and then raised the volume. Buzz and some static. Then, I rotated the tuning knob and music! Latin music, heavy with accordion, but still it works! I tuned around the dial and heard two guys arguing football in English. Then, found Christian music on another station. Wow!

I then placed it atop the latest recent table radio find, a retro replica radio with modern transistor equipment inside which sits atop the first floor radio I had found, both in thrift stores (also retro) and updated with much better speakers: The Robb Collections: I found a floor radio. What's a floor radio? They Were Called Console Radios Once. Take a look.

I used a wide angle lens to capture the stack of radios, which is why they appear to be leaning backwards.

I'm just tickled to finally have a fully working tube radio. This image is from 2012. All but the tall brown radio on the top shelf are tube radios. The Hallicrafters on the top left belonged to Nancy's dad. It did work, and may still, but I have not tried it in years. The off-white plastic one is a Zenith and all it did was buzz. The one on the far right did not work at all. ALL the others shown were found on eBay or locally and are transistor retro radios.  

UPDATE: I turned on the working radio the other day and no sound. I have no way to check tubes (I remember going to Rexall Drugs with Dad when I was a kid, to "help" him check a bunch of tubes). I thought about removing one at a time from the now-not-working radio, replacing it from the junk radio to see if it came back to life, then changed my mind. So, I removed it and placed it in a safe spot with the naked chassis.

To learn more about these radios, watch this excellent video from Technology Connections: The Superheterodyne Radio: No really, that's its name - YouTube

Thank you again for taking the time to read my humble blog. It truly is a labor of love. 

I write two other blogs: Pictures of Nancy. The Love of My Life. and People Say I'm Special. But I Don't Know Why if you would like to take a look at them as well. I have not updated either of them in a while, but I think you may find them interesting.

Scott Robb

December 30, 2024

#501

The 500th Article Of The Robb Collections! Thanks To All Of You! Indexes To All Categories!

 October 24, 2024

#500

Gentle reader,

First of all, THANK YOU for taking the time to read my writing and viewing my images! This article, since it is the 500th, is going to be a bit different. This blog has always been about what Nancy and I have collected. It began on December 12. 2008, just as something to do. That was almost sixteen years ago. Sixteen! I had no expectation whatsoever that anyone would read it. None. Wow, did you all prove me wrong! And THANK YOU for doing that! It truly warms my heart.

This is our humble abode which we have occupied since 2001. We love where we live, our neighbors, some of whom are also friends, our town, our church family and all kinds of other folks we have encountered while living here.

This is what was the former bedroom of one of our daughters, transformed into something else by the two of us. It was going to be our TV/Media room. Brown walls? I know, I wasn't too sure about that either. But, with the white trim, it works.

It is my understanding that certain words are no longer allowed to be uttered. Oriental is one. Now, we must say: Asian. Another is: Master. Oh, no, not a nice word! Well, pooh! In this case, the room, so many of you know of as The Listening Room, was originally the Master Bedroom. There, I said it! However, the house was purchased new in 1987 with the first floor unfinished. A coworker/friend who bought his house (almost identical to ours) in the same town, years before we did, bought his that way and finished the lower floor (the house is a split-foyer) all by himself. 

The upper floor consists of: a living room connected to a dining area with the kitchen to the left (or right, if the house floor plans are flipped) of the dining area. The kitchen doorway is directly at the top of the stairs coming up from the front door. Down the hallway is: a linen closet (we use it for a pantry) a hall closet, a full bathroom, two smaller bedrooms and the master bedroom which had a vanity in a short hallway on the way to a second door into the master bathroom.

After about two weeks pf using the room, I asked Nancy, "What do you think of moving the TV back into the living room and moving the stereo in here?" "Oh, I would LOVE that!"

The upstairs hallway with new Acacia flooring. The Office's door is at the end of the hallway, straight ahead. The Listening Room's door is to the right at that end. I am sitting in The Office, within it right now, typing this 500th article.

This is what the wall opposite me looked like several years ago. The small speakers (Radio Shack Optimus PRO LG4 and Minimus 7W)  are gone, a pair of Klipsch KG-4s sit on each end of the shelf, which I made, with a pair of BOSE 301 Series VI directly above them. Nancy bought the latter, many years ago for me, hoping that I would use them in the living room instead of the large speakers I was using at the time. 

On the other side of that same wall (above) is the other daughter's bedroom. That has become Nancy's "Office". Although, she rarely goes in there. She sure does have a lot of stuff in there, though. 

Now, you have the lay of the land, so to speak, of the upper floor of our humble home. Downstairs is a family room which houses our very first HD TV, a 32" Samsung Monitor. Nancy surprised me with that too. She likes to buy me things. It still works fine, so why get rid of it? I found an early Pioneer Soundbar and subwoofer at a thrift store. It is rarely used (as is the family room itself) in it there are three aquatic turtle tanks. The middle one houses Tony a Northern Red-bellied Cooter. Nancy brought him home fresh from his egg. The other eggs did not hatch and it was far from any water. He is HUGE now. Two much smaller tanks, one on each side of his, has a female Southern Painted Turtle in it. So, the Yankees and the Southerners are well represented. 

Our bedroom is also down there, but much bigger than the "master" bedroom. Another full bathroom across the hall from it and the laundry/workroom at the end of the hallway, finishes off the lower floor's layout. Why am I telling you this? Because you have seen parts of some of the rooms, the backyard and now, some of the front yard. Even some of our cars you have seen because there were articles about them.

I even did some articles on outside antennas. I put this (and an FM-only antenna at the opposite end of the roof) up myself. This one is a Channel Master unit. This view is from the backyard. The antenna "points" to the southwest, but the other end actually points toward Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD, where the local TV stations antennas are located. You see, the "arms" of the antenna are open wide to "catch" the TV and FM signals. 

The link below will take you to the web page with has all of the links within it to each category of articles I have written over these almost sixteen years:

The Robb Collections: MASTER INDEX TO ALL ARTICLES IN THE ROBB COLLECTIONS

From the very first article:

"The title of my blog: The Robb Collections was chosen because we both have the "collector's gene" as many of you out there also may have. We have both started and eventually stopped collecting numerous things. Below is a partial list, in no particular order:

Me: Old Cameras of all formats (also digital cameras and lenses)
Me: Vintage and high end audio equipment
Her: Beanie Babies
Her: Glass paperweights
Me: HO slot cars and track
Both of us: HO train cars and track
Both of us: Die cast cars of all sizes
Her: Glass bottles
Me: Auto racing posters and photos (NOT NASCAR!)
Me: Chronograph wristwatches
Me: Books
Me: LP records
Both of us: CDs
Me: Movie scores in both formats (soundtracks)
Me: Toy and trainer rifles
Her: Clocks wall and floor standing"

The parts in italics I added. So, let's see, what do we still have from that list in the house? 

Film cameras: I owned a total of 505 over several years. Around two hundred or so at any given time.

The cameras are mounted upon my invention which I named: CameraLock. I tried selling plans to camera collectors, but very few bought them to make their own from said plans. That wall is behind me right now. Those panels are long gone as are 98% of all the cameras. 

What is left are these eight cameras, plus a large format press camera, sent to me by Nancy's dad from Puerto Rico, and a paper camera which looks like a really old large format camera (below) Nancy gave me the camera kit. It is a pinhole camera and uses 35mm film.

Busch Pressman 4x5" on the left. Paper pinhole camera on the right.

CYCLOGRAPHE 1891 Wooden and Brass camera, which the paper one was modelled after.

Next on that list from sixteen years ago is Vintage and high end audio equipment. This photo shows a whole lot of speakers which I had found (all but the BOSE 301 speakers) in thrift stores. None of them still remain here. All went to live in other peoples houses.  This shows but a tiny fraction of the hundreds of speakers and components I have bought, enjoyed, then later on, passed on to others to enjoy since 1976. 

Also, all of these were found in thrift stores. Including that pair of Spendor (BBC) LS3/5A monitors (actually on stands with other on top). They cost me ten bucks for the two of them. I did not know what type of speakers they were until I got home and looked them up. ALL of these are also long gone.

Nancy's Beanie Babies are next on the list. ALL of these were Nancy's. A guy I worked with sold them on the side. I paid $35 for a BB squirrel from him! 80% of them are gone. And what's left are probably worth less than they cost new in a store. The cabinet with the diecast cars and cameras in it, I built to house her collection.

Nancy's Glass Paperweight collection. ALL are long gone. 

HO Slot Cars. 

Again, most are long gone. We still have a lot of track.

We still have a bunch of them, but have not done anything with them since 2000.

Nancy's daughter, now 37, playing with the HO trains before we moved down here.

This is all of the HO cars and locomotives. We still have them and track, all in the attic. We inherited Nancy's father's cars, track and various things. The rest we bought new. 

Diecast cars, all sizes, is next on the list. This was 2019. We got all of the Hot Wheels scale cars and laid them all out to count them. We were (and still enjoy their races) fully immersed in THE BEST You Tube diecast car racing channel of all:  3Dbotmaker - YouTube  

I had designed and built this downhill diecast cars racing track and we planned to make our own YouTube diecast racing channel as so many others have done, who were also impressed by 3Dbotmaker's awesome success. But, eventually, we lost interest. The track and most of the cars are still in the attic. The kids will discover them and more, when we are gone from the Earth.

Glass Bottles. I think all of these are also in boxes in the attic.

Auto racing posters and photos (NOT NASCAR!) These photos serve a dual purpose: They show a portion of the desk and chair (photos are from 2008) and the white walnut shelf I made fifty years ago. All are in the same position, but all of the posters have been moved and there is a different shelf to my right. Also, I use two 27" monitors now.

These are all on the wall opposite me now, see below.

Chronograph wristwatches. I had as many as thirty of them. Some fake Rolex watches, purchased via eBay before Rolex sued them to force them to stop allowing fakes on their auction site.

Almost all of these have found new homes. I own nine analog wristwatches, no fake Rolexes, plus a fitness watch which monitors my heart rate, blood pressure and other things important to keep an eye on.

Almost every book on this shelf, now resides with other people. I lost interest in certain things, rather than keep books I would never open again, I passed them on. 

LP Records, CDs and other music formats. Yes, we still have a lot of those. A lot of our books we donated. My oldest grandson has been receiving some classic Rock LPs and CDs from me. He will inherit all the audio equipment and all of the music when we are gone. 

Movie scores in both formats (soundtracks) Yes, I still have many in analog and digital formats.  The top shelf above (this is the white walnut shelf I made fifty years ago) holds Classic Rock and Pop. Bottom shelf is scores and soundtracks. I have MANY CDs also with that type of music.

This shelf is in the closet of the Listening Room. It and the other tall one, were both thrift store finds and obviously made to hold LP records. On it are: Jazz, (Smooth and traditional) Big Band, Herb Alpert, Al Hirt, comedy and test records plus many foreign releases.

Toy and trainer rifles are all long gone. I do have two Airsoft rifles and a BB rifle. None of which I have used in a long time. 

Clocks floor standing and wall Oh, yes, we still have way too many clocks. Most are mechanical, some are battery powered. Those are the one collection I have never written about.

NOW, I will tell you what will be different about my blog. I will NO LONGER be writing about possessions.  On Sunday, the pastor's Sermon was about choosing what is truly important in life. Buying a home and filling it (and the garage, we don't have one of those) with STUFF is not what our focus should be. Especially if you have to rent STORAGE SPACE because your have too much stuff!

We have been on a decluttering kick lately. Several times I wrote above about things being in boxes in the attic. All of those things have monetary value, but I have seen things, which used be "worth a lot of money", like Beanie Babies for example, are worthless now. Do we want to saddle our adult kids with clearing out the house and perhaps having an estate sale to find homes for much of our stuff?

Setting priorities is the key. We are both involved in things with our church, me more so, since I'm retired. Many things our congregation does are to help those less fortunate in our community. Things I am involved in are: teaching adult Sunday school, KAIROS prison ministry (my true calling) Boy Scouts (now called: Scouting America, we have boys and girls in the troop and pack) Holy Fitness which is for folks 55 and older, serving communion, reading Scripture and leading prayers from the Pulpit, Men's Breakfast, Bible Study and more. 

So, I challenge you to look around, with truly OPEN eyes and really see just how many things you have which have been sitting right there for SO long that you not only have forgotten that you have them, you haven't even SEEN them sitting right there, and they are likely quite dusty as a result. So, do you NEED those ignored things?

Really think about what you have been led, by advertisers, to think that you MUST OWN the latest of, things such as: Big Screen Television, The Latest Cell Phone, A New: Crossover, Full Size Pickup or SUV (we have bought perhaps five new vehicles in our long years of driving. The rest, including the sedan, station wagon and compact pickup we drive, were bought used. They are respectively: 19, 11 and 3 years old) and countless other things which STRANGERS, who are fighting for your attention, are using all kinds of tricks to convince you to give THEM your hard earned money RIGHT NOW, or you will be ASHAMED when your friends see you don't have what THEY have!

These things are important in our lives: God, Family, Church (we belong to a Presbyterian church which welcomes ALL to worship) Friends, Neighbors and doing things which will HELP others, especially those who are homeless.

Okay, I believe I have made many points. Do you want to know what I do the first thing every morning and the last thing every evening? It is this, I Pray. I thank God for keeping us safe and healthy, I pray for the people in our church family who need the Lord's help in their lives. I pray that if we travel this day that we will reach all of our destinations safely and return home safely without health issues as a result of our dealings with others that day. I suggest that you give it a try. It costs nothing and I have had SO many prayers answered and had others who were praying for me, which were answered. So. Many.

I end this here with these words: I have never made a dime writing this blog. I do not know you, but I love you. You have taken time to READ my blog, when you could so easily have just spent your time looking at videos on the Internet, as so many others chose to waste their precious time doing. I thank your for sixteen years of reading my words and viewing my photos. I am truly humbled.

Scott Robb

October 24, 2024

#500