It’s impossible not to have noticed it – cars have been getting bigger and bigger, and SUVs and four-door utes have become Australia’s new family car. Gone are the days of the Commodore or Corolla fighting it out as Australia’s most popular vehicle. We’re now well into the era of the Ranger, RAV4, HiLux and Outlander, as well as increasing flirtations with US-style pickup trucks, and it shows no sign of stopping.
It happened gradually, despite the mounting evidence about some of the problems posed by these vehicles.
Study after study has continued to back up their impact on road safety, from their grander heights and weights, meaning they strike smaller cars with more energy in more vulnerable positions and pedestrians’ – especially children’s – bodies in more fatal ways; to the way they can affect a driver’s psyche, potentially encouraging speeding and dangerous driving, and riskier outcomes for their occupants too.
Road fatalities in Australia have been increasing, in ways not seen since the pre-seatbelt era. Looking beyond the headline data, you can see the spiralling increases in deaths have been pedestrians, cyclists and motorbike riders. In fact, driver and passenger deaths actually went down in 2024.
There is no conclusive data on exactly why this is happening.
But a growing chorus of experts believe the rise of bigger vehicles on our roads is a factor.
There are other underexamined social shifts occurring thanks to our growing love affair with these vehicles. There are the hidden expenses, from adding to cost-of-living pressure with a higher fuel spend; going against the emissions reductions efforts of the country; draining national tax coffers through various incentives that nudge even graphic designers to choose huge utes as their next family vehicles; adding to insurance premiums for all drivers; hogging parking space; worsening traffic and zapping productivity.
These societal costs are significant and growing, but aren’t reflected in the sticker prices of these larger vehicles, especially after the tax perks.
The psychology of what might drive people to these vehicles aside – whether it be a testosterone-driven appeal to the great Australian outback; a greater sense, albeit a false one according to experts, of security; or their more luxurious interiors – they are clearly popular.
While those features of an SUV can understandably carry more appeal, the rise of dual-cab utes as family vehicles – especially through lax policing of personal use of tax-subsidised work vehicles – is noteworthy.
As manufacturers such as Mitsubishi prepare for families to account for more sales of its flagship ute than tradies, the design of the workhorses are changing.
While their proponents have claimed that utes have long been on Australian roads, these vehicles have undergone a huge growth spurt, making them inherently more deadly in collisions.
Incremental size increases with each year’s updated models mean the long-term bloat has crept up on us, to the point that the most popular Toyota HiLux in 2025 is about 20cm taller and wider, 60cm longer and almost twice as heavy as its 2000 variant of choice.
Interiors are being maximised with modern comfort features at the expense of a shrinking rear tray, with anecdotal evidence that tradies are increasingly having to tow extra supplies just to perform routine for jobs.
While large car popularity and worsening road safety appear set to continue, experts have flagged a handful of approaches that could incentivise wiser vehicle choice.
As Prof Stuart Newstead, the director of Monash University’s Accident Research Centre, pointed out, Australia’s Ancap safety ratings system considers risks for pedestrians, but only as a factor in a vehicle’s overall score, meaning danger can be obscured by strong occupant safety features.
Adopting minimum scores for pedestrian safety, as markets in Europe and Japan do, would prevent the most dangerous of the larger cars from even being sold here.
Independent transport expert Marion Terrill believes state authorities could require a higher-level driver’s licence, with more rigorous testing for the specific dangers they pose, to operate.
Such licences should carry a greater registration fees, “because the social cost of these vehicles is ultimately higher”, Terrill believes, noting the more expensive and laborious process could nudge drivers to smaller vehicles.
These ideas all rely on more modestly sized cars being available for sale. Manufacturers have flooded Australia’s market with SUVs and utes, knowing they can make far more money on them. Ford, once known for its Fiesta and Focus, no longer even make sedans or hatchbacks.
One lever could be similar to Australia’s new vehicle efficiency standard, which incentivises companies to send cleaner vehicles here and penalises those that don’t. Given current consumer preferences, the standard is likely to see an influx of electric and hybrid SUVs and utes, as opposed to hatchbacks and sedans. A similar mechanism, taking into account safety considerations and vehicle size, could be explored.
Parking can also play a role. Standards Australia is edging towards mandating larger parking car spaces, while the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has proposed forcing developers to build bigger garages.
Instead of making life easier for larger cars, Terrill believes more small car-only spots, into which SUVs can’t fit, will make car buyers think twice. She also backs Paris’s approach, which charges SUVs triple rates for city parking.
Despite the various ideas, one problem is the life cycle of a car. Even with targeted solutions, anything will take a decade or so to start taking effect.
But to tackle a problem, it needs to be acknowledged as one first, and for now these massive vehicles and their costs to society seem to be the elephant in the room.
