I'm... uh... Garlemald was a military dictatorship, not just a dictatorship, but one that had the pretense of utilitarianism. I'm not at all surprised the military had the high-tech, overdesigned mechs (spider-bots are also better for uneven terrain, but not cost-effective for civilian paved roads) while the rubes use the highly practical, if somewhat boring box cars.

Which actually reminds me, didn't someone actually suss out the Garlean cars and they turned out to be pretty similar to an actual Japanese car from the (I want to say) 80s?