Why does a given model of car increase in girth with every generation? Are they vying for biggest-in-class honours?
The mark V Golf was a shoe-in for replacement of my P reg one until I found it had put on four inches in width and so wouldn't fit the garage.
Other marques (Volvo, Toyota) seem the same for their equivalent models. There must be a niche market for £15-20000 type cars whose owners like locking them away at night, but so far I've only found the Lexus is200 as comparatively skinny.
Am I being too bourgeois in wanting to garage a mid-range car, or not bourgeois enough in not having a double-garage?
|
|
Maybe it's just to do with what they have to fit into the doors nowadays; i.e. side-impact protection, airbags, sensors, etc.
|
|
Yeah, ive noticed every new generation of car gets bigger, which is why they are also getting far too heavy and uneconomical as a result! E.g. mark 1 Golf well under 1000kg, whereas mark 5 starts at approx. 1300kg. Also, compare the current Vectra to a 90's Cavalier, it dwarfs it!
|
I'm sure we must have been through this before... but here we go.
It's fairly common knowledge that the current Polo is bigger than the Mk 1 Golf. Manufacturers seem to have this need to make every new model bigger than the one it replaced, as if keeping it the same size or making it smaller is a step backwards. Then, as the cars get bigger they kill-off the model at the top end of the range (Scorpio or Omega for example) and then bring another one in the bottom (Ka, Lupo etc). The Golf was once the baby of the Volkswagen range, now (out of their 'standard cars' at least) it's second only to the Passat in size. Oh, wait, isn't there a slow-selling prestige model as well? Phaeton? - is that a VW or one of their other brands? Hmm. Anyway, the point still stands that there is a trend developing where cars seem to get introduced as babies and work their way up the range. I wonder if there'll ever come a time when the Fiesta is Ford's "flagship" model.
|
|
Maybe I'm just getting fatter then, each generation seems to have a less accomodating cabin than the previous one...
|
|
|
Maybe I'm being dim, but it seems to me that if you have someone regularly buying the same model it's counterproductive to oblige them to go down a model. They're far more likely to swap makes entirely than be seen to "trade down".
I suppose far more people buy by maximum size than garage fit in these days of better rust-proofing. Also in the age of the global car they're probably sized for american garages anyway.
Anyway the search for narrow cars continues...
|
|
|
|
|
I think a lot of this is connected with the latest trends in car design and the conception that the wider and flatter the look, the better.
Many were impressed with the E Type Jaguar when they first appeared, me included, but when I see one now the wheels seem too narrow and too inboard and the body too high.
I used to have a car with a rear view mirror that distorted the view so that cars looked much lower and wider. At that time, the Austin A30/35, looked quite attractive through the mirror, yet in reality, always looked too narrow.
Even though the trend towards wider cars continues, house builders seem to be making garages narrower!
|
|
...and what about the 6ft6in width restriction posts? I can just squeeze my Scenic between them but need to fold at least one of the door mirrors on the Galaxy to get through. I can get the Scenic in my garage no problem, but the Galaxy again requires at least one mirror to be folded to get through the garage door frame, and then I cannot open the door sufficient to get out!
|
|
|
>>house builders seem to be making garages narrower!
Think you hit nail on head. A lot seem to only cater for very small motors. Not medium/large?
--
Was mech1
|
Car widths are of vital importance to me.Mining the dimensions from websites is not as easy as it sounds and many a car brochure have I carried home to discover it has no facts or figures.
I've Googled but failed to find anyone who has spent time collating all car dimensions into one place.
And when you think of the stuff anoraks do put on the web. Tch Tch
|
Cars have not just been getting wider and heavier, but longer and taller too. Yet they have also been getting faster AND more economical, especially diesels. Wheels have been growing in diameter too.
My house was built in the 1980's, with what would have been a fairly typical garage size. Yet the door is much too low to fit a Land Rover Discovery under, while a Ford Galaxy might just squeeze in but the up-and-over garage door would catch the back of the roof if one tried to close it.
Our previous house had a garage that was probably built in around 1960. I could only just get the Peugeot 309 we had at the time into that one, designed for the likes of the Austin A40!
Cheers, SS
|
|
|
A fair amount of easy to find imformation here
www.carpages.co.uk/guide/
|
|
|
|
Widths and other dimensions are given (most of the time) on the What Car? website.
|
Thanks for the What Car and other suggestion, but i've found the What Car magazine widths unreliable. For example What Car October 2004 has the width of the Volvo s40 including mirrors as 1770mm. If other links I've found are right, including HJ's at
www.honestjohn.co.uk/road_tests/?id=100
that's the width without mirrors. On Civics the magazine gives width with mirrors as 1924 across the range when Honda's own site says it varies.
So far the search for narrow Golfish cars has turned up low end Civics (The high end ones seem to have big mirrors or have otherwise grown) or maybe Corollas. So Wolfsburg's loss might be Swindon's gain.
Wonder if I can persuade a Honda dealer to stick the mirrors off a 1.6 on a 2.0...
|
|
|
|
|
Try the What Car? website.
|
|
|
|
|
|
cars getting bigger?
1. Every car geared towards the American market, therefore larger car.
2. Bigger car suggest a price increase.
3. Small cars have a small profit margin.
4. If a car is to be upgraded the market expects something new. Also more stuff would mean bigger car as people want their money to reflect advancement overthe years.
Nevertheless companies are introducing a greater range of vehicles to cover all positions.
|
Several years ago a client who was a solicitor, bought a new house from a private developer, who built about five 'executive houses' in a sought after district.
When he moved in he discovered that his wife's Golf would fit in the garage, but his 3-series would not. He sued the developer, for building a house that was not of merchantable quality nor fit for its purpose. Basically, if you advertise an executive home, and it comes with garaging, the garaging should fit an executive car.
Can't remember who won, think it was settled out of court, as the builder knoew he did not have the bottomless pit of money to defend a case against a lawyer with friends who all gave advice for free.
--
Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
|
I've just been thumbing through an old 'Observers' book of Automobiles'. A Morris Minor and A Ford 100E prefect had a kerb weight of about 15 cwt (750kg). Our VW Golf Mk 3 1.4 5 door is about 1100 kg, 50% heavier. Extra equipment plus crash protection must account for much of the increase.
Maybe in the next few years all-aluminium bodyshells will work their way down from top of the range Audis and Jaguars to mainstream models, reversing the trend for increasing weight.
Cheers, Sofa Spud (just got 3 new trainee sofa spuds - at the moment they're kittens but in a year or two.... Second thoughts more like sofa rippers!)
|
Ever wider bottoms?
Not seen the Hummer lately...:-))
|
|
|
I've just been thumbing through an old 'Observers' book of Automobiles'. A Morris Minor and A Ford 100E prefect had a kerb weight of about 15 cwt (750kg). Our VW Golf Mk 3 1.4 5 door is about 1100 kg, 50% heavier. Extra equipment plus crash protection must account for much of the increase. Maybe in the next few years all-aluminium bodyshells will work their way down from top of the range Audis and Jaguars to mainstream models, reversing the trend for increasing weight. Cheers, Sofa Spud (just got 3 new trainee sofa spuds - at the moment they're kittens but in a year or two.... Second thoughts more like sofa rippers!)
The new M5 V10 is going to be lighter than the old M5 V8. I think this might be the first of this trend.
Just got back from the seeing red ferrari day at Donnington Park - WOW!
Anyone else go there?
|
|
|
|
|
