I think the worst effect is in towns, when you combine the increasing size of cars with the increasing number of them. Houses that weren't designed with cars in mind at all now accommodate families with four of the things and nowhere to keep them. Even where there's a garage, it's used as a store-room and/or too small to contain a modern car, so the car lives on the drive or in the road.
Funny thing is, no-one seems to mention the blight all these stationary cars inflict on our built environment, and it's something no amount of alternative-fuel technology is going to solve. It's partly why exempting the Prius and its like from the Congestion Charge makes no sense - a Prius causes as much congestion as anything else that size.
I'm a big fan of buses: it's so liberating to pop into town without fretting about where I'm going to park. But a return trip also liberates more than three pounds from my pocket, which is about 20p a minute, and about four times what it costs to drive the same distance and park for an hour. And that's if I'm on my own. There has to be a case for public subsidy of fares to encourage people to use the buses - get that right and not only will people use their cars less; some will realize they don't need that second car at all.
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Two comments:
1. How big is too big? Big is only a problem when trying to get into a parking space / garage, or when trying to squeeze through a narrow space - either between cars in town, or on a narrow country road. There are times when I am glad I'm in my Ka rather than something bigger - but not that many.
2. Are cars really getting bigger? I remember the days when the Escort was the smallest car Ford made. Now there are two Fords which are smaller than the Escort's replacement. As has been said before, in 20 years, the Focus (or its replacement) will be the largest car that Ford make, the Mondeo will have gone the way of the Granada, and something smaller than the Ka will probably have been introduced!
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The view from the Man in the Volvo Estate is that cars are getting smaller. There seem to be thousands of small silver cars on the roads, all identical apart from minor differences in their lights.
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The man in the expanding Volvo Estate.
The volvo 245 was *the* estate for space and seemed huge, now see one on the road and you think hmmmm looks smaller than i remember.
Is it just that modern cars LOOK bigger? The Squashy looks bigger than it actually is. As someone said they do seem to be getting wider at least.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The 1970s 245 was something over 4.9m long, although it got shorter when they streamlined the bumpers in the 80s. I don't think Volvo has made an estate that long since - even the new V70 is 4.823m - although you can bet the current one is wider and heavier. Others are catching up, though - a Toyota Avensis estate is 4.715m, a new Mondeo estate 4.830m.
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1974 Volvo 245 DL
Length 4897 mm
Width 1707 mm
Height 1461 mm
Kerb weight 1394 kg
2007 Volvo V70 T5
Length 4823 mm
Width 1861 mm
Height 1547 mm
Kerb weight 1736 kg
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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1996 Mondeo 1.8lx
Length 4556 mm
Width 1745 mm 68.7 in
Height 1372 mm
Weight 1322kg
2007 mondeo 2.0
Length 4778 mm 188.1 in
Width 1886 mm 74.3 in
Height 1500 mm 59.1 in
weight 1402 kg
So given this and the volvo example, wider taller and heavier seems to be the trend, but not longer.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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So given this and the volvo example wider taller and heavier seems to be the trend but not longer.
Seems to be the case. I've just checked Ford Fiesta Mk 1 against the Ford Ka. The Ka is indeed wider, taller, and heavier - but shorter.
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They are definately more bloated than they used to be, you only have to compare the original Fiesta with the latest model which looks like a slightly undersize MPV. Probably because there is so much more to pack in, what with crumple zones and all the hi-tech gizmos we get now.
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you only have to compare the original Fiesta with the latest model ...
Ah, but should you be comparing the original Fiesta to the current Fiesta, or to the Ka?
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The only thing I can think of that compares to a Ka wouldn't make it past the swear filter.
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Much of the increase in size is to do with airbags,frontal crash protection and other passive safety measures.
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I saw a new model 4 door Corsa the other day and would n't be suprised if it was n't the same size as the Mk1 Astra.
Thing is that adding a bit of size gives something extra to the buyer of the replacement model. Also allows the manufacturer to create a new segment at the entry end (Ka etc). Probably also explains why the Focus/Astra sized car sells better than the Mondeo/Vectra to the non fleet market.
Remember the first Civic?
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Bucking the trend somewhat - the new Mazda 2 is lighter and smaller than the outgoing model.
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I remember the Rover P6 V8 (2000 shape) as being really big when I admired it in the late 1960s.
When I finally sold the one I owned a few years ago I was struck by how small it looked against things like the Focus.
It did however look 'right' for its size, whatever it was, unlike today's cars that almost all seem to look like pumped-up versions of something half as big.
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I've been having a clear out of my manky old prefab garage before I take it down and freecycled some good stuff that I don't have room to store
I had a woodworkers station, a bit like a B&D workmate that turns hand power tools into bench tools....Saw bench, belt sander, router table, jigsaw, etc. This fitted easily into my MK3 Golf estate, but would it fit into the 407 SW, no chance We had to dismantle it
The car looks huge compared to my little golf, but the narrowing hatch near to the top made it impossible to get the bench in. Just plain daft. Nice car, looked smart in silver, just not big enough to carry anything
You would have got 3 of them in a 504 estate
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And with bigger cars come bigger engines. Remember the original Golf Gti just needed 115bhp to go like stink now 115bhp is considered underpowered......
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And with bigger cars come bigger engines. Remember the original Golf Gti just needed 115bhp to go like stink now 115bhp is considered underpowered......
True, but a Mk1 Golf GTi doesn't go like stink by today's standards either. 0-60 and top speed are well short of today's hot hatch figures.
But to emphasise your point, a Golf has put on half a tonne since the days of the Mk1 !
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Not sure whether its been mentioned before but doesn't safety and the ever increasing demand for 5* NCAP etc. have alot to do with the increase in size and weight of modern cars?
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Oh dear, I do find all of this depressing, the safety-led obesity cancelling out the more positive developments so that performance and economy potential isn't realised.
I must be one of the few here who have been in a Unipower GT. A 60s thing, fibreglass bodied, mid-engined, with a tuned Mini-Cooper S power pack and high final drive ratio, weighed a bit over half a ton, looked and went like a bullet. There were only a very few of them.
One reason for this must be that to most drivers the car felt very twitchy. I know two of the people who could drive one. One worked for the company and said he used to demonstrate the car's safe handling by getting it up to 100 or so and taking his hands off the wheel. Never experienced that myself. The other owned one for a while, and took me for a spin in it. On a slightly bumpy, rather damp A1 dual carriageway at well over 100, I have to say that he seemed to be working briskly, if delicately, at the tiny steering wheel to keep it pointing in the right direction. That same example had been timed at 122mph, and did something like 40 mpg.
Later he sold it to someone who quickly passed it on because it terrified him. Didn't get to drive it myself but my guess is that it would have scared me too.
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Yes I agree, whilst my recent "drive" in MrsP's Golf demonstrated the other day that it may be the heaviest Gti but on the move it totally belies this giving high standards of safety, a load of creature comforts and a car that can be driven by anyone requiring no special skills, I was thinking of this at the time as I rolled into the Local Supermarket to pick up some veg, to all intents and purposes its a shopping hatch. Out on the road its a totally different animal but at the same time totally civilized and comfortable......that, I believe, is what gives it that little bit of magic !
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Can you make a big car feel and handle including control like a smaller car??
Well Audi have a special A8 that can emulate the handling of other cars - or so I read today. Start out with it feeling like an E Class Merc and then switch to a Golf GTi and apparently you feel the difference. Even emulates cars a lot smaller. No idea how it compares to the real thing when doing this.
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You'd have a job to squirt an A8 into some of the gaps a GTi would fit though
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It can also be a Hyundai Getz or a Lotus Elise - easier to get into that a real Elise though.
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I'm sure the Golf is great PU, but what I was really trying to say is that that fairly undeveloped sports car 40 years ago had the potential, in the hands of a big manufacturer, to develop into a very entertaining, very economical lightweight vehicle. If development had gone that way rather than the way it has cars would be even better than they are now, and people would drive better too. Or so I sometimes think... :o}
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And my original point was that we now seem to need 150bhp to give us the performance that the Mk1 Golf gave us with a mear 115. So it seems that safety and environmental issues have added around 40% more horsepower.
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