this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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I went to this train and automobile museum place in Maine. Podunk little place, but pretty cool and they really did have a lot of old cars to look at.
What shocked me was the size of the cars. Like huge ford expedition max trunk bigger than a pickup’s bed size.
Then I thought about the cars of the 70s and 80s. My old man’s Cutlass Supreme could easily fit 6 and had a huge trunk. God help you if your auntie drove a station wagon - there might have been a dozen kids piled into that sucker going to the beach.
Then I look at current suvs. They are pretty small comparatively speaking. I can’t get 5 into my grand Cherokee comfortably. Ya there are some huge suvs, but they aren’t the norm. The mini suvs are more common.
My unpopular opinion - the new “car” is an suv. And they have gotten smaller over the years, not bigger.
I disagree. They have gotten smaller on the inside. Totally agree in that. But the rest of the vehicle is definitely larger...and heavier. Look at a corolla today vs. there 80's. It's the size of a Camry back in the day. Trucks and SUVs, too. They don't fit in garages now. Remember mini trucks? Well no more.
I think to meet safety standards, they have more crumple zones. Plus they have more features, which take up space the passengers would normally use. Finally I think people just like larger vehicles. Maybe they feel safer, even if they aren't or they like the intimidation factor. I don't know.
Trucks are larger because of the footprint of the wheels is large enough, they have to meet different efficiency standards. But I think a lot of that was driven by manufacturer.
I agree, but I was making a different point. I think most people drove larger CARS, but today most people drive SUVs. And today’s SUVs are smaller than the cars of the past. Yes any particular model seems to have gotten bigger - but I think people in general are in smaller vehicles than they were when I was a kid.
Maybe that perception is skewed by America's culture of having ridiculously large cars. European cars were always smaller, but nowadays it's getting pretty hard to buy something other than an SUV here, too.