Cars are getting bigger all the time. Trucks keep getting taller and longer, EVs keep getting heavier, and wheels seem to add another inch every time we turn our back. Now, it’s possible to see just how big vehicles have gotten over time with a useful online tool. The tagline of Carsized.com is “Bringing car […]
A tool is only as useful as its user.
If you’re going to talk about how big cars are getting, you need to look at the generations side-by-side. Compare Tahoes to Tahoes: Tahoes are illustrative of little length gain from the '90s GMT400 to the early '10s GMT900 but show a not-insignificant increase in bumper/hood height, and the GMT900-GMT1YC shows a significantly higher hood and a more significant increase in size.
If the hood height was related to cooling system efficiency, the GMT900’s 8,500lb max towing capacity should be increased- but instead it decreased to 8,400lbs (and yes, I know the GMT900 wasn’t initially engineered to SAE J2807).
Whatever you do, don’t use the Lotus Elan to compare to anything modern.
A BMW 5 Series is 18" longer now than in the 80’s. They weighed 1160kgs.
The 80’s 5 Series was comparable in length to a modern 2 Series, but today’s 2 Series is still up by 600kgs.
I’m pleased to say that my Jimny has the same overall dimensions (l+w+h) and the same weight as the previous generation. Not everything is growing
I enjoyed smaller cars for years, with my favorite being a Civic Si, that was a fun car, miss it and still think about it from time to time. Now I drive a GMC Yukon (basically a Tahoe), dad life and all that. I will probably get downvoted for this sentiment, but once I got used to the size I fell in love with the Yukon. It’s big, powerful, comfortable, well appointed, and makes a sweet highway cruiser. And yes, I do feel safer putting my family in a large vehicle. It would be hard to go back to a smaller car at this point TBH. I ‘get it’ now and understand why large vehicles are so friggin’ popular, it’s just something about big V8s pushing 5,600lbs surprisingly quick that is more endearing than I had expected.
Driving ICE SUVs and crossovers bored me. Heavy as heck, slow, and unresponsive. Like you, I may get downvotes, I test drove an unpopular EV SUV that rhymes with ChinMast and holy shit I was breaking the law within seconds. The guy had to tell me to slow down multiple times and chuckled because no one is used to how fast it accelerates.
I’d definitely get an EV SUV that’s super comfortable if I had a big family. It’s easy to see how there are so many Model Y’s on the road now…
Of all the EVs out there the first one you drove was a VinFast? Those are awful.
Driving ICE SUVs and crossovers bored me. Heavy as heck, slow, and unresponsive. Like you, I may get downvotes, I test drove an unpopular EV SUV that rhymes with ChinMast and holy shit I was breaking the law within seconds. The guy had to tell me to slow down multiple times and chuckled because no one is used to how fast it accelerates.
I’d definitely get an EV SUV that’s super comfortable if I had a big family. It’s easy to see how there are so many Model Y’s on the road now…
A BMW 5 Series is 18" longer now than in the 80’s. They weighed 1160kgs.
The 80’s 5 Series was comparable in length to a modern 2 Series, but today’s 2 Series is still up by 600kgs.