The comparative size of cars

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PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Location
Hamtun
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i know which would be easier to fit in a Morrisons car park! (But less room for the shopping!)
 

Tenkaykev

Guru
Location
Poole
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Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
There is a reason why not everyone has a Smart car - because you can't fit your family and luggage in it! Cars are like houses - everyone wants more room, and they tend to base their needs on what they might need rather than what they actually use day to day. It is interesting to look at the big American cars though - they built them huge and then they got a bit smaller. Almost as if there is a sweet spot between having a huge impractical car, and having a not so big but more practical car. Only down to a point though, as many you see (even in the UK now) are SUV type things or at least "family" sized ones like a Ford Focus
 

Jody

Stubborn git
I had a ride in a Focus last week, a 2013 model. With the seat fully back there was only 2" between my knees and the dashboard, but the distance from the front of the dashboard to the windscreen was about two feet! It's barking mad.

It's for better outcomes in the event of a crash.
 

gbb

Squire
Location
Peterborough
There is a reason why not everyone has a Smart car - because you can't fit your family and luggage in it! Cars are like houses - everyone wants more room, and they tend to base their needs on what they might need rather than what they actually use day to day. It is interesting to look at the big American cars though - they built them huge and then they got a bit smaller. Almost as if there is a sweet spot between having a huge impractical car, and having a not so big but more practical car. Only down to a point though, as many you see (even in the UK now) are SUV type things or at least "family" sized ones like a Ford Focus

Ironically, with our Mazda 3, it's a real struggle to go on holiday with 2 adults, 2 kids and all the accoutrements my wife deems 'non negotiable "
So we considered a Mazda 5 SUV. But there's very little extra seating space (it seemed to me) and the boot space is bigger...but not massive (it seemed to me)..so we rejected it
A Skoda Kodiak looked perfect...but you end up with a car that's too big 50 weeks of the year.

So we rent a roof box now for the 2 weeks holiday. Saved a fortune.
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
My house has a garage. I don't know when the garage was built - maybe during the 80s or 90s. I'ts just a roofed over parking area with an up&over door. I can get my Hyundai i10 in there OK but that is a very small car by todays standards. My previous car, a 2007 Mercedes A class was a tight squeeze and it involved folding one of the mirrors back. A significant percentage of today's cars simply wouldn't fit.

I'm 6'3" btw and my i10 is fine for me. It's not fine for anyone who happens to be sitting in the rear seat behind me though!

It's partly new safety standards, and partly fashion.
 

Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
Admittedly I'm short (5'7") but I don't really bother about space in the back, as long as my knees aren't actually being crushed by the seat in front. My partners 2 boys are 6ft+ and we have taken them on a 7 hour trip before with no comlaints. There are things you can do (like lay sideways a bit) to make it comfortable to a resonable standard. A larger boot is IMO a much greater asset to have. People can change their shape and position, whereas most luggage cannot. So I suppose I tend to think of a larger sitting space as a "luxury", whereas useable boot space is an assett
 
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