Big Car/Little Car

[UltraWomble]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is it me or are small cars getting bigger and big cars getting smaller?

Are we heading towards a one size fits all jelly mould?

 

Case in Point:

 

Land Rover Disco

Then still boxy and big, but a bit more rounded..

 

Now about the same size as the Freelander 3 with 2 shitty seats in the boot that only fit toddlers...

 

And while we are about it why the feck does every car in the current LR line up look near identical in design and size?

 

Ford Fiesta...

Once a compact 5 seater hatchback...

 

Now a bloated tub of lard as big as the Mk 3 Escort ( sorry Ford, but parking it back from the Mk 1 doesnt disguise its become a lard arse).

 

Are we just moving towards one size fits all? Soon we will just be driving round in an unassuming blob 2.6m wide by 4.3m long?

[Guest Hooli]

Aye.

 

It's why they keep inventing new classes of car smaller than the so-called small cars they already make.

[John F]

Yes, and car doors will be replaced with tank-style cupolas on the roof as people discover that they can't get out of their cars after parking them in spaces designed in the 1960s.

 

Also, headlights will continue to increase in size until they entirely replace front wings.

[Guest Hooli]

Plus windows will become so small you can't see out at all.

[John F]

^ Yep.

 

Coincidentally, a photo has been leaked from Audi's new-for-2020 Anschluss model series:

 

[Guest Hooli]

Tyres aren't low profile enough, I can see the sidewall.

 

By then tyres will be painted on the rim.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Surely big cars are also getting bigger as well? Look at the latest 5-series/A6/E-class/XF etc and they're all bigger than their predecessors, which themselves were big enough to double as aircraft carriers. It's a right ballache coming across one on a narrow road as they take up the entire carriageway.

 

The Discovery you mention above is a case in point, despite appearances the new one is 12cm longer and 15cm wider than the one it replaced.

[5speedracer]

Walked past the newest shape Mazda 6 the other day, struck me as fucking huge!

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Don't worry the new Disco is fucking massive

 

You, my friend have mistaken the Discovery Sport , which as you correctly surmise is the Freelander replacement, for a full fat Disco

 

Quite good for towing

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9DsK0SH0h9s

Although an emergency stop would be interesting.

[John F]

Hooli, on 25 Sept 2017 - 1:09 PM, said:

Tyres aren't low profile enough, I can see the sidewall.

 

By then tyres will be painted on the rim.

 

They're the optional Allroad runflats

[fordperv]

Bigger but not by a massive deal, I imagine a mk1 cortina would be dwarfed by one though

 

 

Blimey this picture is old the saph hasnt got its dealer plates on

[UltraWomble]

[FakeConcern]

Surely big cars are also getting bigger as well? Look at the latest 5-series/A6/E-class/XF etc and they're all bigger than their predecessors, which themselves were big enough to double as aircraft carriers. It's a right ballache coming across one on a narrow road as they take up the entire carriageway.

 

The Discovery you mention above is a case in point, despite appearances the new one is 12cm longer and 15cm wider than the one it replaced.

They also all seem to be driven by people who have no idea/can't see where the extrmities of their vehicle are and consequently drive about 2 foot from the edge of the road.

[AlabamaShrimp]

It's all about crash protection, we'll passing the crash protection tests and getting as many stars as possible.

 

My Mk1 Fiesta was hit on the front drivers side and it exploded. Needed panels, lots of welding to get it back together. New cars are all bolt on sections that take damage a lot better.

[danthecapriman]

Bigger but not by a massive deal, I imagine a mk1 cortina would be dwarfed by one though

DSC_0504_zpsf79a53a2.jpg

Blimey this picture is old the saph hasnt got its dealer plates on

When I had my mk2 Granada estate I parked it side by side with my dad's modern (60 reg) Mondeo estate.

There's not much in it at all. Looking at them the Granada was maybe a tiny touch longer.

 

However, when you consider a Granada is the next class of car up from what a Mondeo is then it starts looking bad! A Mondeo was a Cortina when the Granada was current and now that same class car is the same size as the next model up in the range.

But it's not all bad, the Granada has much more spacious interior and a bigger boot aswell as a bigger engine and better looks!

 

My Mercury is the opposite. It dwarfs everything new or old. There's nothing new from America that's that big anymore.

[Junkman]

Are we just moving towards one size fits all? Soon we will just be driving round in an unassuming blob 2.6m wide by 4.3m long?

If this is the size of the then current VW Golf, then yes.

The VW Golf is the best selling car in Europe, so all other companies try to build a clone.

Long past are the times when industries tried to outdo their competition with innovation and individualism.

All they have done the past three decades is take what's selling best and try to copy it.

 

 

Aye.

 

It's why they keep inventing new classes of car smaller than the so-called small cars they already make.

 

Which then bomb badly when it comes to selling them. Look at the proven track record of failures in the sub Polo segment.

Those really small cars always were miserable and unfit as a solution to any transport requirement.

I seriously wonder why they still bother, but there are fewer and fewer of them as time progresses.

 

 

 

They also all seem to be driven by people who have no idea/can't see where the extrmities of their vehicle are and consequently drive about 2 foot from the edge of the road.

 

Have you ever driven one? I have and I can confirm that I had no idea/couldn't see where the extremities of the vehicle were

and consequently drove about 2 feet from the edge of the road.

 

 

My Mercury is the opposite. It dwarfs everything new or old. There's nothing new from America that's that big anymore.

 

There hasn't been anything new from America that's that big since the late Seventies.

Our examples are the largest cars ever delivered and even the yanks realised that they had pushed it over the edge.

These cars are first and foremost impractical in every aspect, even in America. Ask any American who is the right age

for having owned cars like these in the day and he will give you a tirade of how much he hated them.

Even if they tax petrol a fraction of what they have the chuzpe to do here, he still had to pay for it and had to haul his

empty five feet long "Vacation Sized Trunk" around on his daily commute despite he only had three paid holidays a year,

then find a spot to park it. It's no wonder they flocked to the import car dealerships in droves back then.

 

 

Europe has been going that way for decades now and there is still no end in sight. And contrary to America, which had

several downsizing waves in its history, the first one as far back as the early Sixties, Europe hitherto didn't have a single one.

Since the car industry is learning resistant to the core, even under immense pressure (why should they react to anything,

them fascists get bailed out with your money anyway if the going gets tough enough for them to maybe have to ground

one of their business jets) it will rather sink with these fat ugly blobs, only this time not because people start making wiser

buying decisions (they won't - they continue to buy the biggest and most expensive cars they just ever so about can afford)

but because they will be socially engineered out of new car buying power without offering even the slightest hint of resistance.

[John F]

With increasing road congestion, Audi's new Anschluss range will also take the company's well-proven all-wheel drive technology to another level.

 

Vorsprung durch Tauchnik, as they say in Germany...

 

[chaseracer]

It's all about crash protection, we'll passing the crash protection tests and getting ad many stars as possible.

 

My Mk1 Fiesta was hit on the front drivers side and it exploded. Needed panels a d welding to get it back together. New cars are all bolt on sections that take damage a lot better.

 

True.  Also, what we used to think of as 'bumpers' now form the entire front/back of the car and are replaceable as single units.

 

Expensively... 

[eddyramrod]

^ Yep.

 

Coincidentally, a photo has been leaked from Audi's new-for-2020 Anschluss model series:

 

Nope, can't be an Audi.  It's in a colour.

[John F]

eddyramrod, on 25 Sept 2017 - 3:53 PM, said:

Nope, can't be an Audi.  It's in a colour.

 

It's camouflaged in beige to blend into the AS forum background, just like Audi's other cars are camouflaged to blend into the bland grey misery of modern life

[plasticvandan]

its because people are too fat now.

[Cleon-Fonte]

 

It's only got worse since then, the days where the Countryman was the most egregious Bini seem like a fond, distant memory. Look how fat the latest one is even compared to its two predecessors.

 

 

Although it seems the new Bini is too ugly even for Bini buyers, sales have tanked compared to its predecessor, proving that there is justice in this world.

 

 

Europe has been going that way for decades now and there is still no end in sight. And contrary to America, which had

several downsizing waves in its history, the first one as far back as the early Sixties, Europe hitherto didn't have a single one.

Since the car industry is learning resistant to the core, even under immense pressure (why should they react to anything,

them fascists get bailed out with your money anyway if the going gets tough enough for them to maybe have to ground

one of their business jets) it will rather sink with these fat ugly blobs, only this time not because people start making wiser

buying decisions (they won't - they continue to buy the biggest and most expensive cars they just ever so about can afford)

but because they will be socially engineered out of new car buying power without offering even the slightest hint of resistance.

 

If anything Europe is rejecting downsizing in favour of upsizing, now that we're in the middle of a crossover boom where everyone wants something that looks like it could conquer Ben Nevis, despite only being a two-wheel drive jacked up version of the same manufacturer's regular hatchbacks.

[Cleon-Fonte]

its because people are too fat now.

 

But the interiors are shrinking in inverse proportion to the exteriors bulging.

[UltraWomble]

 

Which then bomb badly when it comes to selling them. Look at the proven track record of failures in the sub Polo segment.

Those really small cars always were miserable and unfit as a solution to any transport requirement.

I seriously wonder why they still bother, but there are fewer and fewer of them as time progresses.

 

Yes, I see Ford have ditched the Ka ( a Mk1 Fiesta sized car but with only 4 seats) in favour of the Ka+ ( a Mk 3 Fiesta sized car.....)

[Junkman]

If anything Europe is rejecting downsizing in favour of upsizing, now that we're in the middle of a crossover boom where everyone wants something that looks like it could conquer Ben Nevis, despite only being a two-wheel drive jacked up version of the same manufacturer's regular hatchbacks.

 

But who is actually rejecting it?

The industry, or the consumers?

 

People can only buy what's in the shops.

If I were consumerist enough to look into new car buyage with the transport requirements I have in mind,

the logical replacement for my 405 estate would actually be a crossover, because the industry fails to

provide a more sensible replacement package.

[dollywobbler]

Ah good. The old 'new cars R shit' topic in yet another form. As Norfolk says, the problem with the OP's post is that the Discovery has actually got steadily bigger since 1989, while the Discovery Sport pictured is, as said, the Freelander replacement. It's quite a lot bigger than a Freelander though. Everything is still getting bigger.

[fordperv]

But the interiors are shrinking in inverse proportion to the exteriors bulging.

Impact protection maybe??

[pompei]

When I was a kid I used to marvel at how huge Mk 3 and 4 Zephyrs and Zodiacs were. And Vauxhall Ventoras.  I haven't got the measurements but there seem to be loads of so-called mid range cars about now which seem to be the same size.

[Cleon-Fonte]

But who is actually rejecting it?

The industry, or the consumers?

 

People can only buy what's in the shops.

If I were consumerist enough to look into new car buyage with the transport requirements I have in mind,

the logical replacement for my 405 estate would actually be a crossover, because the industry fails to

provide a more sensible replacement package.

 

If the consumer goes into, say, a Peugeot showroom with the option of a 308 or a 3008 and they buy the 3008 then I'd say that it's the consumer at fault.

[forddeliveryboy]