Obesity is a real thing

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by roll_over
put corn into everything make the people fat

But what if putting corn in gas (ethanol) is what made the cars fat???

[R154]

Viagra made cars fat,

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by speedog

But the Mini and BMW 3 series and the 500 are all European makes - is it plausible that European automobile manufacturers are adapting to the growing American waistline?

So far only the Altima has shrunk in the recent decade. Almost everyone else has increase sales volume by growing out.

A diet is coming as you can see the aluminum F150 and more CF parts in BMW and more aluminum for all other manufacturers.

But this diet is probably of offset by that we are now buying bigger AWD CUVs which is all the rage these days.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Sasuke_Kensai]

Edit: D'oh, beat to it ^

Perhaps a more appropriate comparison is say, an old Civic to a Fit? It seems that some car models which stick around tend to increase in size each year until they eventually move up into the next size class (Civic: Subcompact -> Compact, Accord: Compact -> Mid-size). Then a new model fills the hole.

Though to me a Fit still looks a lot fatter than an old Civic, even if it turned out they occupy the same footprint. I would bet other comparisons are similar, cars just seem bubblier/fatter than before.

[gogreen]

^In the case of a Fit vs. something like a 5th-gen Civic, I think a big difference is in the hood height, which definitely makes the newer car look bigger. The earlier double wishbone front suspension allowed for a much lower hood. The same would apply when comparing the 3rd gen Integra to the RSX.

This one surprised me a bit:



Not as drastic of a difference as I thought in terms of overall footprint and overall height, but the high beltline and profile of the rear deck really make the new Camaro much larger visually.

[corsvette]

That Camaro surprised me, thought for sure it was way bigger than a 2nd gen.

The high beltline is on every car nowadays, along with more height generally. Car and Driver had a new SHO Taurus next to the original SHO, dead front end shot, the new SHO might as well been the new F-150. It was at least 6" taller and the front end area had to be double of the old car. It actually looked more like a SUV or truck in comparison.

[Sugarphreak]

...