Cars are getting far too big.

We are serial estate car drivers, Volvos and SAABS. These are excellent load carriers and with the roof rack on were all we needed for our antiue stall, and now, for going to Boot Sales.

Yet stand our current SAAB estate beside these great big SUV's it looks tiny but has twice the load capacity. In fact the main reason we stuck to our estate car has been because when ever we looked at bigger cars, the luggage area was always so small, even with the seats down.

We have an SUV (useful when you've had a hip replacement and need the other one done!) it has cameras front & rear with 360 degree vision - no problem parking it (you can see if you are between the white lines) and has saved our cat a fair few of his nine lives as he thinks doing roly-polies in front of a moving car is an absolute wheeze! I also feel 10 times safer as you are higher up with great all round visibility

Cossy

Chocolatelovinggran

Indeed. I drive a tiny Aygo, and find the parking spaces fine, unless, of course I am sandwiched between two enormous cars. Each of these seems to require three places - one for the car, and one either side for door opening purposes.

Some much larger cars have sliding back doors which I think is very sensible.

Exactly! It's a matter of what you need. 30 years ago we were driving Landrover Discoverys. We were a one car family and it did everything including letting me drive when my husband was working away - I'm 52" and the height was perfect for letting me see ahead. Also people would say "Oh you've got a big car, can you take my daughter to band practice with yours as we can't get her instrument in ours" etc. Then. after the girls left home, we downsized until more recently when we both needed a high roofed car for ease of access and egress.

We’ve got a large car at the moment but I’m working on hubby to change to a smaller one now I’m retired.

I detest SUVs and agree that they should be taxed at a higher rate. They take up more space and definitely make driving more difficult for everyone.

A lot of people drive them around here, most seem to be electric.
My grumble is not the large cars, it’s the tiny parking spaces.
You have to be like a contortionist to get in & out of the car- in fact up at the hospital someone parked that close to my car I couldn’t get in my car & had to collar this lad who was like a beanpole to get my car out 🤦‍♀️
Hats off to our new lidles all the parking spaces have shaded areas next to the parking bays so that we can open our cars doors 😊

I reiterate what SueD said - many cars are much bigger because of the safety features installed. If you compare the original Mini with today's, the side panels are about five times as thick to mitigate side impacts. There are also far more gizmos in modern cars, all of which have to be accommodated - more room needed.

These days I like a large, solid car - it makes me feel safer and everything can be crammed in. You could get a three seater sofa into the back of my old Volvo estates!! Having said that, in the Seventies I managed to get two babies (one in a child seat, one in a Moses basket) plus all their paraphernalia plus an Old English Sheepdog into an MGB GT!!!! Most people would have an attack of the vapours at the very thought of that these days!!

all not paid for, all on lease hire, keeping up with the Jones, then moaning about petrol and food, silly world

Franbern

Our block of flats was built in the mid-80's. Whole ground floor taken up with individual garages. It is amazing how many people purchasing one of our flats, then find that their cars just will not fit into their garage. All our flat owners are in retirement ages, so do not need large cars. when I arrived here I had a small Fiat i10 - and even that little car had to be pulled right over to one side to let me open my drivers door.

I am surprised at the comments on 'reversing', as so many of newer cars have that screen showing very clearly where the car is reversing into, and an audio alarm if it is not doing it correctly.

My car is just medium sized but, like you, if I wanted to put it in our garage I'd have to park it over to one side so that I could open the driver's door. You certainly couldn't park it so that doors on both sides could be opened. Fortunately we can park in front of the garage so I don't need to put it inside.
It took me a while to get used to the reversing screen but now it's a real help, particularly as it shows you how the car is parked relative to the back and front of a supermarket parking space.

Dylis

I see so many, very elderly people driving huge cars. They can barely see over the steering wheel and have no idea how to park. My sisters FIL has just taken delivery of a huge 4x4 and he is 92!

The elderly people who buy these cars didn’t buy them they were sold them by unscrupulous car salesmen/ women.

I see so many, very elderly people driving huge cars. They can barely see over the steering wheel and have no idea how to park. My sisters FIL has just taken delivery of a huge 4x4 and he is 92!

I drive a Smart ForTwo which is pretty tiny. However, its doors are longer than those on our BMW so it needs more space to open the doors than many larger cars. Counterintuitive, but true.

I don’t think “status” has anything to do with size of cars.

Many people drive large cars for many different reasons.

My friend drives a large car not by choice but so she can get her Husband's wheelchair in and out. Without this He would be stuck at home. Not everybody's choice I know but this is one made out of necessity.

The modern versions of cars of yesteryear are bigger because they have so much more safety equipment in them. Airbags and so on, which require more space within the doors. There are also the big baby/child seats which didn’t have to be accommodated years ago. We are all safer today in our new Minis than we were in a 1968 Mini.

The question is really about the huge SUV type vehicles, most of which never drive in anything more challenging than a snow shower.

IMO it’s largely a status thing. Bigger = more expensive = swankier.

I’m reminded of Singaporean ex SiL who once hired an absolute monster of an SUV on a visit to the UK - IIRC it was a Maserati. (Though TBH she might have needed a monster because of the vast amount of luggage she usually brought.)

She then proceeded to drive it through a car wash (IIRC) and ripped half the roof off!!
Then had to phone her ex (BiL) and tell him, since he’d be picking up the tab. Ever chilled, IIRC he just said, ‘Never mind…’

This thread is a bit like one which expresses concern about the huge amount of plastic we now have and how it is spawning a microplastics catastrophe and then someone says 'oh but we need it for syringes and plastic gloves'!
What did we do before perfectly adequately?!
Those huge cars (we call them tanks and laugh at them) suit some but they are also twice the weight of most smaller cars and their weight contributes to all the potholes which are wrecking our roads. They also guzzle fuel despite their EV status if they use it.
I sympathise with the OP, I had recently just arrived in our local Morrison car park and a woman drew up beside me and the thing she was driving took up one and a half spaces lengthwise. At least she was embarrassed.
Our local Waitrose only leases the land it uses for its car park and apparently the lease doesn't allow them to repaint the spaces. At least that leaves the same number of vehicle spaces available for the rest of us in our perfectly serviceable Corsa and Volvo.

Shel1951 the Honda Jazz fitted my mother-in-law and a wheelchair post-stroke. She couldn't get in/out of many others. It used to be her car so it was a fluke really - but that is why we kept it.

There is a huge Tesco near me and the car park has been resurfaced. When they painted the white lines back on they widened the spaces so that everyone has more room to get in and out of their vehicles. Less spaces overall but much better.

Tbh my duster is very economical I was amazed, that said could I have manueved my husband into a smaller car with room for his wheelchair and other essentials I would have taken it.
Going back to the old days of smaller cars we would not have been able to take him out , he would have had to stay at home and myself with him as he can't be left alone for more than an hour or two.
But yes I wish I had a micra parked outside today

Our block of flats was built in the mid-80's. Whole ground floor taken up with individual garages. It is amazing how many people purchasing one of our flats, then find that their cars just will not fit into their garage. All our flat owners are in retirement ages, so do not need large cars. when I arrived here I had a small Fiat i10 - and even that little car had to be pulled right over to one side to let me open my drivers door.

I am surprised at the comments on 'reversing', as so many of newer cars have that screen showing very clearly where the car is reversing into, and an audio alarm if it is not doing it correctly.

Susan56

Me too Aveline!

And me, by the way!

Our little Honda Jazz is a real gas-guzzler Georgesgran. It is the thirstiest car we have ever had.

Most, even smaller saloons, are too big to fit in the garages of houses built in the 70/80’s. Now people use those garages as storage or turn them into rooms. Modern houses often aren’t built with garages or even pavements.

MOnica this is exactly what I meant. When my children were small a mini was a small car, a ford escort a small family car and a ford cortina bigger family car. All would look tiny compared to today's models.
I remember going on a family holiday, my Husband, myself, my parents, two children and two west Highland terriers in a volkswagon beetle! Yes it was a tight fit but we didnt feel in any way deprived. Now our car is probably twice the size for two of us.