Jalopnik 
Enter your username and password.
Detroit, 4:33 AM
Sat Nov 21
31 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jalopnik.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | Email | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler | Email
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin | Email
Associate Editor - Houston:
Matt Hardigree
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Ben Wojdyla
Editor-at-Large:
Mike Spinelli
Contributors:
Mark Arnold
John Krewson | Email
Andy Didorosi
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
10/01/09
10/01/09
I think the one main reason I have no desire to get a new car (save for an Exige, which I could never afford) is because they've all gotten so huge. Plus, 90% of them have a serious badonkadonk arse goin' on. That trend has got to stop.
Even the formerly economy-sized Carolla and Civic have gotten too chunky for me.
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
American cars have grown too, just not as much.
10/01/09
Even the Mustang has this problem, to a degree. The newer model has a slightly shorter wheelbase and longer overhangs... but it's six inches wider and three and a half inches taller.
It's the width that gets me. I parked a bit more than a foot from a back-of-the-lot Mustang GT a couple weeks ago, as a comparison, and was amazed by how wide it was compared to my Volvo (almost an extra 7"). It's only a couple inches shorter, too, and this is a fairly long car...
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
@My A-Arm: Foci are ridiculously tall anyway. I remember the first time my mother parked next to one with her old Contour - huge difference.
10/01/09
10/02/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
Then again, Armadas and Titans dwarf most actual 'cars'.
I'm still trying to understand how the Civic got to be significantly larger than the 1st and 2nd gen Accord.
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
I'd swear this is someone playing with distance and depth-of-focus, but I know it isn't.
Depressing.
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
Funny you mention this, 'cause this weekend, I saw a brand-new Fusion and thought, "the new Taurus doesn't look huge..."
/forehead slap
10/01/09
10/01/09
Not too bad compared to modern examples of bloat.
10/01/09
I find this pic more startling:
10/01/09
Of course, it's probably unavoidable given all the safety requirements and technology crammed into these cars. You're far more likely to survive a crash in those new cars. And despite the size and, in some cases, weight increases modern cars dramatically out-perform old cars.
Really, the holy grail is to have everything we have in modern cars but use technology to make them significantly lighter. Of course, that's easier said than done and would make these cars even more expensive than they already are. And of course there's a level of luxury consumers have come to expect even in performance cars.
10/01/09
Yeah, they may have put on some weight, but they're still heroes to me, dammit.
10/01/09
10/01/09
10/01/09
@1000songs: