The length is bad but the 0.5cm extra width per year strikes me as much worse. There's a lot of room for longer vehicles than the average cars of yesteryear - vans and light trucks have always been around. But those vehicles tended to only be slightly wider, if at all, in order to fit into lanes on the road, parking spaces, through gateways and so on. Half a centimetre wider per year is insane.

Ghoelian@piefed.social · 27 pts · 46d (6 replies)

I would hope countries will just stop approving cars as road legal if they are too wide to fit on the roads.

I do occasionally see the odd range rover in the Netherlands. It's always hilariously out of place, and of course does not fit in any single parking space here. But they have to drive around with a special license plate for import vehicles, apparently it's fine then.

FishFace@piefed.social · 8 pts · 46d (3 replies)

There are loads here, and I immediately think that whoever's driving it is a bad person.

klu9@piefed.social · 5 pts · 46d (2 replies)

Where's "here"?

FishFace@piefed.social · 4 pts · 46d (1 reply)

You can work it out from my other posts but I don't go around advertising it when I can help it...

Septimaeus@infosec.pub · 0 pts · 46d

[ removed ]

PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 46d (1 reply)

How about the dumbshits that import Ram trucks there? Recently read an article about it. I dunno how any of you guys could drive our pickup trucks at all there.

Ghoelian@piefed.social · 1 pts · 44d

Oh yes actually it's ram trucks I was thinking of, I dont think range rovers are that absurdly big. Still big, just less.

ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 46d

Maybe you need to invite in China’s “belt and road” people to cinch in that extra width.

darklamer@feddit.org · 27 pts · 45d (4 replies)

There's something very fishy about this claim, I happen to own a European car from the year 2000 so I just went out to the garage and measured it, just to be sure, and it's still exactly the same length as it was when it was brand new.

partofthevoice@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 45d (2 replies)

Did you make sure not to use the cars built-in measurement utility? That would have grown too, you know…

darklamer@feddit.org · 2 pts · 45d (1 reply)

My car really is from the year 2000, far too old to have any built-in measurement utility.

partofthevoice@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 45d

Damn… it got to the external ones too.

ryathal@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 44d

Did you measure from the car's asshole?

Etterra@discuss.online · 21 pts · 46d (1 reply)

This just illustrates the importance of hiring a professional to trim back the cars periodically. You could do it yourself, but the heavy industrial equipment necessary for routine gardening like this is just too bulky and expensive for the average person to be able to use.

NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 45d

I don't want to make my engine bleed. It squirmed the last time I tried to do it myself and I ended up nicking the engine and it leaked eveywhere.

CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de · 15 pts · 46d (7 replies)

Some of this is safety equipment and more recently batteries and hybrid equipment, which takes up space. Some of this is simply design and aesthetics.

starlinguk@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 46d (5 replies)

My hybrid Suzuki Ignis (ugliest car on the planet) is smaller than my Suzuki Swift, which is supposed to be a small car.

actionjbone@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 46d (4 replies)

The Pontiac Aztec is uglier.

username123@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 46d

Beauty is in the eye of the SUV holder

P00ptart@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 46d (2 replies)

The Aztec isn't even close to the ugliest car ever made. It's a meme at this point.

ryathal@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 44d (1 reply)

The Aztec had the PT cruiser existing at the same time to make sure it wasn't the ugliest car.

username123@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 40d

And I happened to think they were both cool as a kid. A split window in the rear? An unnecessarily large grill like old studebakers? Why not! More hot wheels fodder. The pt cruiser interior was also very comfy.

SpaceDuck@feddit.org · 1 pts · 45d

I have a small Peugeot e-208. You don’t need some massive SUV to go electric. Renault 5 is another small example. There are electric sedans available too.

Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org · 12 pts · 46d (1 reply)

1.2 cm? You know which body parts grow much faster?

The hair!

😇

Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 46d

And nails

Photonic@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 45d (5 replies)

Not only longer but also wider and taller… it’s an obesity pandemic that has blown over from the US.

Can someone prescribe some ozempic to these cars?

NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 45d

Wait, it's contagious!?!?

doingthestuff@lemy.lol · 0 pts · 45d (3 replies)

Safety regulations require things like better crumple zones. The seating areas aren't significantly larger.

Photonic@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 45d (2 replies)

Nah that’s not just it. People used to drive sedans and hatchbacks, now everyone and their mother has an SUV

ryathal@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 44d (1 reply)

It's all related. You can't add a thousand pounds of safety equipment and larger crumple zones and make a full size sedan that consistently gets 40+ mpg.

Companies pivoted to the SUV because it didn't have to have absurdly good fuel efficiency, and people liked being "bigger" despite often having less space than full size sedans.

Photonic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 44d

There’s no reason to make it worse just because it’s already a bit bad. Hatchbacks and sedans still exist and they really don’t have anywhere near 1000lbs of extra safety equipment.

It’s just a trend that blew over from the US. Here is some more info.

elephantium@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 46d (1 reply)

What are they feeding them?!

catbum@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 46d

mcchickens

homoludens@feddit.org · 8 pts · 46d

To be fair, people have been complaining that here are too many cars in the cities for a long time. By making the cars bigger you naturally decrease the number of cars per area!

eleijeep@piefed.social · 6 pts · 46d

If they're going to make these cars that grow longer every year, are they also going to build garages that get longer too? In my day, cars stayed the same length for the whole time you owned them. I suppose it's good for parents that have growing teenagers and need more leg room in the back.

teft@piefed.social · 6 pts · 46d

Does this mean cars have plate tectonics?

RobotToaster@mander.xyz · 6 pts · 46d (4 replies)

A lot is extra safety features. It would be illegal to sell the original mini today.

GenosseFlosse@feddit.org · 5 pts · 46d (1 reply)

I remember that my parents car still didn't have seat belts in the back when I was a kid...

Magister@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 46d

Same, my father's car (Citroën GS) had no seat belt in the back...

Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 46d (1 reply)

Safety for occupants, not those outside

RobotToaster@mander.xyz · 1 pts · 46d

Not entirely, a lot of the required curves are for pedestrians. Anything curved has less internal volume.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 46d (1 reply)

Consumer appeal for bigger vehicles tracks with historical weight gain.

thejml@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 46d

Also, the number of burglaries in new Hampshire is dropping as there are less and less kids named Johnny

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 46d

It's called "American creep".

FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 1 pts · 46d

There are a lot more car brands in Europe than most regions so generalizations are a bit less useful. I wonder who the outliers would be?

RumorsOfLove@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -5 pts · 46d (1 reply)

Just like my dick

IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com · 0 pts · 46d

Liar.