Putting on the inches

[Tony Griffiths]

An article in today's DT how the width of cars is forcing drivers to enter those parked in bays through the boot. I copied their graphic and added a 1934 Ruby.

[Alan]

Yes. I looked at a mini as a possible replacement for our mx5 and was surprised how big some of them are.

[Nick Salmon]

The volume of bloated vehicles on our roads is ludicrous. They are anti-social, undesirable and downright dangerous - especially when driven by clueless or arrogant people, of which there are far too many of both. I'll get off me soapbox. And leave you with this pic of original Mini with modern Mini - which is far from mini.


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[goodwoodweirdo]

and then ask the question, why drive a 2.5ton electric SUV on the school run with only mother and child in it ...

motoring is doomed !!

[Charles P]

and then ask the question, why drive a 2.5ton electric SUV on the school run with only mother and child in it ...

motoring is doomed !!

I've gone to the dark side of SUV ownership largely because the roads around here are too poor to drive anything as an everyday car that doesn't have big spongy tyres and ground clearance.
Mind you, finding a used Audi SUV without sports suspension and low profile tyres took a bit of searching.

[jpsmit]

Not just cars. 20 years ago we were talking about an addition to our church. We had the original architect in for a conversation and when we asked about seating capacity he suddenly got very sheepish. Finally he admitted that when he designed the church he designed it based in 18" (46cm) bums. He then pointed out that 24" (61cm) and even 30" (76 cm) bums were more accurate. 

In fairness it wasn't just about people getting larger, it was also about how close to each other people are willing to sit.

[Andy Bennett]

We are entering the brave new world of car buying. We have always bought new and driven until the MOT bills start to get silly.
Our C3 1.6 diesel is a great car, bought largely because it can easily tow our micro caravan. With diesels disappearing and the C3 now 11, we decided we need to start doing some research into the next car.
Well, small diesels have almost all gone of course and all small cars are now either 1 or 1.2L petrol and can't tow more than a shopping trolley. Whilst small hybrids are completely useless for towing.
It seems that if we want to tow we have to head up the bloated bubble car hybrid stakes or go electric and pay 50% premium for the car, twice as much for insurance and find that tyres last half as long. Meanwhile, whilst apparently saving money on our overall cost of ownership by buy electric the realities of battery distance whilst towing means that we will be spending most of our savings on lattes whilst waiting in service stations to recharge. On the bright side we can spend some of the time trying to work out how the radio works through the 57 stage touch screen that a 20 something has bolted to the dash and called it 'design'.
Ah progress...

[Mike Costigan]

Don't bother, Andy! The C3 has probably reached the bottom of the depreciation curve, so just spend the new-car depreciation figure each year on maintenance and save on the extra capital investment.

[Andy Bennett]

We have sort of come to that conclusion but are also wondering if we should grab a smallish diesel before they all go to give us another 15+ years towing

[Chris Garner]

I totally agree with Nick. Excluding the debate on EVs, we should be conserving the earth's resources by building smaller cars. I see Land Rover are marketing a 4.4 litre twin turbo V8 Range Rover with 626 bhp, 0 - 62 in 3.6 secs and a top speed of 180 mph. All 675 Edition One models are sold so you'll have to wait until 2025 for the next model before shelling out over £171,000. Ludicrous!