Our Cars are Getting Fatter!
The original 1986 Ford Taurus next to its modern descendent.
A delicious photoessay from TTAC’s Sajeev Mehta.
The heat wave back in July convinced me that I couldn’t keep driving an impossible-to-air-condition 1997 Jeep Wrangler. Also, I’d long ago torn out the back seat to make more room for camping gear, and eventually — like, after the second child — it also becomes impossible to justify having a two-seater as dad’s only car.
Well, I always did enjoy driving old Mercedes, so I looked around for a good deal on a Mercedes ML 350, or maybe the 500. Problem? The truck is just too damn big. I know the Wrangler is tiny, but I do intend on taking the thing off-road. Also? Mercedes seems to have gotten rid of the Low Range gearing on the newer versions (the W164 and W166) of their light SUV.
So I found a 1998 old-school W163 version, for less money than I paid six years ago for the ’97 Wrangler — and with fewer miles on it, too.
It’s still bigger than I’d like, but it’s not nearly the behemoth that the W166 is. I mean, that thing rivals a Soviet T-72, only with a slightly more-bulbous top.
I took the new-old ML camping last month, and it had plenty of room for me, the boy, all our gear, plenty of food, with lots of room left over. And that was without putting anything on the roof rack. Next summer, I’ll bring both boys and the 75-pound Golden, and all four of us will still enjoy plenty of lebensraum.
And believe me when I tell you: I don’t pack light. I used to fill every nook and cranny of the Wrangler, passenger seat included, going camping all by myself. But in the ML, even a cargo hog like me has more than enough truck, driving one of the smaller SUVs on the road.
So tell me: Why are our cars getting so much fatter, especially with gas prices ramping up and CAFE standards clamping down?
Because I don’t get it.
Could be newer safety standards.
Plus as the populous has gotten bigger, there’s a need to make seats bigger and have more leg room (we’re getting taller too.)
That’s the thing: Passenger room hasn’t increased. And safety? The Mini Cooper and even the Smart are perfectly safe, tiny little cars, which hardly anybody buys.
Safety standards have driven hood lines and beltlines steadily upwards (hoods up for pedestrian safety in Europe, beltlines up for side-impact standards in the US and Canada), You’ll note that the current Taurus is only a little wider than the old one but much higher.
Also the US market has always preferred larger cars, with the significant increase in engine efficiency we’ve seen in the last decade we can now buy larger vehicles with the same or better mileage than the older, smaller version. An F-150 with the Ecoboost V6 gets the same mileage as my 2000 Ranger with the 4.0L V6, and is much larger and has a much bigger payload.
And of course there’s model creep. Every subsequent version of a vehicle is at least marginally larger to show improvement in reviews, this is particularly noticeable with the Corolla, Civic and Accord as the models have such a long run. And since pretty much everybody in the same class designs against those models for dimensions, as they creep up, so does the class as a whole. An Accord used to be the size of a Fit.
An oldie, but a goodie:
http://youtu.be/tbOD8D88Wgg
Got what looked and felt like a full size Ford in place of a BMW service loaner recently. After stuffing it into my garage with all due care, went to the back of the car to check the nametag.
…
Focus.
Today’s Focus — Ford’s “compact” sedan — is about the same size as the original Taurus full-size sedan.
They’re all good cars. But why are they so damn big?
…and where are all the Euro hatchbacks with four doors, diesel and stick? Apparently, in Europe. Now Smart is a golf cart, but all rental compacts I ever got on the other side of the pond were perfectly driveable and a darn sight lighter and more frugal than the fleet bestsellers on offer here.
Oh well, I’m just happy we aren’t –yet! — paying Euro prices for what we do get.
Mercedes made a diesel version of the W163 — for export from Alabama to Europe. Would love to get my hands on one of those, but I doubt they’re anything close to street legal over here.
The W164 and 66 both have Bluetec engines for domestic sale, but the price premium is way too high and, as I’ve been complaining, they’re just too damn big.
My better half drives a Bluetec W164 and it is a nice conveyance — for a boulevardier. Can’t see it going offroad (parking on a grassy patch is about it) but isn’t that the fate of any SUV with interior not suitable for hosing off?
That’s why I don’t mind spending four figures on one from the previous century. It still has Low Range and it’s old enough I won’t mind beating the crap out of it.
Still, it’ll never go the places the Wrangler went. And I’ll always miss the TJ’s patented Seriously Long Throw Standard Transmission. In second gear, the shifter was in a different ZIP code from fifth.
Heck, when I was shopping for my very first new car in the US, I have actually seen (from a respectable distance, natch) an L-R Defender sitting in a dealer’s showroom. Now that was a crap-stomper! Although I have no idea how dear the maintenance on one would run compared to a Wrangler…
Oops. I’m not sure the older diesels were ever built at the Tuscaloosa plant. Just remembered M-B also assembles MLs in Graz.
One thing to remember is that those 4 door, diesel, stick, hatchbacks keep getting tried out over here and they simply don’t sell. Writers love them, car guys love them, the average consumer frikkin hates them. Even in Canada (where the things actually sell enough to sorta struggle on). Go look at Golf TDI sales numbers sometime. And then also realize you can’t sell the damn things in California due to emissions laws and that’s a huge part of the market that actually wants smaller cars in the US (probably 30-40% of the small car market in the US given the heavily urbanized population)
Not so. “I’m a man and I want a sports car.” Justification complete.
As to why cars are becoming more and more bloated, design-wise it’s primarily based on two factors: Ever increasing safety regulations, as you need somewhere to shove 87 airbags, and ever increasing demands for technology and creature comforts.
Ten years ago it was rare to see satnav or any sort of stability/traction control on base model cars, so to power accessories. Now it’s all but impossible not to find them, some even being mandated by (stupid) law.
Packaging is also an issue– you need a place to cram eleventy billion emission controls, half a dozen computers, a few miles of wire, and everything else under the sun.
The exceptions to the “every year bigger and heavier” rule are rare, but they do exist. The new BMW 1M for example, is everything the M3 was and always should have been a decade ago– until it became so fat as to essentially be the new 5 series.
Now, I like a small car. Some of my favorites include silly stuff like the Renault R5 Turbo and original Lotus Elan and Elise– microbes in the car market these days. I even prefer my old Porsche 930 greatly over any of the new stuff, and one of the primary reasons is that it’s a tiny bubble of indestructable kraut metal. The new ones are twice the size, have 4wd, and generally suck as a result save for race-centric special editions.
But then I like cars. Really quite a lot. They’ve been a focal point in my life since I was old enough to hold a wrench. The vast majority of the motoring public do not share that interest. To them a car is a maytag, and Model A is always better than Model B because it fits more stuff inside and has lots of buttons. That’s it, full stop. People have been so isolated from the actual act of driving by said “safety” regulations and such over the last few decades that they’re little more than an observer to the act of driving these days.
Go watch the average family buy a car. Then go watch the same family buy a washing machine. You’ll note the process is almost identical. The market has little choice but to build cars that follow that trend.
As Dad’s second car, yes. Only car? Sigh. No. It’s just too impractical, especially now that both boys are in school.
However, I do plan on adding a mid-80s R107 to the Green Home Fleet in the next year or two.
It’s far from convenient if you have kids, sure, but it is possible. If I can wedge two girls and one Mr. Lion into a Lotus Elise for a 50 mile road trip, I suspect people who actually have responsibilities could accomplish a similar packaging feat.
That said, there’s no shortage of four-seat fun stuff on the market these days. Shelby GT500, call your office.
No, it’s effing illegal if I have kids. They’re ages 2 and 6, and required by law (and by my own conscience) to be in secured carseats. The truck bed where the rear seat of the Wrangler once was didn’t cut it.
Oh, and with Melissa back at work, I drive both kids to school in the morning.
As I said, a two-seater ain’t cutting it.
…except for the interior. Blech. I tried really hard to love the 135 (1M wasn’t there yet) and couldn’t.
…also the aerodynamics of the cabrio with top down has to be felt to be believed. That car needs a five-point harness, and not just because you’re likely to take it racing
The 1M is quite a lot nicer to be in than the normal 1 Series. The leather is of a much higher quality, and most of the ugly plastic bits have been swathed in alcantara. It’s not Gallardo Superleggera nice, but it’s nice.
A few years, “Top Gear” raced late ’70s/early ’80s cars against their current incarnations. In most cases the modern cars had more power under the hood. Despite that, the older ones won about half the races, if not more, because their engines weren’t trying to haul so much weight.
Don’t know what to tell you, Steve. I recently got a Challenger. It’s HUGE. Dwarfs both the Mustang and Camero. ‘Specially the Mustang.
For real comedic relief put a current camaro next to a first gen f body. The current version is at least 5/4 scale. So damn big it’s silly.
It’s the “consumer focus groups”. The same groups that brought us a 4-door Wrangler “Unlimited”, a v-8 powered Trailblazer, and the Hummer H2 and H3. You know how it goes, they drive the car then fill out the questionarre. They don’t judge the car for what it IS, but for what they WANT it to be. “I’d like the Focus better if it was a little bigger.” Nevermind that the Focus is intended to be a compact car and that Ford ALREADY makes a car just a bit bigger (the Taurus). Or “I just wish this Trailblazer could pull a bigger boat/camper/trailer” Voila, a v8 Trailblazer with a 300 Hp 5.3 v8. Nevermind that GM ALREADY makes 4 different 4-door, three-row SUV’s with the same engine. That’s the kind of brand dilution that helped GM fall to the back of the pack.
My mechanic said modern cars are full of wiring, both for safety stuff and all the electronic gizmos. In some cases, maybe when cars have everything down to rain sensitive wipers, though I’m just speculating about the why, there are several thousand pounds just of wiring. Stands to reason that would take up extra space in the side panels.
Actually there’s considerably less wiring in today’s cars than there was in, say, the 90s. With stuff like CAN bus and fiber optics you can now do much more with much less physical wire– which is a good thing, because copper is expensive.
The weight comes from all the little motors and solenoids and computers and intermediate boxes that said buses and fiber plugs in to. Plus a few zillion pounds of sound deadening and emissions crap.
Most of the weight is in the driveline, suspension, wheels (bigger = heavier), crash devices, and sound deadening.
All those damn motors and whatnot are also why I can’t fix anything but headlights anymore. I’m not that mechanically inclined, but I could replace thermostats and other little things in my 89 Bronco II. Now I’m afraid of upsetting the computers.
Oh, man, you just hit on a major pet peeve of mine. This is precisely why I keep my old Cherokee (XJ, the little one, not the Grand) running.
Now, granted, I’ve made a few non-stock improvements, and I haven’t jacked it up to the sky or anything, but I get 18.5mpg in town and better than 23 on the freeway, completely loaded with a family of four plus gear. This, with the old (supposedly) gas-guzzling 4.0L straight six. Good luck finding a new SUV that will even get 20mpg on the freeway, unless it’s a diesel or a hybrid. And the XJ has just as much or more cargo space than the monsters on the new-car lot.
Supposedly this is mostly because of safety and emissions regulations. Side-impact and rollover protection has been beefed up quite a bit, and the new six-cylinder engines are gasping for breath at low rpm’s. But I’m not sure I believe it–the off-road folks roll their XJs on a regular basis, and always seem to walk away. I myself have been in the dreaded offset-impact front collision in an XJ, and had the thing fixed back up (the engine still worked afterward, and you should’ve seen what happened to the other car).
I’d love to hear about this from a designer.
Its not about big or small, it’s about the right tool for the job. My daily driver is a Scion FR-S, 2800 pounds of great handling and easy parking. My driving in the mountains, hauling lots of people, Search and Rescue volunteer truck is a 6,000 pound Chevy Suburban. Neither is good or bad, they’re just tools. That said, there is no better all around tool than a Suburban.
But Steve, aren’t those MLs so cheap because they are colossal pieces of crap that are expensive to fix? I like the idea of having one of them, but have never satisfied the urge because I always thought the purchase price to be a down payment on the maintenance. How has your particular ML faired in the reliability department?
Runs like a champ. The ML320 — that’s the one I picked up — was known for electronic gremlins. But the way I figured it was, after 14 years and 120,000 miles, most if not all of the gremlins should have been worked out already. So far, so good.
And mechanically it’s a champ. There’s not a shimmy, a shake, or a rattle, and that 3.2 I6 is practically bulletproof. It doesn’t produce as much power as the 3.5 V6 that replaced it, but it’s better built and more reliable. Years ago I drove a 1977 450SL, which was built like a tank. At 20+ years old, there wasn’t a single rattle in that convertible. Unheard of! This ML drives like the truck version (and the W163 is a real ladder-frame, truck-based SUV) of my old ragtop.
You sure that’s an i6 in there? I always assumed the 1st gen ML shared the 3.2L v6 with the W210 E class.