Car Width over the ages

[DaveGos]

A subject that does not come up that often , but its obvious to anyone with a house more than 30 years old with a single garage that car widths have gone up alot, as normally very difficult to get a modern car into such garages.

This has quite an effect on cycling

I just googled the subject , an old mini was 1.41m and with mirrors 1.56m I found an oldish Mondeo is 2.092 m ( does not say whether this included mirrors) this equated to a minimum difference of 1ft 9 inches in old money . So this is why cars struggle to pass you on single track lanes . If there is a car in both directions they now need a further 3ft 6 inches. When overtaking its more difficult for them to get passed you . What percentage of roads have been widened over that period (excluding motorways built more recently and specifically for motorised vehicles) . It just reinforces the fact that roads were not built for cars and motorists should be aware of this

[reohn2]

And that's before we mention the SUVitis illness that plagues our roads
Vehicles are getting bigger,I read a book about how the car has effected our lives and how it's now running the show,the title escapes me ATM,but gave car sizes of a quite a few models,all have grown quite dramatically over the years.

[Mick F]

I drove to town this morning and had to park at a supermarket and the amount of "larger" cars is making a serious difference to the ability to park.

We have two cars, one a Clio, and the other a Fiat500. We have many roads round the village with width limits. One is a main route out and it has a limit of 6ft "except for access".
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.52431 ... 56!6m1!1e1

This is the other end of the road.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.52630 ... 312!8i6656

6ft used to be quite wide for a car. The trouble is, our Clio is 6ft 6ins mirror-to-mirror and even the diminutive Fiat500 is 6ft 5ins mirror-to-mirror. Considering these two cars are considered small cars, we're above the limit! Goodness knows how wide other cars are, but I'm willing to bet just about all of the ones locally are breaking the law by using this road.

[irc]

Though comparing a mini and a Mondeo is apples and oranges. The 1970s Rover 3.5 was 1.77M The current Octavia is 1.814M. So , 40mm wider. Which seems reasonable given the extra safety equipment in today's cars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_P

http://www.skoda.co.uk/models/new-octav ... s/default/

Though in fact the bloated size of the current Mondeo was one factor I took into account when not buying one a couple of years ago.



Edited to correct decimal point failure.

[RickH]

Though comparing a mini and a Mondeo is apples and oranges. The 1970s Rover 3.5 was 1.77M The current Octavia is 1.814M. So , 40cm wider. Which seems reasonable given the extra safety equipment in today's cars.

I think you've got your units/decimal point wrong - I make it 40 mm difference (a bit over 1.5 inches in old money).

Rick.

[irc]

[al_yrpal]

My Mrs doesnt like driving our SUV much because she thinks its too wide. She mentioned a Ford Fiesta. That is actually only 2" narrower and a foot shorter. The old Stag is a lot narrower at 5ft 3 1/2"

Al

[thirdcrank]

Whether you are measuring in decimal or in some form of old money, the point - and not the decimal point - is that it's not helpful to compare a model from the past, renowned for being small with a large model of today. There always have been some big cars - think of wide running boards and big wings - but when there were fewer cars, there were even fewer big ones. Part of the problem with parking cars in the parallel bays in car parks is caused by the thickness of the doors which means they have to be opened pretty wide to let people out. That's made worse with two-door models which generally have wider doors than the equivalent four-door model.

My own garage is over 40 years old and pretty small as it's integral with the house. I could easily get my series 3 Landrover in there, mainly because its doors were so thin - not even any door pockets.

[Lance Dopestrong]

My Patrol GR 4.2 doesnt feel that wide to me.

[tatanab]

Increased width is due to two factors:
1. Equipment - electric windows take space as do side impact bars and side airbags need room to operate.
2. International market - Land Rover products got noticeably wider when taken over by Ford some years ago. An insider told me it was to suit the American market.

Why do people need large vehicles? I asked this of a work colleague who "needed" a Toyota Previa (probably considered quite small now) to move his 2 young children about. Apparently it is necessary to carry several cubic metres of "stuff" when transporting a child these days - ok, I concede that child seats are needed when they were not previously.

[al_yrpal]

Why do people need large vehicles?

Apart from genuine reasons like a big family of fatties or living on a mountain, just to show off would be my best guess. Many of them are leased and fueled by 'companys'. I live near a school the Chav wagons that turn up every morning have to be seen to be believed. The Police office is a few yards away. They turn a blind eye to parking on the yellow zigzags, pavement parking, parking obstructing entrances, parking on corners. Half eight to nine ten and three to half past are no goes. Holidays are perfect peace.

Al

[thirdcrank]

One of the things which is ... er .... driving the registration of new cars is the availability of £££ at artificially low rates of interest which has led to the spread of private leasing contracts which seem to be the latest form of buying on the never, never. I predict that when things go sour, eg a hike in interest rates, these deals will be the next financial scandal.

[Postboxer]

I have a Citroen Grand C4 Picasso, which is fairly big, chosen in part for having 3 'full size' seats in the back, it's also a 7 seater, occasionally both of these features have been used. It's still a squeeze to fit 3 child seats across the middle row though.

Maybe they're getting wider to suit the population getting wider?

The school run is a nightmare here too, mainly due to everybody wanting to park right outside the gate, occasionally there's a parking attendant or PCSO stood keeping guard over the zig zags whilst people arrive. This has a great effect on the days they are there in their high viz jackets, most people try to park properly for once. I think it would have a much better effect if they arrived in the middle of drop off time, or hid round the corner then ticketed all of the morons, then maybe put it in the school newsletter i.e. they attended for one day, dished out x tickets of £x and will be back sometime.

[Mick F]

Housing too maybe?

Interest rates were astronomic in the "olden days". We afforded out first brand new car (British Leyland) because we had a huge discount due to family working for Leyland Motors. We still had to borrow money from the bank, but although the Mini cost us (only) £2,500, it still cost loads of dosh per month. £130 per month over a couple of years rings a bell.

In those days, £30,000 of mortgage cost around £300 per month. You knocked two zeros off the total loan and that was what you paid per month over 25years.

Let's say that a mortgage of £150,000 isn't that far out for some folk these days.
Then say that they have to pay their monthly repayments like we did back then.
Knock two zeros off it.
That makes £1,500 per month in mortgage repayments.

What about a £200,000 mortgage, or a £250,000 mortgage?
The prospect seems horrendous to say the least.

[661-Pete]

This touches a sore point with me. I changed my car a few years ago - from Peugeot 306 to 308. You'd have thought that was a straight upgrade, similar level of model, similar performance, etc. etc. I checked all this before I bought - but I didn't check the width! The new car is significantly wider, and won't go in our garage. OK, well, it will, just, if I clear out all the junk first. But with the old car it was easy to have a bike or two leaning up against the wall on one side. Not a prayer of that, now. So the garage is for the bikes and the car stays outside.

So it looks like the point about space on narrow lanes is significant, too.