Big vehicles.

Just an observation.

I drove my Wife's F250 Diesel for a week while my 97 Jetta was was being repaired by some stooge. (Me).

When I finally returned the car to daily driver status I noticed how BIG almost everything else on the road was.  

That is all.

Last summer I spent a week out of town for work, with my only mode of transportation while gone being the semi tractor I had driven there. When we got the job done and made it home, I hopped right in to my old Z. That height / size change was an eye opening experience. Unnerving too

I remember driving the Miata once and looking in my rear-view mirror at the grille of some new truck from Toyota.  I couldn't figure out what it was...  new Tacoma? New Highlander?  I just couldn't figure it out.

Then I realized it was a Corolla.

Go big or go home.

Bigger is better.

I could go on.

When I cruise around in my 1995 Viper I realize that *everything* on the road is taller than me.  For reference a first gen Viper is 3" shorter than a first gen Miata.  Your head is below the top of the wheels on a semi truck.  

The height is what gets me more than the overall size.  I sit higher in the Mazda5 than in any of the other cars in the fleet, but nowadays, even it seems low slung once I'm in traffic.  Being able to see over (or through the windows of) other vehicles is one of the few things I miss about my old F150, and a small part of why I am looking at SUVs right now.

The 18 months of hard time I spent dailying a 4X4 Avalanche (my only personal "big" vehicle) taught me a lot about why people drive the way they do and why traffic moves the way it does. Between the limited visibility, the slow steering ratio and the general "feel" they just seem to discourage steering inputs.  I found myself doing things like cutting across incoming lanes at intersections just like everyone else on the road. 

When I first bought my '90 Miata in 1993, my DD was a company supplied, take home, cargo Chevy Astro.  When parked next to each other.... The height of my head in the Miata was the height of my butt in the van.  I might often spend a whole weekend driving the Miata.  That first circle on-ramp of Monday morning in the van was always a big reminder....we're not in the Miata anymore!  

My DD when I was in L.A. was an 87 P30 Step Van 18' with the 6.2L diesel.  Why?  Because every block has a section of commercial unloading parking for free.  It was also seemingly invisible to CHiPs

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

My DD when I was in L.A. was an 87 P30 Step Van 18' with the 6.2L diesel.  Why?  Because every block has a section of commercial unloading parking for free.  It was also seemingly invisible to CHiPs

Because even the LEOs know a 6.2 diesel can't break the speed limit?

Yeah, these new vehicles are huge :)

I was trying to resist the temptation to say this, but then I saw Keith's photo.

"There's nothing holds the road like a big car."

Currently riding to work in an 89 civic.

There are bicycles bigger than this

I often do wonder about the average width of modern cars.  I'm not a large person, but opening a car door with a car parked on both sides of you is becoming trickier and trickier.

For a long time, a selling point for SUVs was "you sit up higher, so you can see around traffic".  Now that everyone is driving one, that justification doesn't work anymore.

As for pickups, I figure if you can't stand next to the bed and lean your elbows on the top rail, it's too tall.  

ProDarwin said:

I often do wonder about the average width of modern cars.  I'm not a large person, but opening a car door with a car parked on both sides of you is becoming trickier and trickier.

 

I kind of thought that it was like airplane seats and they they're just making the spaces a little narrower each time they re-stripe the lot....  I do like Costco's parking spots, though:  My Excursion actually fits and I can walk between cars without having to dodge around my big-assed mirrors.

Counterpoint to the Smart car comparison, here's another '66 beside a typical, stock pickup.

Note that even with the size of the parking spaces, the Cadillac came home with scratches on the door that look for all the world like a fat guy's belt buckle. It is no longer allowed out to do normal car things because of that.

And to complete the circle of life. Honestly, I don't stalk Smart cars. But I can't resist parking beside them...

I will never under stand the "lets make the bed height of the pickup high enough to make it as hard as possible to put things in it" trend.

Why, so 1 in 20 people who want to put huge tires on one and 1 in 10 of those might get some use out of those tires?

A black Smart Car seems like a really bad idea.  Beyond all the downsides of black in general, visibility would seem to be something you should consider.  I get a little concerned driving my Ghia around (not in traffic generally) but it is also ridiculously bright yellow!

81cpcamaro said:

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

My DD when I was in L.A. was an 87 P30 Step Van 18' with the 6.2L diesel.  Why?  Because every block has a section of commercial unloading parking for free.  It was also seemingly invisible to CHiPs

Because even the LEOs know a 6.2 diesel can't break the speed limit?

I could break every speed limit that was 60mph or less.

wae said:

ProDarwin said:

I often do wonder about the average width of modern cars.  I'm not a large person, but opening a car door with a car parked on both sides of you is becoming trickier and trickier.

 

I kind of thought that it was like airplane seats and they they're just making the spaces a little narrower each time they re-stripe the lot....  I do like Costco's parking spots, though:  My Excursion actually fits and I can walk between cars without having to dodge around my big-assed mirrors.

As someone who designs airplane seats, I can tell you that is not what happens :)

Agreed, Costco has the offset line divider which is nice.  Its one of the few places I can open the door without needing to put my hand on the outer edge of the door so it can't make hard contact with the adjacent car.

I'm wondering if its because a lot of the parking lots I am using were built 20-30 years ago when the average car was narrower.

aircooled said:

I will never under stand the "lets make the bed height of the pickup high enough to make it as hard as possible to put things in it" trend.

From my understanding, it's two things:  Taller bedsides allow manufacturers to advertise a high cu ft capacity, and as trucks are being used more as daily drivers and having bigger cargo capacity, the rear suspension needs more travel to handle being soft enough to be comfortable.

Cars are definitely getting wider, too, for multiple reasons - crash safety (notice how much farther inboard you sit in newer cars?), CAFE footprint rules, and I'm sure there are other causes.  At least the width of other cars on the road doesn't have a huge effect on visibility, unlike height.

It's interesting to see how people park in a snow covered parking lot. The amount of "personal space" people want around their car is obviously considerably larger than the amount allocated to them by the stripers.

I have no problem with the height of the bed in my 4WD pickup, but I know it's something that keeps a bunch of GRM people awake at night. You can buy lowering kits, it's okay. I used to have a first gen Tundra and the boss had the facelifted version of the same truck. His had taller bed sides, which meant we could carry two wheels/tires stacked on top of each other and still get them under the tonneau. I couldn't, so I could only carry half as many wheels/tires under cover when doing race support. Since the entire purpose of the bed is to be cargo capacity, I wished I had the taller sides. The depth of the Dodge's bed is good, and I can reach over the side if I need to.

Keith Tanner said:

I have no problem with the height of the bed in my 4WD pickup, but I know it's something that keeps a bunch of GRM people awake at night. You can buy lowering kits, it's okay. I used to have a first gen Tundra and the boss had the facelifted version of the same truck. His had taller bed sides, which meant we could carry two wheels/tires stacked on top of each other and still get them under the tonneau. I couldn't, so I could only carry half as many wheels/tires under cover when doing race support. Since the entire purpose of the bed is to be cargo capacity, I wished I had the taller sides. The depth of the Dodge's bed is good, and I can reach over the side if I need to.

As someone who is kept awake at night by this:  I'm fine with the taller bed-sides, just not higher bed sides.

The tailgate-down height of modern truck beds is significantly higher than older ones which makes loading heavy/awkward cargo significantly harder.  It probably makes little difference with wheels & tires though.

The loading height of cars is increasing as well though.  Its become especially noticeable as my aging dog has trouble jumping into the back of some higher cars :(

I don't think we're talking about bed SIDES.... I'm talking about bed FLOORS.  My 88 S10 the tailgate hit the back of my knees.  My 08 silverado I can't even jump up to sit my ass on the tailgate.  Try towing a 5th wheel trailer made before about 2000 with a newer truck.

I don't care how high the sides are, I care that the floor of the bed is over 4' off the ground.

In reply to ProDarwin :

There's a few parts to it. Older lots, even older regulations that aren't keeping up with modern vehicles in a lot of areas because there are minimum sizes for spots. People cheating the minimum size to fit too many spots into to small of a property foot print because they forgot handicap spots are both required and larger than normal. Places being made commercial forgetting how much room a building takes up. There's lots of reasons mixing together. 

A lifetime ago when I was building commercial buildings we actually went to 10 feet wide instead of the 8.5 that was required because cars and people are getting wider. Got a little clap back from the township because they thought it would cut down on required handicap spots, but it didn't.

I started noticing it more when I went from the p71 to the Ranger. Now with the excursion I'm very attentive, to the point I yelled at a truck stop owner when he repainted his lot and added 5 spaces by shrinking the sizes of non trucker spaces.