Can cars get any wider?

[anonymous-user]

jimPH said:

I remember following a friend down some back lanes in his hot hatch, me in a wide body Porsche and he was having a lot more fun than I was, I just couldn't keep up, the car felt so wide it was unnerving.

Those hot hatches have caught up in the meantime. A 996 C4s from 15 years ago was 1829mm across compared to, say, the diminutive Focus RS of the day at 1699mm. Fast forward to today and the porker has put on just 23mm to be the current 991.2 C4S whereas the the Focus has expanded by a whopping 124mm; so they are about the same width now.

I imagine people expect their hot hatch to double as a full size family car / ikea delivery vehicle nowadays. Interesting that all sources describe the Focus as a 'compact car'. This trend to wide cars pisses me off no end but I think we are in a small minority. Most folk want their cars super-sized, if the number of Audi q7's and Jaguar f-pace in the supermarket car parks are anything to go by.

[Taaaaang]

Rich_W said:

I sat in a AMG GTR recently. fk me you couldn't possibly live with it on a B road in the UK.

Ignoring the preposterously long bonnet that makes it very hard to see the end of the thing! It's SO wide it's not even funny. And as above car parks might be challenging.

Probably fine in Germany or the US. But a 991RS just doesn't feel as wieldy so I can see them losing sales to Porshce

Hell, a Audi S8 doesn't feel so hard to place!

And yet at 6'4 I can't fit in the bloody thing in any way shape or form!

Annoying!

[MorganP104]

This thread has made me think. My motor is frigging enormous (L322 Range Rover), and I accept it as such. But I wondered how "normal" cars of the day stack up, in terms of width.

A bit of Googling later, I was surprised to find that my ridiculously proportioned leviathan is only two inches wider than a current model Vauxhall Insignia, and just shy of three inches wider than a MkV Ford Mondeo.

Further Googling revealed that a G30 BMW 5-Series is just an inch-and-a-half narrower than my land yacht.

So, there we are. Not entirely sure what we've learned, mind you.

[Xaero]

I'll just leave this here:



I went in a few new cars at Goodwood last year, I was surprised by the lack of space inside a lot of them despite external dimensions. My E39 touring seemed to have a bigger boot than most of the modern SUVs.

[Taaaaang]

MorganP104 said:

This thread has made me think. My motor is frigging enormous (L322 Range Rover), and I accept it as such. But I wondered how "normal" cars of the day stack up, in terms of width.

A bit of Googling later, I was surprised to find that my ridiculously proportioned leviathan is only two inches wider than a current model Vauxhall Insignia, and just shy of three inches wider than a MkV Ford Mondeo.

Further Googling revealed that a G30 BMW 5-Series is just an inch-and-a-half narrower than my land yacht.

So, there we are. Not entirely sure what we've learned, mind you.

That like airline seats, a couple of inches can make all the difference!

[Muddle238]

MorganP104 said:

This thread has made me think. My motor is frigging enormous (L322 Range Rover), and I accept it as such. But I wondered how "normal" cars of the day stack up, in terms of width.

A bit of Googling later, I was surprised to find that my ridiculously proportioned leviathan is only two inches wider than a current model Vauxhall Insignia, and just shy of three inches wider than a MkV Ford Mondeo.

Further Googling revealed that a G30 BMW 5-Series is just an inch-and-a-half narrower than my land yacht.

So, there we are. Not entirely sure what we've learned, mind you.

I used to think my Defender 90 was a "big" vehicle - having moved from a Peugeot 308. I soon realised it was much taller, but infact narrower - in fact it was often possible to squeeze through much smaller gaps than the Pug would and thanks to slab-sides, made it so easy to position. Same story now in my SIIa, I suspect it's the same for the L322. The human eye seems to associate being tall (i.e. SUV type things) with automatically being proportionately wide, when infact some older 4x4s are from an era when they were still actually of reasonable sideways dimensions, unlike the monstrosity of some current SUVs such as the X6, instead just being tall.

As for modern cars and width etc, there is a serious issue approaching with the size of some parking bays. Fine for a 2cv, not so good for an average modern hatch. I suspect local councils will be tectonically slow to respond to the problem.

[8V085]

I remember reading a review of Citroen XM from 1989 where the reviewer complained about the huge width of that car. I had a chance to drive one not so long after (around 2012) and it felt extremely narrow by modern standards. It shows how bloated the cars are nowadays.

[Solocle]

kambites said:

TooMany2cvs said:

There's a heck of a lot of roads where that applies to two cars, too...

True, but they tend to be much less busy ones. Around here at least there's a good few two-lane B-roads which aren't wide enough for two lorries to pass comfortably (including a large chunk of my commute). Plenty of people seem to struggle to keep their Range Rovers on the correct side of the road, I dread to think what they would be like in something half a meter wider.

Edited by kambites on Monday 15th January 09:20

There are sections of the A30 that lorries slow to a crawl on too. The only roads I'd say are exempt are motorways, all others classes have some naughty kids in.

[leef44]

Rich_W said:

I sat in a AMG GTR recently. fk me you couldn't possibly live with it on a B road in the UK.

Ignoring the preposterously long bonnet that makes it very hard to see the end of the thing! It's SO wide it's not even funny. And as above car parks might be challenging.

Probably fine in Germany or the US. But a 991RS just doesn't feel as wieldy so I can see them losing sales to Porshce

Hell, a Audi S8 doesn't feel so hard to place!

Also you wouldn't want to try to park an AMG GTR in a multi-storey car park. Imagine how much damage from kerbed wheels then door dings.

[bad company]

Taaaaang said:

, a couple of inches can make all the difference!

That’s what Mrs BC says.

[KM666]

See I think width is all about perception, I drive mostly 7.5t lorries and generally if a car can go down it a 7.5t can, the only issue is height and losing the use of mirrors early on in tight spots but width is rarely an issue. Obviously 6ft wide lanes are out of bounds but if we're talking no restrictions it surprising how much space there is.

The point is there is plenty of room to spare still but I doubt many people would like driving a 2.2 metre wide car. Cars could get as wide as lorries but probably won't.

[MorganP104]

Taaaaang said:

MorganP104 said:

This thread has made me think. My motor is frigging enormous (L322 Range Rover), and I accept it as such. But I wondered how "normal" cars of the day stack up, in terms of width.

A bit of Googling later, I was surprised to find that my ridiculously proportioned leviathan is only two inches wider than a current model Vauxhall Insignia, and just shy of three inches wider than a MkV Ford Mondeo.

Further Googling revealed that a G30 BMW 5-Series is just an inch-and-a-half narrower than my land yacht.

So, there we are. Not entirely sure what we've learned, mind you.

That like airline seats, a couple of inches can make all the difference!

Have one of these.

[skyrover]

Here we go again..

Okay lets summaries this for you

Your average modern cars are around 70- 73 inches wide.
Your average Euro spec pickup truck is around 73-76 inches wide.
Your average Euro spec SUV is around 73-76 inches wide.
Your average full sized van is around 80 inches wide
Your average truck/bus is around 100 inches wide.
Your minimum motorway lane width is 144 inches wide.

The largest car's ever made were the American full sized cars of the 1970s which were around 80 inches wide or roughly the same width as a transit van.

Car's are unlikely to ever exceed these dimensions again.

[BlackLabel]

Decky_Q said:

I'm probably wrong here but does the new 7 series BMW have a remote built into the key that allows you to drive it forward and backwards to get it into and out of a garage while you are outside the car? I was told that this was because it was too wide to open the doors in the average garage. It may be complete bks though.

Yes.

You can spec the new 5 series with it too I think and that’s also a big car. The latest 5 series is pretty much the same size as a 7 series from the early 2000s.

[Mr2Mike]

TooMany2cvs said:

Maximum legal width for UK roads is generally 2550mm. Bin wagons, fire engines, ambulances and the like take full advantage of that, and go pretty much everywhere in the country.

So, no, there's a chunk further to go yet...

Put a significant number of vehicles that wide on the roads and road system would stop functioning.

[B'stard Child]

Xaero said:

I'll just leave this here:



I went in a few new cars at Goodwood last year, I was surprised by the lack of space inside a lot of them despite external dimensions. My E39 touring seemed to have a bigger boot than most of the modern SUVs.

I had an image in mind but that beats mine

[LarryUSA]

A friend of mine posted this the other day - he owns the Lotus!

[B'stard Child]

LarryUSA said:

A friend of mine posted this the other day - he owns the Lotus!

I have noticed over a number of years having holidays in the USA there has been a definate shift downwards in car sizes

Used to be that you went into a car park and if you couldn't see a bumper in the space it was empty and you could drive in - recently small city cars like Smart Cars have been a real PITA because you drive into a space that is only partially occupied - it's happened to me quite a few times!!!

[Stridey]

To their credit Caterham give you a choice.. S3 with SV model. Have to say vehicle widths do concern me, but driving a narrow car certainly allows for easy progress without constant worry from oncoming wide cars.

[skyrover]

LarryUSA said:

A friend of mine posted this the other day - he owns the Lotus!

The Chevrolet Suburban on the right is 80.5 inches wide, the Lexus LX is 77.6 inches wide.

The Lotus is only 67.7 inches wide.