Interesting chart comparisons on the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Accord since 1980. The Honda Accord is now in the same class as the.....FORD CROWN VICTORIA?

http://jalopnik.com/5710652/how-cars-are-getting-fatter

They should have charted the size change of car buyers over the last 30 years. Car makers are now designing specifically for obese people. The cars look bloated and constipated on the outside because they now have to accommodate passengers that are twice as wide and twice as heavy as people were in 1980.

They also should have looked at vehicle weight. Thirty years of development in making steel structures lighter and using composite materials, and cars now weigh 1 1/2 times what they did in 1980.

After seeing so many commercials, I decided to look up the specs of the Chevy Cruze last night. GM began rebadging Japanese small cars in the 1980's, so that they would have small cars to sell under their Geo brand name. They created Saturn to build cars the Japanese way. They eventually killed off Saturn and the rebadged cars in favor of the Cavalier/Sunfire and then the Cobalt. The Cruze has been developing in Korea for several years, and now becomes their small car offering. So how does it compare to the Japanese rebadged Geos?
The Cruze is 3,300 pounds. That's 600-1,000 pounds heavier than the Geos.
The Cruze is ten inches longer, five inches wider, and four inches taller.
And the Cruze is one half second or more slower in the quarter mile.
Fuel consumption ratings of the Cruze are the same as the observed consumption of the Geos.
This is a small car? What's small about it? And where is the 30 years improvement?

What JT191 said, but also with all the new "safety features". The cars are bigger, but smaller on the inside. My Z may be small, but sitting inside it I feel like I'm in an auditorium. With all these side airbags and extra padding everywhere in the new cars its like being in a shoebox.

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Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...Here I am, stuck in the middle with you
'73 240Z with 3.1L stroker and never forget the gremlins...

Yes but Geos are made of tinfoil Things like how many stars a new car gets in a crash test (Cruze gets a full 5 stars in NCAP testing) was also not a purchasing factor 20yrs ago.

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I burned up four new Dewalt brand reciprocating saw blades cutting a single quarter panel out of a Geo sister car. It measures 1.5 mm thick for the outer skin, 2 mm thick for brackets, and there are areas where it is three layers thick not to mention the box beams that are multi layer and four inches in diameter along the base of the firewall, the rockers, and around the gas tank.

They might look delicate when someone tries to use the hood as an anvil, but try to take the body apart and it starts looking like a brick out house.

Fellas, when you start a thread that you know is going to quickly go OT, just do the mods a favor and start it in the OT section.

Um, no offense, but it did deal with J-Tin. Unless we're looking at some cut-off date where we call it "Point A to B Junker" rather than J-Tin.

The original post, yes. Every post after it, not so much.

Which was my point...

The problem is they started their charts after the embargo. I'd like to see the F Series pickups since the 1940's. Sure they weren't as big as today, but they weren't subcompacts either. Let's put it all in perspective.

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92 Honda Civic - 65 Ford F100 V8

The sad part is, the new 2010 Corolla dwarfs the original 1983-86 Camry(and Cressida), by prolly a couple feet. Weird, how the Corolla started off as a subcompact, and the Camry as a compact.

Also, sad how the Civic was once Honda's base, smallest, subcompact car offering... but has grown to the size of the 1994-97 Accord. The Civic is a shell of it's former self. So much so, that Honda had to come up with a new small car entry... the Fit. So much for Honda's old 80's slogan of "We keep it simple."

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1987 Nissan "Datsun" S12 200sx XE notch
1988 Acura Da3 Integra RS
1981 Toyota Te72 Corolla
1983 Toyota Ae72 Corolla

reason why kev drives a luxo barge


right, and i often notice how that fact has gone to the heads of current, fatty corolla owners: no longer are they putting around in a compact econoboxes. they're packing some serious sheetmetal now, and they're not afraid to push their weight around on the roadway pecking order

After saw this How Cars Are Getting Fatter's Link I searched about this and I found very inserting and positive view about How Cars Are Getting Fatter. Link include excellent stuff related How Cars Are Getting Fatter.

i like the GTR comparison!! WOW!!!

the Fit is HUGE compared to my 86 and 91 civic hatchbacks.. heck, the miata is larger than my 86 civic!

just for fun, can someone please post pics of their 1st gen corolla beside the latest corolla, yes, them side by side

Yeah, the Fit is easily larger than my 85 Civic hatchback, too.

I think the Fit is prolly close to the size, if not bigger than, the EF 88-91 Civic wagonvan.

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1987 Nissan "Datsun" S12 200sx XE notch
1988 Acura Da3 Integra RS
1981 Toyota Te72 Corolla
1983 Toyota Ae72 Corolla

Ive been driving around my buddies A60 celica, and its tiny even to the latest celica and other things on the road.

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- '71 Datsun 240z.....L28ET here we come