Putting on the inches

[Reckless Rat]

My Merc E220 CDi will be 23 yrs old this year (August). One owner (me) from new. Been to the moon and back but still does everything it says on the tin and drives the same as the day it came out of the showroom. Averages 50+mpg. It's a keeper. Not a small car though! A tad bigger than a Mini Countryman...

[Ivor Hawkins]

I’m in full agreement with everything that has been said about bloated cars and the huge SUVs that zoom around the lanes here, force us small car drivers to the edge of the road and into the inevitable pot holes…that’s after they’ve blinded us with their high intensity LED headlights!

I think I’ve posted this picture before, but it tells the whole story..

   

[Nick Salmon]

There's an article about bloated 'Chelsea Tractors' in today's Times. One of the comments made me smile: "Stand by for the new Hyundai Hubris, the Toyota Aggrandiser, the Bentley Conceit, the Tesla Arrogance and the Renault Pomp, coming to a car-park near you soon."

[Charles P]

There's an article about bloated 'Chelsea Tractors' in today's Times. One of the comments made me smile: "Stand by for the new Hyundai Hubris, the Toyota Aggrandiser, the Bentley Conceit, the Tesla Arrogance and the Renault Pomp, coming to a car-park near you soon."

Very good.
The previous owner of mine lived in a side road off the Kings Road, so was a real Chelsea Tractor. 
He did 20k miles in 9 years. A taxi account would have been cheaper.

[Denis Sweeney]

……….heard an ad on the radio this morning whilst out driving the modern for the new mini, described as
“ ……Our biggest mini yet”

[Colin Morgan]

A group of youngsters were gathered around my Ruby the other day. One of them asked - "Is it a car for one person?"

[Denis Sweeney]

Yes Colin, when I had a new set of tyres fitted to Ruby I took the tyres and inner tubes to a recommended tyre depot, the young fitters were all over her like a rash which was great to see.
One asked if he could sit in her, being somewhat larger than myself, he had great difficulty getting in and his knees were hard up against the steering wheel and his head was touching the roof.
He couldn’t understand that that yes the seat was as far back as it would go. They also did not believe it was a “four seater”

[Chris Garner]

My eldest daughter has just bought a new Defender, her second. In her defence (!) they have horses and her husband has gun shops, shooting grounds and the thing will probably get cleaned just once a year. It's being used as it was designed for. When ordering the spec. for the vehicle at the dealers, they were asked whether they required the " lowering kit " Apparently necessary for city dwellers using many of the underground and multi storey carparks!

[Steve Bryant]

My "modern" is a 1989 Volvo 740 estate, which I consider to be a medium sized car. In its day it was considered to be a fairly large car. Not any more. Here in Canada everything is getting grotesquely big. The Volvo is low enough that it disappears in a parking lot as everything is larger and taller.  i don't understand the need for pick up trucks with 500HP that the bonnet is higher than the roof of my car and so long that they will not fit in parking stalls.

Where I work I have to test drive customers cars after tune ups etc. and since almost all the cars are British sports cars or Classic Minis I find that I am dwarfed by so-called regular sized cars such that I often wonder if they see me. Anything the size of a Seven or Classic Mini has to be driven in modern traffic with all the defense mechanisms you can muster.

Cheers,
Stephen
   

[jpsmit]

My "modern" is a 1989 Volvo 740 estate, which I consider to be a medium sized car. In its day it was considered to be a fairly large car. Not any more. Here in Canada everything is getting grotesquely big. The Volvo is low enough that it disappears in a parking lot as everything is larger and taller.  i don't understand the need for pick up trucks with 500HP that the bonnet is higher than the roof of my car and so long that they will not fit in parking stalls.

Where I work I have to test drive customers cars after tune ups etc. and since almost all the cars are British sports cars or Classic Minis I find that I am dwarfed by so-called regular sized cars such that I often wonder if they see me. Anything the size of a Seven or Classic Mini has to be driven in modern traffic with all the defense mechanisms you can muster.

Cheers,
Stephen

Agreed. In the last six months I have seen a Porsche 928 and a 90's cadillac in traffic and both times was struck by how small they were compared to the various trucks and SUV's around them. I would never have considered either to be small cars until then.