Reply #34: The reason cars and trucks got bigger over the years....

[krispos42]

...was that you have to sacrifice a lot of creature comforts for a relatively small increase in fuel economy.

Even a "small" car weighs in the 3,000 pound range... my Subaru Imprezea sportwagon AWD clocks in at about 3,200 and consistantly gets 28-29mpg on the highway (27 acording to the EPA).

A 10% increase in curb weight and a 10% increase in frontal area leads to a significant increase in things like legroom and storage, and people were willing to lose an MPG or two for the extra room. A big honkin' Crown Victoria gets 24 highway miles, and an AWD Ford Taurus (one of the new ones) gets 25mpg, according to the EPA.

So for a 10% drop in fuel economy, a consumer could go from a compact all-wheel-drive wagon with 173 horsepower to a full-size AWD sedan with 263 horsepower.

:shrug:


And back in the 90's, your choice for family tranportation was a mid-sized sedan that got maybe 22 miles per gallon, a minivan that got maybe 20 mpg, or a larger, 4-wheel-drive SUV that got 18mpg. For a lot of people, that tradeoff made sense. A couple hundred or so dollars a year in gas extra for something that could go in the snow, haul a trailer, and rated high in physical comfort.


Compare:

1995 Honda Accord: 20/27 city/highway (AT, 4-cyl, FWD)
1995 Ford Windstar: 16/23 city/highway (AT, 6-cyl, FWD)
1995 Dodge Caravan: 15/20 city/highway (AT, 6-cyl, 4WD)
1995 Ford Explorer: 14/18 city/highway (AT, 6-cyl, 4WD)

You've got a growing family and live in the snow belt. Which one do you buy?


And I knew several people that had an SUV or minivan for the stay-at-home mother and a subcompact sedan for the commuting father. The mom only drove a few miles a day in the "gas-guzzling" family hauler and the father burned only a couple of gallons of gas a day in "gas-sipping" commuter car. Total fuel consumption by the entire family was probably less than 4 gallons a day.