New cars are getting 1.2cm longer and 0.5cm taller each year

brudgers wrote: post #5

dexihand wrote: post #3

Cafe standards.

The height of hoods is at least in part because of pedestrian safety standards. I believe these originated in Europe, but I could be wrong.

Higher hoods are worse, not better, for pedestrians.

Re: New cars are getting 1.2cm longer and 0.5cm taller each year

#8

Post by bitwize » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

HughParry wrote: post #2

The new Audi Q9 is absurd - https://www.topgear.com/car-news/suvs/gargantuan-new-audi-q9...

And yet still in the standard "Jeep Grand Cherokee melted in the sun" shape. I wouldn't mind so much if the popular land yachts of decades past like the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado were revived, but today's most common passenger vehicles are still being made in the same boring sad-beige-mom shapes.

Re: New cars are getting 1.2cm longer and 0.5cm taller each year

#9

Post by mulderc » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 9:27 PM UTC

Cars have become absurd. We have an older car, and I occasionally look at what we could replace it with, and everything is huge and expensive. Literally, the only car I have been interested in is from BYD and will never be available in my country.

Re: New cars are getting 1.2cm longer and 0.5cm taller each year

#10

Post by cpursley » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 9:29 PM UTC

HughParry wrote: post #2

The new Audi Q9 is absurd - https://www.topgear.com/car-news/suvs/gargantuan-new-audi-q9...

What’s even more absurd is the Chinese vehicles in the same class have better tech and prices. German auto manufacturing is cooked unless they manage to legally block the Chinese in their primary markets.