How have "wagons" gotten so big?

[Odin]

^^ data has nothing to do with it, here in the states Big = Safe end of story. Its what a ton of people will always believe no matter what.

[gone-ot]

...remember the old 1960-70 9-passgener "land barge" Chevrolet and Chrysler STATION WAGONS that were pushing 5-6,000 lbs?

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Kodak

If you start with 14mpg and jump to a mere 16mpg, you save .89 gallons of fuel in 100 miles or 8.9 in 1000 miles. Using today's average price of $3.27/gal, that means $29.10 in 1000 miles, or $87.30 at oil change intervals of 3000 miles.

But as the video points out, people don't associate a 2mpg difference with a very drastic improvement in fuel consumption.

My guess is that we mentally categorize the two as 'gas guzzlers' or 'abysmal mpg' without doing any math.

Maybe we mentally categorize the two as gas guzzlers because they ARE gas guzzlers. Going from 14 mpg to 16 mpg just restrains the guzzling a bit. The point is to go from 14 to 40 mpg, or 16 to 60.

And oil change intervals of 3000 miles? Even my '88 Toyota pickup specifies 10K miles.

[darcane]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...remember the old 1960-70 9-passgener "land barge" Chevrolet and Chrysler STATION WAGONS that were pushing 5-6,000 lbs?

Yeah, those beasts were heavy. I didn't think Chevy ever got that heavy, I thought you had to go to the fancier brands like Buick to get 5000+ lbs.

However, it wasn't the weight that I found so surprising (although they are getting up there again...) but the overall height.

[Frank Lee]

'60 Kingswood: 4000 lbs.

'66 Chev wagons: 4100 lbs small block- 4400 lbs big block.

'68- '70 big block up to 4800 lbs.

'70 Buick Le Sabre wagon: up to 4900 lbs.

'68 Newport: 4500 lbs.

Pudgy but not quite 5-6000 lbs...
************************************************** ***

Today's self-respecting Mom isn't going to be caught dead in an old school wagon though. They'll drive:

'08 Honda Odyssey "mini" van: 4600 lbs.

or perhaps a nice '06 Chev Suburban SUV at 5200 lbs.

[Kodak]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Maybe we mentally categorize the two as gas guzzlers because they ARE gas guzzlers. Going from 14 mpg to 16 mpg just restrains the guzzling a bit. The point is to go from 14 to 40 mpg, or 16 to 60.

And oil change intervals of 3000 miles? Even my '88 Toyota pickup specifies 10K miles.

True. They are both gas guzzlers. But somebody who is strictly shopping for an SUV (their mind is set) might be unlikely to consider the difference. Granted, they probably don't care anyway, but they'll pay for the 2mpg whether they know it or not.

Yeah, 3000 is a conservative estimate.

[NachtRitter]

Originally Posted by darcane

The other day, I noticed a new Subaru Outback in the parking lot at work as I'm leaving. I pull up next to it and check it out when I noticed something odd... It's nearly as tall as my full sized pickup truck. The wheels are big, the overall height is close to my truck, it's wide, and it has as much ground clearance as my truck.

How is this a wagon anymore?

...

Echoed my thoughts exactly... I have the 2005 Subaru Legacy Wagon... nice little wagon but easily confused with the Outback of the same year. Sadly, they offered the Wagon in the US only that one year.

Was driving along the other day and ended up next to what I thought was the new Tribeca... then I saw the Outback badge and I was shocked how huge it was! OMG!

There was a time I would have considered the Outback as a replacement for my Wagon, but not anymore...

[Small4Seater]

Every time a new model of anything comes out, it grows a little in order to be "better" than the old model in some way, and if the new engines are so fuel efficient than they make up for more than the increase in size, then everyone seems happy.

The ever increasing size leads to smaller models appearing. Back in 2000 the Yaris was the smallest Toyota you could get. Then the Aygo was introduced just before the bloated 2nd. gen. Yaris appeared, and now there's room for the even smaller iQ.
Our current Corolla is now the size of a first gen. Camry! (well, almost)

As for the volume/distance measure, I disagree with it being a smarter measurement. It makes it harder for the consumer to calculate common questions like "how much fuel will I use on this trip" and "how much longer will I get on this tank".
Besides. Germany already uses "liters/100km", which is the only thing my car's computer displays. This is a problem for highly fuel efficient cars because only one decimal is used for the ratings.

When my car reads "2.0l/100km", it could mean anything from to 1.95 to 2.049999, or translated to mpg: 114.7 to 120.6.

[Cd]

Have you guys seen the new Miata ?
I noticed it's not even called a Miata anymore ( no badge on the back end of the car )
It's is simply an MX-5 now.

I didn't even recognize it as a Miata. I thought " Oh look a new a new roadster - I wonder what it is. "

Only then did I remember that a Miata is actually know as a Miata MX-5

It's so much larger now.

[CigaR007]

People are getting bigger too.