The Follow-Up Part 1

So last week I did a podcast, and there were some ideas discussed that I'd like to expand on this week.

First of all, thanks again to Matt Hardigree, News Editor of Jalopnik.com who took some time out of his busy day to talk with me. He really had some great ideas, and I'd like to talk about some of them some more.

Matt talked about how, with key markets, size classes have actually shifted up as cars have been getting bigger and bigger over the past few decades. If you think about sedans, there are really 4 main classes: subcompacts, compacts, midsize, and full-size. But, if you compare the 2000s and the 1980s, the subcompacts of today would have been called compacts, the compacts of today would have been called midsize, and the midsized of today would have been called full-size.

He provided a great example with the Ford Taurus and the Ford Fusion, so I'll illustrate his point with a few pictures.

Obviously, the red car in the middle is the 2010 Ford Taurus. The other red car is a late-80s Taurus, and the blue car is a mid-90s Taurus. The Taurus used to define the mid-sized segment and compete with the Camry and Accord, but now it's one of the largest sedans on the road.

Instead, the Fusion, a new nameplate introduced in 2006, has now taken the place of the Taurus as Ford's midsized car. But, my question is, why does Ford need both?

Another idea that Matt brought up was that of manufacturers working to increase fuel economy while skipping the step of losing weight. Hybrid cars have obviously proven themselves as practical and efficient, but the technology is heavy. Batteries add weight to a car, which detracts from fuel economy.

I liked how Matt referred to it as the manufacturers working against themselves. It seems to me as if they are almost skipping a step towards their ultimate goal of efficiency. They're working twice as hard to increase fuel economy because they're attempting to do so with heavier and heavier cars. In many cases, the same fuel economy gain that can be achieved by adding a hybrid powertrain to a car could be achieved by simply shedding weight.

The Podcast

It's podcast time! I was really excited to get the chance to talk to Matt Hardigree, the News Editor of Jalopnik.com because he has some really interesting ideas about the automotive industry. So a huge thanks to Matt...I never would have expected a hot-shot automotive journalist like him to take the time to talk to a lowly college student like me. Anyways, hope you enjoy.

The Extent

In my first post, I used a specific example to show the problem. But, in this post, I want to show that this disturbing trend is widespread in the automotive industry by sharing with you some interesting statistics.

I was reading this article the other day, and I thought it brought up one important point. The idea of the "safety curve" seems very relevant.

As safety regulations get stricter, cars get heavier. Side-impact regulations especially, which have come about in the past few years, mean that the essential structure of the car unibody must be strengthened to meet the new regulations. For cars to be stronger, they must weigh more.

However, the author of this article says, "we're betting the safety curve will eventually level out." This makes sense. I think that, at a certain point, cars are hit a wall past which they cannot get any safer. At the very least, manufacturers will eventually run out places to put airbags.

Back to those statistics though. It's not just certain models that are growing, it's entire segments of the automotive market. According to Edmunds.com, "small" cars of today, compared with small cars of 1990, weight 549 pounds more, have a 6.4 inch longer wheelbase, and have 61 more horsepower. And that's an average. Small is a relative term in this case.

If fuel economy had dramatically increased in this same time period, this wouldn't be a big enough issue to write a blog about. But here I am, writing away. But, also compared to 1990, small cars get on average only 2.5 miles per gallon higher than their predecessors.

Labels are becoming an issue. Car and Driver magazine ran a comparison test a few years ago with the headline "Full-Sized Minivans." Have you stood next to a current-generation minivan lately? It's anything but mini.

This article also had three ironic images showing the "bloat" of three different cars. So, in contrast to my 3 good examples last week, here's three images showing some bad examples. The sad thing is that these three cars are some of the best-selling models on the market.

The Toyota Corolla is actually the best-selling car worldwide of all time. And, apparently, by 2020, it will have become a blimp.

The Honda Accord, too, has been among the 10 best-selling cars in the US for a couple decades now. I used as it as an example in my very first post.

Obviously, trucks are always big. But they're getting even bigger! I wonder if it will ever stop. Maybe when our roads are filled with Jabba the Huts, someone will make a change. But who knows?