Carmakers Upsizing Vehicles To Meet Expanding Waistlines

Luxury carmakers have been forced to upsize their vehicles as a result of drivers and passengers becoming more overweight, it has emerged.

Typical family cars have become more than a foot wider and almost double the weight over the past 50 years as manufacturers struggle with the world’s obesity crisis.

Consequently some luxury manufacturers have begun road-testing the next generation of larger-sized vehicles.

Officials say will allow bigger people to maintain their comfort on the road.



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KKO84 - 10/25/2011 11:26:15 AM

+4 Boost

Surprised? Not really.

MorePower - 10/25/2011 2:54:52 PM

+3 Boost

People getting fatter and relatively cheap gas prices led to the rise in sales of Large SUV's.

dumpsty - 10/26/2011 1:47:55 PM

+1 Boost

This is nothing new. For example, the newest 5-series is the size of a 7-series from about 10 years ago. The S-class is huge making the old Cadillac DTS seem more lean in exterior dimensions.

As the larger vehicles continued to get bigger, that made it easier for automakers to introduce more smaller vehicles down the lineup. It used to be small-midsize-large, not it's micro-compact-small-midsize-fullsize-large --- it's just been an explosion of new vehicle categories and sizes.