Obesity Epidemic In American Cars

Even Compacts Aren't So Compact Anymore, As Automakers Super Size When you start naming cars after entire sailing fleets, or eco-regions, But the Armada, the Tundra and SUVs and pickups like them are not the only cars that have grown bloated in the past decade. Compact sedans are two inches longer and two inches wider than 10 years ago, and they weigh nearly 375 pounds more. As USA Today points out, that has by now transformed the popular Honda Civic of the 1990s the size of the up next-model-up Accord. At the same time, many smaller cars have been designed brilliantly to provide ample space and still achieve the fuel economy milestones that these larger cousins can't. The automakers are catering to the American appetite for spacious cars, and they were playing with fuel economy rules that Congress let them write for years. Now, the Senate has changed the playing field, and assuming the House agrees, automakers will most likely have to put our cars on a strict diet. That will mean not only less fuel consumption, but smaller sizes. If American car-making ingenuity wins the day, smaller won't feel confining, and if concern over global warming wins the day, the American car-buying public will demand small and efficient in the same way they demand big and spacious now. Related Stories Prius Envy The Death Of The American Mall Is Your Home Too Big For Its Own Good? Death To The SUV? When A 2,866-Square Foot Home Is Just Way, Way Too Small Despite Cool Housing Market, Construction Booms