Quote:
Originally Posted by 3rdPedalAddict
Probably to meet safety standards.
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There are smaller cars in the US than ever before, so I'd say that is completely false.
I'd say it's generally because it's what people want. Not only is our market getting fatter, but people want more space, they want a bigger car that is faster. Guys want the biggest truck so they can feel badass. Ladies want a high SUV to see above all the cars. It's all constantly pushed towards "bigger".
With that said, I think there are other things going on:
The 911 has to keep getting significantly wider to stay relevant with GT350Rs, SS and ZL1-1LEs, Giulias coming in from one side, then entry-level Ferrari and McLarens on the other. Tires keep getting wider. It takes ever-increasing amounts of wizardry to keep the rear-engine chassis competing against these other cars where the engine is either in back of the front axle, or in front of the rear axle. When you exhaust the stuff like active-swaybars, 4-wheel steering, and so on, you still end up with having to make the car wider as these technologies eventually get used by the other manufacturers. They make terrific cars, but takes a lot of money to bend physics, and you can only bend so much before you have to do something like make the car wider with wider tires.