Why were old American cars so big and long?

Length from where the passengers sit to the suspension work. Leading to a comfier ride that still rings true to this day.
Along with a large as fuck interior, large as fuck trunk, and a fitting large as fuck engine bay to shove a 350 or larger motor in.

Sometimes you want to take your freedom to work or your friends house. You. Need a HUGE trunk to fit all your American freedom.

Also something people forget to mention was that gas was around 50 cents a gallon. No one gave a fuck that their cars were getting 8-12 mpg on average.

A Polara with a 383 or 440 would probably do 125-130 mph.

Goddamn I want one of those cars again so bad. Was raised in a grand marquee. It's like having an erection for a chubby chick. I love it.

As a Reddit user (yeah, whatever), I've realized that many Americans just don't know how big the United States actually is. Europeans will always comment on just how vast even a single state can be; that they could drive for 4+ hours just to reach another city, whereas in Europe, they would be in a completely different country.

In the US, a 4-hour drive will MAYBE get me to Miami (I live in Dunedin/Clearwater). It seems like many Americans are just unaware of the size and diversity of the US.

I've been wanting a Marauder for years. There are still a lot of good-quality ones up for sale, but I ain't got the funds :(

Enough space for it and not a care in the world about resource usage.

It has more to do with environmental regulations than people's spending habits, never underestimate how willing people are to waste money. Cars are all required to be 1.2L euroboxes so everyone who wants to drive something big just buys an SUV and continues getting 8-12mpg, now impeding everyone else's view in traffic.

This what we call progress

>this is what yuropoors call progress

You didn't have to distinguish yourself as a redditfag - just be yourself :^)

Europe doesn't have CAFE regulations that basically only act as a protectionist scheme for Detroit SUVs and trucks since the car market has been lost to foreign competition already.

>As a Reddit user (yeah, whatever),
what was the point of including this

>cars bring you from A to B in the same time, using much less oil
>"diz iznt dem progresses mkaaay"

Americafags are sometimes so retarded.

Most people in general don't get how fuckhuge it is.

Especially Alaska, which is almost always scaled down due to proximity to the pole.

>tfw the casual drive I went on halfway to a nearby small town is the same distance required to drive from northern Italy into southern Germany

>if I wanted to go to Seattle it would be like driving from Florence to Nürnberg

I would be okay with it if those landbarges had the same interior space as a limo but this example shows that it isn't the case
>2m of bonnet for that huge V8 that makes 150hp
>3m of boot for dead bodies or something but nothing practical
>Same cabin size as a subcompact

After a couple of minutes.
Those fuckers are heavy.

>Same cabin size as a subcompact
u wot m9

Because Driving this car and getting into an Accident won't kill you.

Accept immortality user. Drive 4 1/2 Tons of Pure Steel instead of plastic Eurofag shit. Dominate the road. Be American.

>that fucking sofa
I hate sitting on soft shit like that even in my living room, let alone a place with lateral forces. Zero support in any direction.

This, and also
>3m of boot for dead bodies or something but nothing practical

>having a spacious trunk
>not practical

The only point you make is the V8 that was cucked by emissions in the early 70's.

>Because Driving this car and getting into an Accident won't kill you.

LOL

those old shitboxes are unsafe as hell

you have the mentality of a woman of large=safe

yeah those old barges are horrible for comfort imo

It's not all that practical if it's only a foot and some tall. I'll take the smaller footprint cargo space of a modern wagon over one of those trays because you can actually fit everyday items in it.

>as a reddit user

How is this is even relevant to your post. This is worse than femanon posting.

Oh here. I found the type of Car you prefer.

It's "Safe" user. Now spread those cheeks.

comfort is subjective, tho.

I find that I enjoy a shitton of legroom and a seat I could comfortably sleep on comfy as hell. Also these land barges generally have soft suspension, and along with the bench seats they soak up bumps and turns like nobodies business.

I'm not hating on euroboxes, Here in america I see em from time to time, and realize the benefits of fuel mileage and other cost savings as well. But in my personal opinion(which everyone is going to tell me is WRONG) I prefer old american land barges because of the pure creature comfort of them.

dunedin is in new zealand you cunt

Downtalking modern cars doesn't reverse your lie about old cars being safe. Flip one of those old barges and the roof will fold like paper. Also no airbags and most of the impact energy is transmitted onto the passengers. I'm not stopping you, do whatever you want, I'm just saying it's a lie that these old things are safe.

I prefer 12.

Id rather have that than some old barge in a crash (and as a commuter but w/e)

yeah thats why I said imo

I cant stand those old American cars

the way they ride
the seats
the design

Ive been in Buicks, Olds, Cadis, and Lincolns

just not my thing

Im a Lexus BMW kinda person

Clearly what you need is a non-modern wagon that has even MORE cargo space.

A car can't soak up turns. And these are probably the worst cars in the world for turning. The body rolls to the side, and then the seat provides no support and you tip and slide all over the cockpit.

shit looks like a hearse

A hearse that was ironically one of the safest cars of its time, made by a company that invented most of the safety stuff we take for granted like crumple zones and three-point seatbelts.

Boxy but good!

I could also get a landbarge wagon, but really I couldn't. I'm not sure it would even fit in the garage, or down the driveway by the house, or be able to turn in the courtyard in less than a hundred manouvers, or stay in lane on our winding country roads, or have an available supply of spare parts, or refrain from sucking my wallet bone dry on fuel because Europe.

/thread

>they decided to make the mustang bigger in 71 and they achieved that by.... just making it bigger.

my favorite top gear quote

Dat '71 Cougar doe. Ass game like you wouldn't believe.

I wonder how much deaths would drop if every car was built to racing safety standards.
If even commuter cars had roll cages, 5 point harnesses, lexan windows, etc.

I wonder how much deaths would drop if every car was a hearse.

Just because we could.

T-tops and a few more years in production would've fitted this car so well.

>has literally never seen the interior of a classic land barge

The '74 downsize wasn't so bad. Ventura a qt.

I like the shaker. Identical shape to the Trans Am's?

>tfw burn turns in my friends marauder
Shit was so comfy
He had a thing for ex cop cars and cadillacs since he was from FL

I mentioned the fact that I post on Reddit because that is where I/we have the aforementioned discussions, so most people who post around here would probably wonder why they never see "those" kinds of posts around here (lol@ trying to have any sort of serious conversation on Veeky Forums, don't pretend).

Happy America day :D

Welp, I mess.up the quotes, but I assume that you folks can figure out which quote each comment was directed at.

Nigga plz, a modern shitbox will pretty much slice through it.

The French used to make relatively small cars that were as comfy as landbarges.

>ctrl+f
>4u
>no results

4u

>muh indestructible tank

Fucking hell, everytime about landbarges I see this woman tier argument pop up. Educate yourself and you'll see that they were just giant heavy coffins.

youtube.com/watch?v=siT-SIfOnQw

Citroen a best.

Those cars are fucking SEXY. How come cars don't look like this anymore?

Also it seems back then there were many models of pony and muscle cars. Now there are only 3. I WANT MORE SELECTION.

>many models
You mean three models and seven rebadges.

Liberals, led by Satan's acolyte Ralph Nader, ruined cars forever in the 1970s.

don't forget to tip your fedora, fatty

Just reinforcing the point:

Drive a 1966 Ford LTD into a pole at 45mph, you'll die instantly either when you go chest first into the solid steel steering wheel or you have a small block go from being 2 feet in front of you to the backseats.

Drive that 2016 Fiat 500X into a pole at 45mph, you'll probably break a arm/leg but you'll live to shitpost on Veeky Forums another day.

You can't see me.

>Ralph Nader, ruined cars forever in the 1970s
He was most famous back then for exposing product violations, poor warranty, lemons not being covered, and safety issues. Only with the distance of history did republicans revile him since Nader took the side of the common consumer versus the large corporation in getting wrongs and lemons fixed.

Because of Nader, there were a lot of consumer protection laws passed. Many of which were then deregulated by future republican administrations. In general, deregulation means the removal of consumer protections on behalf of the large corporations. Tracking and record keeping regulations may not seem obvious at first, but they establish a trail of responsibility if wrong doing occurs. Even now, some types of wrong doing cannot be prosecuted because record keeping was deregulated.

>Downtalking modern cars doesn't reverse your lie about old cars being safe
Your modern car hits the back of the steel shod land barge. Your modern car crumples up.

So, what if I take my 2016 car and drive into the back of the steel barge? Oops, my modern car doesn't even have a real front bumper as it is all fascia now. So, my chromed plastic and polymer fascia is not much of a bumper and is darn expensive to replace. And it has to be replaced since it would look totally ugly and obvious from even a lovetap of some hit and run parallel parker touching my car's front end.

The first real metal is lightweight thin steel holding the radiator but that is really small metal. The next big metal is the engine itself. Yes, the engine is the first real "bumper" in my car. SUCKS to have an accident. Good for the manufacturer in selling more new cars though.

>chest first into the solid steel steering wheel
Do they make any kind of aftermarket foam thingies to prevent that?

youtu.be/xtxd27jlZ_g

agreed

>I care more about my car than my life

Not disagreeing with you, but are you sure it was the steering wheel? I had always heard about older American cars impaling people on their super-rigid steering columns, but nothing about the steering wheels themselves.

This is wrong. Modern cars don't crumple up. Only the first 8-10" of the average car these days is meant to deform. If you take off the front fender off a modern car you'll see that there's basically a second frame rail tying the the front of the car and fender apron into the A pillar.

This adds a lot of strength and is part of the reason why the 09 Malibu killed that 59 Chevy in that IHS test. (The second being the X frame is shit)

In older cars the fenders were structural, with no added strength in the front of the car other than the frame rails, even in older unibody cars, where the fender aprons are just sheet metal.

That said, I drive old iron and I'm not afraid of crashing because I'm not retarded.

people weren't faggots back in the day

I wish cars were still styled in this way. To me, nothing looks better than a long hood, slightly shorter trunk and a long rear over hang, with the C pillar directly over the rear wheels.

Well I'm a retard and I drive a 2027 Hummer H10. I've already doxxed you and I'm on my way to crash into you right NOW. Be prepared.

Would be cool to see those classic designs rebuilt with modern technology, airbags and different safety equipment, better suspension, tires, etc.

I'm still waiting for Dodge to bring back the 2dr Charger that looks more or less like the 70' with flip headlights and those wide red tail lights.

lol
In low speed impacts though yes, older cars will fare much better. After '73, cars were required to be able to take a 5mph impact in the front, and 2.5mph in the rear with NO damage.
I always wonder what happened to that requirement, because the front of the average plastic and foam shitbox these days will have have about $3k worth of damage, even at 5ph.

Oh yeah? My H10 has the new Ford GravityBokst gravity crunchers that crunch gravity. Your 1920's piece of crap doesn't stand a chance.

Have you ever seen the movie Interstellar? Remember Gargantua, the Black Hole? My truck has 4 of those. Good luck, wagecuck. Holy fuck I just rhymed.

>Im a Lexus BMW kinda person
I bet you are, kitten.

>In general, deregulation means the removal of consumer protections on behalf of the large corporations.

That's wholly incorrect, but I take you for a Sanders supporter.

It was a time that was needed. Every decade has been an experiment until now. Each has been a progression

People wanted room for grandma.

so?