Nowadays even so called small cars are bigger.

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
Well the Panda is quite deceptive. Although the floor pan has spurned the 500, the Ford Ka, Chrysler Ypsilon it is fairly narrow in its native state. Great to park and it squeezes through small gaps.
I got a chuckle last week when I got through a tight gap with no problem and a following Ford Fiesta rattled both mirrors, he stopped in his tracks and I have no idea if he had further damage.
I do agree though cars are bigger now, due to Ncap ratings and more crumple zones. An A30 I'm afraid would get minus strars these days.

[Kalee20]

It would indeed.

But it's not only supermarket spaces which modern cars are too wide for, modern cars just don't suit our roads either. Especially with the number of cars which are parked at the roadside! They take up so much space. Many towns and villages are clogged up in the evenings and nights. Streets which were wide enough to allow for 2-way traffic (even with cars parked along one side) now have cars parked BOTH sides. Wide cars both sides, wide cars trying to fit through the remaining gap on the crown of the road, it's horrendous!

I'm not saying let's return to the era of the Ford Popular, but at least the things were narrow... and pretty awful which tended to discourage people from having them anyway! So there was space for everyone!

[Craig]

Our first car was a second hand Vauxhall Viva HC back in 1978. I loved it with a passion - rebuilt the engine and gearbox - ran like a sewing machine. Max speed with foot flat to the boards was 80mph on a good day. It even had a front windscreen washer - a plunger on the dash panel that you pushed for a squirt. Sold it to a friend, who drove it until it fell to pieces, and then sold the engine to someone else.

Fast foward a few decades, and I was at a classic car show in Birmingham, and there was a restored one (a classic - ha ha) - in the same green as my old one. And it was spectacularly tiny - I was quite shocked really. It *seemed* quite large back in the day.

[peter scott]

Sizes can creep up on you. I ran a Mk1 Mondeo for many years and then decided to replace it with a Mk3 Mondeo. I hadn't noticed that the Mk3 had grown in length but my wife noticed. We live in quite a narrow street and so backing out of our driveway with cars parked on the other side can be tricky. After my wife backed into the car of one of our neighbours across the street I now have to reverse our car out every time she wants to use it.

The Mk1 was about 14' 6" but the Mk3 is a foot longer making it the same size as a Granada.

Peter

[colly0410]

Smallest car I had was a Citroen AX, it was dinky, was very good on petrol. It used to get air locks in the cooling system for some reason then the heater wouldn't work, otherwise it was OK..

[Murphyv310]

Yes the AX was small. I worked for Brands Electronics in Gourock repairing computer monitors for a year. I picked up three other chaps as well being a 1.4 diesel it did 70mpg on that run. Don't actually think I paid that much in fuel myself, the round trip though was 80 miles so we did 400 a week. One lad was over six foot and it was a squeeze, thank goodness it was a 5 door.

[Old Sparky]

The smallest car currently being sold is, AFAIK, the 2-seater SMART Car, almost certainly the nearest in size to the Bubble cars of the 1950s. The SMART for 4 is, I think, actually smaller than it's predecessor.

[Murphyv310]

The Renault Twizy is smaller......... but is it actually a car?

[Refugee]

I have seen a 2-seater Fiat 500 today.
The link does not like squeezing into a little icon though

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=2+seater+fiat+500&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CfAacJpY-8koIjhJ_1Z3BgmeWvUGtkOj8ZwUD5NTjnhAwWNtGAC7GnQxaXmMoaCe2yQlMhvQmvwI5a98rJ5OKUZ6d4CoSCUn9ncGCZ5a9ETBzAjrq0q4MKhIJQa2Q6PxnBQMRACxtvQXcXXsqEgnk1OOeEDBY2xH-ZK7OciExGyoSCUYALsadDFpeEfJEOLpFhm8IKhIJYyhoJ7bJCUwR9z_1hTUlu52sqEgmG9Ca_1Ajlr3xE81jhxZsosNCoSCSsnk4pRnp3gEfG7OfCx2irK&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEi7OzxIvWAhVDI1AKHZjYBOcQ9C8IHA&biw=1249&bih=810&dpr=1

[Terry]

Two seater Fiat 500

Interesting that the second one pictured has four doors!

Oh, and the link above does work!