July 31: My, how you've grown!

As the old saying goes, size matters, no matter what it refers to. True? I guess so and at 6'5'', why would I argue? Size doesn't necessarily mean things should be bigger, but sometimes it does. Wonder where this line of thought is going? Well folks, sometimes when I start writing my blog, I have the same feeling.

Love the new Honda Accord. Looks great doesn't it? A nice midsize sedan.

But let's take a look back at where it came from, the first Accord four door from way back when, in the late '70's........

Never understood those funky rearviews on the home market Accords, but millions of Japanese would argue with me, so let's drop that train of thought, shall we? Size matters? In this case the Accord has grown and grown and grown, to the point where it is just shy of being two feet longer than the original. And almost ten inches wider. Now that, my friends, is some dramatic middle aged spread. Even the new Civic is almost a foot longer than the original version of its big sister.

Checking on another famous name, the Toyota Camry, North America's best selling by far sedan, we find similar results. The first Camry four door, a nothing special looking car.......

.......has morphed into the latest generation.........

......and added almost a foot and a half along the way. While aging and getting bigger, much bigger, both of these popular models have gotten more athletic and become better cars all around. For comparison, look at your long time friends and see whether time has been as kind to them. Not likely.

If I checked out the Nissan Altima or Mazda6, I'd find similar numbers. Time for a comparison. Let's go back to an American car of the '70's, the very popular in its day, 1976 Chev Impala.......

Big in a corpulent kind of way. So over the years, how has this venerable name plate fared. If it was anything like the Japanese sedans, it would now be the size of a Greyhound bus, but while the foreign (can we call them that these days?) brands grew, the domestics shrank......

Sure, this new Impala might look big and it is about 10" longer than its Japanese rivals (although with its rapidly dwindling sales, it's hard to call it competition for anyone), but it's almost two feet shorter than its 1976 ancestor. Two feet!

As an aside want to look at the sales of the cars above during this same time? The Camry and Accord's have grown, while the Impala's (and all the other North American originals) have diminished, like their size. What does that tell us? Nothing really, but it's worth throwing it out as food for thought.

Size matters? Sure does, even it means right sizing for the times. Got some spare time on your hands? Check out the sport utes over the years, from the CR-V to the Explorer. You might be surprised at what you see. Like the title of this blog, "My, how you've grown!"

Until next time, which will be the week of August 20th, as I head to Europe for vacation. Lots of cars to see, so expect some conversation about them on my return. Thanks for reading.