58 Pontiac Bonnieville

Which makes the trunk half the size of the Chrysler 300, I think?

I think the people who designed most American vehicles in this era never thought about how anyone ever would have to park them.

--scott

Tom McCahill used to test cars for Mechanix Illustrated magazine. He always tested the trunk size too in his road tests.

This has the trunk space leaders.

That's 2013 models. The Taurus is number 1, followed by the Impala at number 2. I've got a 2003 Impala and the trunk is huge. If my wife's shopping gets loose and something ends up near the front, she has to crawl in to get it.

I looked up the specs of my the biggest cars I've owned.

64 Olds 88 wheelbase 123, length 215.3 inches 76 Caprice wheelbase 121, length 222.9 03 Impala wheelbase 110, length 200

Seems the Impala is the easiest to park, but it's smaller than the others. It's also has a smaller turning circle.

Video. Testing the 1958 Edsel with Tom McCa hill . Google,,, Tom McCahill Road Tests . That was way back when cars had Real trunk space.

Google,,, Tom McCahill Road Tests That was way back when cars had Real trunk space.

I like a full size car that can store its hardtop roof in a large enough trunk, particularly without even having to get out of the car first.

Back in the 1970s, I traded my 1968 Ford Mustang (plus some money) to a guy in Lawenceville, Georgia for his 1957 Ford Thunderbird car. It had a rag t op and a removable hard top. Later on I took the Thunderbird to a local wel ding shop and had a tow hitch welded on there. Then a buddy and meself went to Sublette, Kansas and I bought a 1931 Ford Model A car, I towed that Mod el A all the way home.

What they thought about was that most people only had one car back then. It had to be able to carry the whole family PLUS their luggage and stuff for a vacation to Disneyland, or a trip to Grandma's or to go camping in the mountains and for many people it had to be able to tow a trailer too.

Also it's not fair to complain they were too large for normal people to drive around ... look at all the LARGE pickup trucks on the road today, many of them full 4 door cabs plus a bed. They are easily the same size, give or take, as those old cars were and they get worse gas mileage around town then most of teh bread and butter big cars did back then.

I used to own a 1959 Oldsmobile station wagon. It got terrible gas mileage, I could see that needle constantly moving toward empty when I drove that car. But, gas was a lot cheaper too.

Oh, I complain about those all the time. Especially when I rent a subcompact and the smallest thing Hertz can give me at the Dallas airport is an oversized pickup truck with dual wheels. And they think they are doing me a favor.

--scott

In foreign countries they drive little bitty cars that get much better gas mileage than cars in America.

That's true. It's all they can afford. They generally live in much smaller houses/apts too... it's all they can afford. Very few of them have a second car either, they can't afford it.