How big did cars ever get?

[b5blue]

OK, what is the biggest CAR (Not truck or SUV.) you can remember? I was comparing how our Chargers were rated @ mid-size in the 60's and 70's against how my Cherokee is mid-size in the 80's. One of my girlfriend's Mom had a Chrysler wagon in the 70's that was enormous, I think we had 14 piled up in it on one trip, kinda overloaded in a teenage way. Roof rack loaded with boxes and coolers of supplies. It got me wondering just how big any of these Land Yachts ever got. 

[Ghoste]

Early 60's Imperials and Cadillacs were pretty big but some of the Duesenburg Model J's were fairly massive too.

[Road Dog]

Early 70's Oldsmobiles and Buicks were huge.

[Cooter]

Ya know what's really sad? There was a time when 4150 LBS carried a name like Imperial, Fury, Or New Yorker....


Now, it is a Challenger "pony" car today.....

[Road Dog]

Ya know what's really sad? There was a time when 4150 LBS carried a name like Imperial, Fury, Or New Yorker....


Now, it is a Challenger "pony" car today.....

Technology is Heavy!

[Ghoste]

Which further underscores how big some of those old barges were, they lacked all the computers and wiring and systems and content etc. etc. and achieved the same weight through basic mass.  Admittedly they used more structural steel too, a lot more, but my 67 Charger barely fits in the garage on my house.  A 1968 Cadillac would never go in there.

[RallyeMike]

Ya know what's really sad? There was a time when 4150 LBS carried a name like Imperial, Fury, Or New Yorker....
Now, it is a Challenger "pony" car today.....

That's an interesting question. I think about the biggest of regular production vehicles would be the crew cab long bed pickups of any year (if you are counting trucks). If you keep it to cars, as far as overall wallowing, massive looks and feel inside and out, I gotta give it to any of the the mid-70's station wagons, Chevy's in particular, though the Chrysler wagons of the same time period were also super-barges.   

[Musicman]

The longest car that I ever had was a 69 Chrysler which was just over 18'-8" in length  The hood slept 6  

[Old Moparz]

The longest car that I ever had was a 69 Chrysler which was just over 18'-8" in length  The hood slept 6  

The C-Body cars really were huge. I had a 1973 New Yorker that I once parked next to a similar year Caddy & the NY'r was a few inches longer. 

[zoecube]

I've heard from at least two people and I think wikipedia too that thanks to a technicality the '73 imperial was the biggest.

[zoecube]

I was right about wikipedia....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_(automobile)#1973

[68X426]

The 1961 Crown Imperial was 19 feet long. Wiki says that it was the longest non-limo car for many years.

I remember reading somewhere that the longest wheel base ever, not just length, was the '61 at 149 inches.

Now that is truly a land yaught.

[stripedelete]

Duesenburg was the first car that came to my mind.  Were they longer than the Imperial but not considered production vehicles? 

[Tilar]

Well, the longest cars I ever owned were the Lincolns nipping the heels of being 20ft long and weighed 4600, but the heaviest car I ever had was a 72 Town and Country 9 passenger wagon. I think it was close to 19 feet long but weighed 4800 lbs.

[Mike DC]

IMHO we should be counting most modern trucks & SUVs among the ranks of cars.  That is who is buying most of them and how they are mostly used.  The present day is the biggest that "cars" have ever been by a wide margin.

[PocketThunder]

IMHO we should be counting most modern trucks & SUVs among the ranks of cars.  That is who is buying most of them and how they are mostly used.  The present day is the biggest that "cars" have ever been by a wide margin.

But Mike, i dont consider them "cars".   You know what i mean?  when we were kids a car was a car and a truck was a truck.   Now mom drives a truck (suburban, tahoe, etc) and Dad drives a car (gas sipping puddle jumper).   

[A383Wing]

biggest car we got is the 73 Pontiac...it will not fit in the house garage..way too long...house was built in 1967...and I think it's within an inch of being close to the Daytona in length

[Alaskan_TA]

Chrysler 8 door at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFcVxv-iXHo

[Mike DC]

But Mike, i dont consider them "cars".   You know what i mean?  when we were kids a car was a car and a truck was a truck.   Now mom drives a truck (suburban, tahoe, etc) and Dad drives a car (gas sipping puddle jumper).

IMHO the kind of buyer that used to buy a huge powerful car in the 1970s is more likely to buy a huge truck or SUV now.  I have no doubt that we would be getting cars even bigger today if it weren't for the truck market covering that base (And the CAFE rules forcing out huge cars).  

We used to have 3 sizes of car models.  Now we have two sizes of cars, neither of them as small as a compact in the past, and a third truck size that gets used for a huge car.  Everything has up-sized a notch.  

[Tilar]

I was comparing how our Chargers were rated @ mid-size in the 60's and 70's...

I've never heard them referred to mid-sized. I'd call a Chevy II, or a Ford Falcon mid sized and something like a Honda would have been small.

[surmanajaja]

friend of mine has a 2 door 1960 lincoln, and its a huge "coupe". from wikipedia:

1959–60 Continental Limousine and Town Car are the heaviest American sedans without an extended wheelbase built since WW II, and the 1958 Continental convertible is the longest American convertible ever produced.

229 inches, 5700 lbs

[chargerjy9]

I was comparing how our Chargers were rated @ mid-size in the 60's and 70's...

I've never heard them referred to mid-sized. I'd call a Chevy II, or a Ford Falcon mid sized and something like a Honda would have been small.

B bodies were intermediate size (mid ), C bodies were full size, A bodies were compact size

[b5blue]

  Yup mid size, kinda underscores my point. We dwarf most cars on the road nowadays. My interior is mostly gutted now but even fully assembled the roomy-ness or "openness" is one of the most enjoyable aspects of a B Body car.
 My next door neighbor visits her family for most of the summer and has asked that I use her Mustang convertible, it's the style just before the newest ones. (Kind of rounded shape.) It's a very nice car in excellent shape but I find the interior absolutely claustrophobic even with the top down. Odd to have free use of a convertible, in Florida for the summer, that I dread having to drive.    

[ACUDANUT]

 I think most people missed this point....How big = feet and inches...not diff types of cars/boats.  Show me the numbers !! 

[Ghoste]

Falcon and Chevy II were both considered compacts as well.  When the Hondas came along that market was considered to be sub-compact.