The new BMW 3 Series (G20) it is 4709 mm long, 1827 mm wide, 1442 mm high and 2851 mm wheelbase, representing increments of, respectively, 76 mm, 16 mm, 13 mm and 41 mm compared to its predecessor (F30).
It is interesting to see that the new Series 3 already supplants the Series 5 E39, a segment above — three generations ago and present in the market between 1995 and 2003 —, except for the length. The E39 registers, respectively, 4775 mm, 1800 mm, 1435 mm and 2830 mm.
This is an exercise that we can do with almost all cars (there are exceptions…). A current Volkswagen Polo takes up more area on the road than a Golf III, for example.
Why do cars keep growing? The roads and parking spaces remain the same size…
If before, the justification was the increase in passive safety — larger deformation zones and new safety equipment were added —; these days this argument has lost some steam with decades of optimization work. Is it our requirements that we want our car to do more (without going up in price), adding more and more comfort and technological equipment?
Or is it the fault of that old adage that “bigger is always better”?
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