The end of the small car

Ever since vehicles made their mark on our planet, the humble small car has probably contributed the most to automotive design and innovation. It is a vehicle purchased across the ownership spectrum and a polymath in the capabilities it is expected to perform in order to appeal to such a widespread market.

Ironically, in a world that now focuses on economy, finite resources and minimising our global footprint, the small car becomes larger with every new model release. If we compare a small car from as recent as the late nineties we find that interior space has almost doubled, and the plethora of safety and modern amenities demanded by consumers and legislators has increased vehicle weight to what would have been a model above only a few years ago.

An obvious example would be the Mini, far removed from its original design brief of seating four adults in a compact design to a bloated, feature-laden premium product with the only resemblance to the original the shared name. Whilst this may be what the market desires it has the downside of inflating costs to the point where manufacturers are having to cram even more features in order to justify the increased selling price and which inadvertently erodes the idea of a small car even more.

Would you buy the latest model that is smaller than the one before? Eventually the bubble will burst and financially pressed consumers will be forced to look at pre-owned vehicles based on affordability alone, an end result of a market never being satisfied and ultimately destroying itself in the process.