Can we talk about size for a moment? Car size, that is?

From top: 2nd-generation Toyota Yaris and
6th-generation Toyota Corolla.
Photos: Toyota USA Newsroom.

Size perception can be very, very relative and subjective. And if there is one thing that can demonstrate that for us, it’s the fluctuations that have taken place in car sizes over the years.

By car size, I’m referring to every dimension: overall and curb weight, overall height, overall width, wheelbase, you name it. And the relative nature of how we perceive car size can apply to all of these dimensions. Just how deceptive and relative our perceptions of car size can be was driven home for me recently, when I realized something about two vehicles my next-door neighbor owns.

Today’s Automotive Design Aesthetics: All-Time High, or All-Time Low?

Left: 1954 Chrysler Ghia Thomas Special. Photo by "Mr. Choppers"
(posted to Wikipedia).  Right: 2018 Ford Fusion (Photo: Ford media website).

Are you excited by the car designs you’re seeing today?

Or are the lineups, by and large, getting tiresome—because everything seems more and more alike?

The sad truth is that, today, with some notable exceptions, many models within a given category—sedans, crossovers, SUVs, even sports coupes—are tending to look dishearteningly similar.

To those of us who appreciate the breathtaking looks from the heyday of car design (which, for us, was roughly from the 1950s through perhaps the mid-1970s), the current generation of look-alike fastback sedans, for example, is sad to behold.