this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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Today I Learned

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[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 64 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

Cars do not grow. Don't listen to this guy. My car is the same size as when I bought it.

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago

Sometimes it's not growing by itself. Don't put too much pressure on that issue and enjoy just the other aspects of it.

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 29 points 6 hours ago

Don't you water it regularly?

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago

Sometimes it's not growing by itself. Don't put too much pressure on that issue and enjoy just the other aspects of it.

[–] Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz 82 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

Not sure about the accuracy of this, my car is still the same length as it was ten years ago.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Mine is a smart car. I need a pill to make it grow into a suburban.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 36 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

Mine got 8cm shorter when the rear bumper fell off. So, it's safer.

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago

I imagine you driving.

[–] Ghoelian@piefed.social 14 points 6 hours ago

I don't think that's very typical

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 14 points 6 hours ago

At least the front didn't fall off.

[–] StillAlive@piefed.world 9 points 7 hours ago

Stop giving it junk food.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

I have a car that hasn't grown any longer, but it has grown taller.

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 2 points 3 hours ago

There are a lot more car brands in Europe than most regions so generalizations are a bit less useful. I wonder who the outliers would be?

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 34 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

The length is bad but the 0.5cm extra width per year strikes me as much worse. There's a lot of room for longer vehicles than the average cars of yesteryear - vans and light trucks have always been around. But those vehicles tended to only be slightly wider, if at all, in order to fit into lanes on the road, parking spaces, through gateways and so on. Half a centimetre wider per year is insane.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

Maybe you need to invite in China’s “belt and road” people to cinch in that extra width.

[–] Ghoelian@piefed.social 16 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

I would hope countries will just stop approving cars as road legal if they are too wide to fit on the roads.

I do occasionally see the odd range rover in the Netherlands. It's always hilariously out of place, and of course does not fit in any single parking space here. But they have to drive around with a special license plate for import vehicles, apparently it's fine then.

[–] PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

How about the dumbshits that import Ram trucks there? Recently read an article about it. I dunno how any of you guys could drive our pickup trucks at all there.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

There are loads here, and I immediately think that whoever's driving it is a bad person.

[–] klu9@piefed.social 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] FishFace@piefed.social 2 points 4 hours ago

You can work it out from my other posts but I don't go around advertising it when I can help it...

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Some of this is safety equipment and more recently batteries and hybrid equipment, which takes up space. Some of this is simply design and aesthetics.

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

My hybrid Suzuki Ignis (ugliest car on the planet) is smaller than my Suzuki Swift, which is supposed to be a small car.

[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 0 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

The Pontiac Aztec is uglier.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

The Aztec isn't even close to the ugliest car ever made. It's a meme at this point.

[–] username123@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 hours ago

Beauty is in the eye of the SUV holder

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 6 points 7 hours ago

If they're going to make these cars that grow longer every year, are they also going to build garages that get longer too? In my day, cars stayed the same length for the whole time you owned them. I suppose it's good for parents that have growing teenagers and need more leg room in the back.

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 4 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

A lot is extra safety features. It would be illegal to sell the original mini today.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 minutes ago

Safety for occupants, not those outside

[–] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I remember that my parents car still didn't have seat belts in the back when I was a kid...

[–] Magister@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

Same, my father's car (Citroën GS) had no seat belt in the back...

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 hours ago

It's called "American creep".

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 9 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

1.2 cm? You know which body parts grow much faster?

The hair!

😇

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 7 hours ago
[–] homoludens@feddit.org 6 points 7 hours ago

To be fair, people have been complaining that here are too many cars in the cities for a long time. By making the cars bigger you naturally decrease the number of cars per area!

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Consumer appeal for bigger vehicles tracks with historical weight gain.

[–] thejml@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 hours ago

Also, the number of burglaries in new Hampshire is dropping as there are less and less kids named Johnny