Vehicle Size for Gangsters?

[FramFramson]

The honest truth is that like figure manufacturers, the makers of toy cars are not necessarily that particular about scale adherence. Plenty of model cars out there proclaim a scale of X but are bigger/smaller by a factor of Y. The only real benchmark is the Mark 1 eyeball and does it look right. As most gamers like to pose their figures firing over car bonnets, matching up a figure against the bonnet is probably your best visual clue.

By the by, whilst the popularity of SUV type cars in recent years has skewed things somewhat I would challenge the notion that cars have got bigger, at least in relative terms to the people that drive them. More efficient engines have meant generally lower hoods than their predecessors. SUV's not withstanding, the average family sedan in this country is notably smaller than it was 20-30 years ago. You also need to factor in that the average human is generally taller than the 1920s/30s version.

Agree on all counts.

The largest cars were probably the big 50's beasts in the US, followed by the land sharks of the late 70's and early 80's. Though current modern cars have trended towards getting taller because of the SUV obsession, but only in that segment, not overall.

[Doug ex-em4]

……… but only in that segment, not overall.

Really? My perception was otherwise. I haven’t made a serious study of it but examples are the remakes of classic fifties/sixties cars. The Mini, Beetle and Fiat500 are all considerably bigger that the originals and I’d assumed this was perhaps because cars had generall just got bigger.

Doug

[Cat]

More recent small cars have gotten bigger.  US safety requirements bulk them up with crumple zones, etc.
 
The full-size landsharks of the 1970s are different beasts altogether.  Wheelbases ranged from 121"–127", total length c.225".  CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) regulations of '78 led to downsizing those monsters.

[FramFramson]

Really? My perception was otherwise. I haven’t made a serious study of it but examples are the remakes of classic fifties/sixties cars. The Mini, Beetle and Fiat500 are all considerably bigger that the originals and I’d assumed this was perhaps because cars had generall just got bigger.

Doug

Those were all compact and subcompact cars though which always had a smaller market share in the US (and Canada), and the tolerance for cars the size of a Mini Cooper is not what is once was. It's natural (if a shame) that the remakes of those all upscaled them, but for the most part cars have converged on the generic. Note how most cars these days are hopelessly indistinguishable, and it seems like they're all painted silver.