Vehicle safety regulations in place prevent this.
It’s why domestic as well as Japanese cars have gotten so oversized and compared to 20 years ago.
It’s also why every car on the road looks alike. Automotive design is very restricted by regulation. They start with what they are “allowed” to make and have to work within the standards.
Cars have become oversized in the US because that’s what American consumers want and for no other reason. Somehow cars like the Mazda Miata, BMW Mini Cooper and the Kia Soul were able to pass US safety standards so there is no reason to believe it can’t be done with other small cars. Ford has stated they no longer will produce cars and instead focus on its more profitable SUVs and Trucks with the exception of its Mustang line. They don’t want to build smaller affordable cars because the profit margins on those cars are not worth it to them. If American auto makers refuse to build cars all Americans can afford then we shouldn’t protect their profits from companies who are willing to make those cars.
Right. Visibility got uniformly worse in every car because we only relatively recently mandated that cars be able to support their own weight on their roof. Therefore all pillars had to get thicker.
