Growing pains: Why car companies keep making cars like Toyota RAV4 bigger and bigger - and is it really a good idea? | Opinion

Cars are like the opposite of a Big Mac.

Beyond the obvious differences, when we were children we probably all thought a Big Mac was a huge hamburger that we struggled to eat, then, as adults, they seem to shrink and become a small snack.

Twenty or 30 years ago cars we would have considered large have become even larger, and what was once a small model is seemingly huge. Take for example, the original Holden Commodore VB and the current Toyota Corolla sedan - which is bigger?

It shouldn’t be a tricky question, but according to the measuring tape, while the Commodore was 75mm longer overall, the modern-day Corolla has a longer wheelbase (albeit only by 2mm), is significantly wider (by 58mm) and notably taller (64mm). 

But it’s not just cars from our younger days. Car companies are always looking for the best way to retain customers and stop them looking elsewhere. And often that means owners who spend a few years in one car inevitably want something larger as their life needs change. And so, car companies make the next-generation model bigger in the hope it will keep those customers happy.

No car better exemplifies this trend than the all-new Hyundai Kona, which has grown significantly between the first and second generation of the brand’s ‘small SUV’. The new model is bigger in every dimension, being 185mm longer, 20mm wider and 30mm taller

As SangYup Lee, Head of Hyundai Design, explained, the increased size is centred around ensuring the new model has increased rear seat space and a larger boot, following customer feedback, while also allowing for multiple powertrain options including an all-electric system. 

Lee acknowledges this is part of a wider trend that he doesn’t personally embrace, but it suits the goal the company’s product planners have set.

“It’s a trend for the car to become bigger and bigger every time,” Lee said. “But once it goes too big there’s a question about a smaller car, so in a way, it’s kind of like the trend is circling around. You can almost certainly know that the next-generation Tucson is not going to get smaller. So that is always a question that it comes down to. This is obviously my personal opinion, rather than a corporate view.”

The Kona is hardly an isolated case with too many examples to list here, but some other relevant examples are the Toyota RAV4, which perfectly proves Lee’s point that as each model grows it creates a hole beneath it in the line-up that a new model often fills.

The RAV4 arrived in 1994 as one of the world’s first truly compact SUVs, with the three-door model measuring just 3740mm long, 1695mm wide and 1646mm tall - roughly the same size as a current-day Yaris. Over five generations the now five-door-only RAV4 has grown so it’s now almost one-metre longer than the original three-door (860mm to be exact). It’s also 450mm longer than the original five-door RAV4, so it’s not just a case of the extra doors adding to the size.

As a result of this growth, Toyota has added no less than three small SUVs beneath the RAV4 - Yaris Cross, C-HR and Corolla Cross - to ensure it still has offerings for those who want a genuinely compact model.

Which does raise the question why car companies don’t just keep models like the Kona and RAV4 the same size and add a larger model for existing customers to graduate into if they want more room…

But it’s also a situation that isn’t going to change anytime soon, and in fact, will actually get worse as we move into a world of electric cars which will blur the line between segments even further; as Lee explains.

“Traditionally I would call [a car] A-segment or B-segment or C-segment or D-segment, but as EVs come… it kind of questions those,” Lee said. “For example, Ioniq 5 wheelbase is more than the Tucson, over three-metres, and the interior space is a lot bigger than the Palisade. So those are the things that we’ll see as a transition [away] from A, B, C, D [segments] in future.”