this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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Today I Learned

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[–] Photonic@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Not only longer but also wider and taller… it’s an obesity pandemic that has blown over from the US.

Can someone prescribe some ozempic to these cars?

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 8 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

What are they feeding them?!

[–] catbum@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago
[–] Etterra@discuss.online 16 points 1 day ago

This just illustrates the importance of hiring a professional to trim back the cars periodically. You could do it yourself, but the heavy industrial equipment necessary for routine gardening like this is just too bulky and expensive for the average person to be able to use.

[–] Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz 113 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 53 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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

[–] Ghoelian@piefed.social 23 points 1 day ago

I don't think that's very typical

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 19 points 1 day ago

At least the front didn't fall off.

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

I imagine you driving.

[–] StillAlive@piefed.world 9 points 1 day ago

Stop giving it junk food.

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

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

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

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

[–] teft@piefed.social 6 points 22 hours ago

Does this mean cars have plate tectonics?

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 86 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 40 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't you water it regularly?

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Water? Not for AI datacenters? In this economy?

[–] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day 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.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 45 points 1 day 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.

[–] Ghoelian@piefed.social 25 points 1 day 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 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] klu9@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] FishFace@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 0 points 1 day ago

Publicly downvoting someone for not announcing where they live is a hilarious way of telling everyone you have the emotional fortitude of a 9 year old.

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

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

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 day ago (2 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.

[–] SpaceDuck@feddit.org 1 points 18 minutes ago

I have a small Peugeot e-208. You don’t need some massive SUV to go electric. Renault 5 is another small example. There are electric sedans available too.

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day 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 1 day ago (2 children)

The Pontiac Aztec is uglier.

[–] username123@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

Beauty is in the eye of the SUV holder

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

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

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

The hair!

😇

[–] homoludens@feddit.org 7 points 1 day 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!

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 6 points 1 day 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 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Safety for occupants, not those outside

[–] RobotToaster@mander.xyz 1 points 15 hours ago

Not entirely, a lot of the required curves are for pedestrians. Anything curved has less internal volume.

[–] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 4 points 1 day 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 1 day ago

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

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Consumer appeal for bigger vehicles tracks with historical weight gain.

[–] thejml@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 day ago

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

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

It's called "American creep".

[–] FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 1 points 1 day 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?

[–] RumorsOfLove@lemmy.dbzer0.com -5 points 1 day ago (1 children)