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Saw this article in Deccan Herald.

https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion...estion-2986998

+1

What gets my goat every single time, is the ever increasing numbers of Kia Carnivals on the Delhi NCR roads, with only 1 or 2 persons inside. Of course there are many other cars to blame to varying degrees (including my Hector which mostly sees highway duties), but nothing symbolizes this growing problem better than a Carnival.

The ever increasing size (width, length) of cars exarbates the congestion in our already packed cities.
Increasing vehicle width makes road side parking a much larger hassle for other road users.

The sub 4m rule (tax break) on cars in India has forced the manufacturers to create a new class of vehicles, which contributes to limiting the size of cars. It'd be prudent for the govt to also introduce tax breaks for narrower cars as well.

The Thar vs Jimny is the best example, people flock to the car due to its much wider and larger size although the wheelbase is not very different.

If you look at the list of vehicles sold every month these days, you can easily see a drop in sales of hatchbacks or small cars, while there is a mad rush for all types of SUV's. We are already having space crunch in big cities with rapid construction, bigger vehicles just help in creating more traffic jams. Definitely, the size of personal vehicles is growing and leading to more issues. Getting a good parking spot for big cars is a headache these days, along with driving them on already congested roads.

Additionally, I feel the rise in automatic vehicles has also led to more people picking up big cars.

My 2 cents on this. In a free market economy you can't really tie down every aspect of things by regulation. Market forces dictate a lot of things including who wins in the end. Artificially creating levies and charges to control every thing and subvert the market forces, other than where it is absolutely necessary, will always lead up to a controlled regime that's detrimental to a free society.

Now what is absolute necessity? Diesel cars pay more cess and levies, the sub-4m rule also ensures that cars beyond a predetermined size pay more, cars bigger than certain engine sizes already pay additional taxes and levies, and SUV category too pays higher GST. A Thar is wider than a Chimny but that's because it's a larger car with a big engine. It pays more levies and taxes at every stage, starting from the time it leaves the factory gates. Now if the government also starts adding the width of the car, height of the car and such then we will have more do-gooders clamoring for levies for cars with dual AC, cars with an additional tyre in the boot (yes, manufacturers are now progressing towards only 4 wheels too)... there will just be no end to it. The result will be a catastrophic mess that will be extremely difficult to comprehend and even more cumbersome to navigate through for the potential car buyers. Eventually it will stunt the growth of the industry.

In short, there's already enough number of levies and taxes being implemented on vehicles based on the number of seats, length, engine size etc. Most other things will end up being a sub category under these major levy categories.

Rather than restrict width, we should introduce tax breaks for extra small cars and take inspiration from the Japanese Kei car segment I feel. Sub 4m should be eradicated and we should simply copy paste kei car rules here :thumbs up

:confused:

The Carnival has not been on sale for over a year, I guess. So absolutely no new Kia Carnivals landed on NCR roads in the last one year.

It was a poor selling car. I think it was in the market for a total of two years and averaged less than 300 pieces a month. So no more than 8000 exist pan India. Assuming 50% got sold in NCR, there would exist an inventory of just 4k Carnivals in NCR (for perspective - just Delhi in itself adds roughly 1.5k new cars on the road every day).

Anything under 1750mm, I am able to lean over and use the passenger side controls, like open/lock door, lower/raise window, etc and even buy fruits/coconuts from vendors :disappointed

A lot of the increase in width is just the external dimension. With side crash safety requirements, the door thickness is increasing every passing day. Add to it the needs of aerodynamics, and we have a narrower top. So, most of the cars cannot accommodate 5 people/ 3 on 5he back bench.

Introducing newer regulations that curtail aspects like width will be detrimental.
There are genuine use cases where a wider vehicle is required.

For example, a typical C2 sedan is about 1700mm wide and although they call it a 5 seater, its width makes it extremely uncomfortable (over longer distances) for 3 people to sit in the 2nd row.
So practically most hatchbacks and sedans can comfortably only seat 4 and they are really not 5 seaters.

When it comes to SUVs/MUVs, most of the vehicle width in this class hovers around 1850mm, that makes it a bit better to seat 3 folks in the 2nd row compared to a sedan/hatchback/pseudo SUV.
Now compare this to a 1920mm ScorpioN, its width is excellent to seat 5 people in the second row without shoulders rubbing against each other.

So there are genuine use cases where a wider vehicle is required (like in larger SUVs) to seat more people in comfort.
At the same time, a lot of hatch backs and sedans are practically 4 seaters, so they tend to be designed sleeker.

End of the day, we need different classes of vehicles for different needs and a larger width is also based on a need in most cases.

I'd say, India is going the US way. 5 to 7 years from now, you will feel the likes of Nexon, 3OO and Brezza will feel small. The next generation of cars will slowly take over. The size, capacity, power and tech are all going to increase with each passing year. What was a luxury yesterday is a norm today. It's ever changing.

Can I take the Jeremy Clarkson stance here? I don't caaare ... I mean yes there's pollution (but I sold my 8 year old diesel since the NGT told me I have to, so everything should be fine now), I don't care if there's too much congestion (If I have to go a congested area I'd rather take my bike/scooty to beat the traffic) ... If someone earns a bit of money here and there why can't I buy the cars I want? I'm tired of the sub 4m rule and the engine restrictions and the vehicular taxes and the cutthroat policies everywhere, honestly; and it's not like cars are getting as big as American behemoths ... if I'm not mistaken the extra width simply means I don't die a painful death when I'm T-boned by a redlight jumping maniac.

I experienced this trend first hand, during my purchase journey last year.

The Compass, which is almost as wide as a Tiguan didn't really feel spacious on the inside. In fact, from a driver's perspective, it felt marginally wider than an Ecosport which was 1/3rd it's cost.

I believe it has to do with packaging and design largely. With this newfound obsession with large and high central consoles, footwell space is going down. Felt this first-hand in the Nexon, Compass and Harrier. From a design perspective, everyone's going for large protruding wheel arches off late. This increases the overall width and actually makes city driving more cumbersome.

Kei cars standards were for a bygone era. Try fitting the 195 width tyre into a 145 width wheel well. The wheel well today is so big that the Kei cars will not even have space for Brake pedal, let alone dead pedal. You would never go back to driving a floaty Alto again, would you?
And where will the curtain airbags fit? They might open right above your head, and not beside.
The Side impact beams of today are themselves 100+mm, and so are the thick A and B pillars.

And above all, aspect ratio of us humans inside the car has also been increasing over the years :)