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Comment by gwbas1c | Hacker News Reader

As a business traveler, I only rented a compact car from Hertz and it was awful. I always go for medium sized now.

Rental car companies play game with the categories. Just a couple of months ago they tried to convince me a Camry is a full-size car and gave me a Corolla for my mid-size reservation.

Compared to the compacts I’ve rented... a Corolla is pretty mid-size

Compared to a 2000-ish model Corolla, a 2020-ish Corolla is pretty much mid sized.

I’d agree with their judgement. But I think it’s very subjective. Different parts of the world have different averages.

To me the Toyota range is like this:

- Yaris: compact

- Corolla: mid sized

- Camry: full size

Yeah, I'm curious if a Camry is mid-sized what a full size is. Taurus? Those things are absolutely massive. My Ford Focus feels big, honestly, but maybe that's because I live in a relatively urban area with pretty tight street parking?

Toyota's full-size sedan is the Avalon.

Car categories have agreed-upon definitions; what rental companies call them is usually a size up or two from the manufactuer's (canonical) names.

For Toyota, the Yaris is sub-compact, the Corolla is compact, the Camry is mid-size, and the Avalon is fullsize. For Chevy, the Spark, Sonic, Malibu, and Impala fill the same roles. For Honda, it's the Fit/Civic/Accord (they don't make a full-size). For Nissan, it's the Versa/Sentra/Altima/Maxima.

The Honda full-size equivalent is in the Acura lineup in the US. I don't think I have ever seen an Acura at a car rental place though.

One time I had the option in the lot between a Malibu and Impala, and figuring out which one was "better" in person was pretty tough. The overall length difference per Chevy is 7 inches, which seemed largely irrelevant in person. I guess if it all went to the back seat leg room then you have a distinction for a certain market.

For reference, Sonic can be up to 35 inches shorter than a Malibu (depending on style).

I thought the Impala was a Malibu with a bigger engine?

No. It's a totally different car. The Impala is (as previously mentioned) 7" longer - 201 vs 194.

Serious question but what is the advantage of getting a bigger car while on a business trip?

For a personal car I get it, as a bigger car is able to carry more people/objects but for a business trip I typically only have a small suitcase.

Every time I was given full size while on business I almost felt like it was a hassle more than anything else. It is more difficult to park in tight spots if I end up going to city centers.

If you are on highways, being in a small car is a safety risk, especially if the other cars on the highway are bigger.

I rented extensively when I was in management consulting and put 30k miles annually driving home on weekends. I can be a safe driver, but i'm also put at risk by other drivers who are not safe drivers. In those cases, you want physics working for you.

A more detailed answer: https://qr.ae/pNyaFd

So basically it's an arms race and we should keep arming ourselves with ever increasing cars to stay safe until we ourselves become a 'danger' to others? I feel super unsafe cycling in cities next to giant cars with poor visibility.

I get your safety concerns but why for the highway? There are no cars coming from the other direction so accident risk is pretty small. At least in Europe accident are way more common in cities then on high speed Autobahns.

In most cities where I have been, there is traffic congestion and speeds are usually low, most accidents are fender-benders. It is inconvenient to get into bumps, but not life-threatening.

On highways, at least in the US, the average speed is 65-70mph. You'll see some drivers doing 90 or more regularly. At 90mph, if you are in a compact car, if a truck or SUV hits you, there is a high chance of major injury or death.

You are right there are no cars coming from the other direction, but i've seen cars get bumped from the back, then spin. I've seen cars bumped from the corner by a driver who clearly did not check their blind spot, and the small car spins.

The small car is at a huge disadvantage, especially in the US where there are massive trucks and SUVs all over the highway. There is also bullying by bigger cars/trucks on highways where they expect small cars to get out of the way and/or drive defensively.

Non-minified link:

https://www.quora.com/Are-smaller-cars-necessarily-more-dang...

>Serious question but what is the advantage of getting a bigger car while on a business trip?

Ride quality, comfort and features usually go along with vehicle size. I've also heard that taller/wider people have problems fitting into smaller cars.

> Serious question but what is the advantage of getting a bigger car while on a business trip?

It's an upsell. If you perceive it as better, it's useful to you. But, if you like small cars, they are annoying to park and the clerk will give you a funny look when you say you like the small car better.

The latest Camry is 4,880 mm long while the latest Corolla is 4,640 mm. For comparison, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class is 4,686 mm while the E-Class is 4,923 mm.

The problem with those cars is that the windshield is raked so much that a lot of the front length is wasted. It's why our cadillac xts feels tiny compared to the chrysler 300 it replaced. And damn I want another 300 lol.

Was it the 2005-2010 Chrysler 300? Because that car actually shared a bunch with the Mercedes-Benz E-Classes. They apparently for example copied the W211 suspension for the 300.

A lot of this and some other design inefficiencies are due to modern EU pedestrian collision safety mandates and testing, which I think is a fair compromise to make, and they have since been adopted in some other places as well but they long affected most North American vehicles due to global standardization.

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15118822/taking-the-h...

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