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I’m not sure whether you mean older teslas or older cars generally here. Small cars in the 70s and 80s weighed just over half as much as they do now. The Golf M
by laurencerowe 6y ago
I’m not sure whether you mean older teslas or older cars generally here. Small cars in the 70s and 80s weighed just over half as much as they do now. The Golf Mk 1 was 795kg while a Mk 8 is 1255kg. Much of that increase in weight is safety equipment and they are much safer for it.
- sgc 6y agoI was thinking older than that, of the 50s and 60s, and early 70s. But regardless of the exact timeline, it's pretty well known than engineering trumps raw weight, even if quantity is a quality all it's own, as they say. Thus comparing apples to apples (names don't matter, size and weight and features do), the same weight car today is far safer than it was in the decades you referenced, and the average weight across all models has remained relatively stable during the same period as well other than the dip in late 70s early 80s due to the oil embargo crisis.
- laurencerowe 6y agoI suspect growing up in Europe this difference is more pronounced since smaller cars were always more popular and they are the ones where structural reinforcement for crash safety has made them so much heavier.
- sgc 6y agoPerfectly reasonable hypothesis.
- globular-toast 6y agoSome of the increase is safety equipment. Some is just the fact they they are bigger in just about every way. The Golf Mk1 wasn't even a particular small or lightweight car. The Mini was about 600kg, for example.
- laurencerowe 6y agoIndividual models do have a tendency to grow in size over time so perhaps the current Polo is a better comparison to the Mk1 Golf and even that weighs in at 1164kg.