Talk:Full-size car

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Traditioanl American full-size dimensions[edit]

Whoe ever wrote this doesn't understand the tradional full-size American car. Until the advent of downsizing in the late 1970s a full-size "standard" had a minimum wheelbase of 119". A shorter wheelbase donted a mid-size ro compact car. A 110" wb would most certainly indicate a compact car.

Ture, there used to be a different definition in the US during the 1970s and earlier. The Town Car (The ultra-expensive Rolls-Royce and Maybach aside) is perhaps the only the modern car that comes close to being a "traditional full-size" (The L-Series is one). Today, however, cars that were once not considered full-size are full-size. Regards, Signaturebrendel 22:24, 23 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Using 119 inch wheelbase as the minimum means Chevrolet doesn't qualify until its 1959 models, Ford doesn't qualify until its 1960 models, and Plymouth doens't qualify until its 1965 models. Yet the largest cars of these brands (except for Plymouth 62-64) defined full size in the eyes of consumbers from the mid 50s until late 70s. What matters more is width, because what really made a car full sized was the ability to provide reasonably comfortable three across seating front and rear. Bradkay (talk) 22:00, 16 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]


Units should be consistantly English or metric; not jumbled back and forth. Moreso, with English units predominant in North America along with defined dimensions - notably with US car manufacturing, this should be corrected as per the style manual: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Units_of_measurement —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.192.199.52 (talk) 04:58, 11 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

German Full Size Market[edit]

The number of 15% full size cars in Germany is way too high, at least if you take serious the list of full size cars given in the article (relevant for Germany: Audi A8, BMW 7 series, Mercedes CLS and S-Series, VW Phaeton which, together with their sporty companions Audi S8, BMW 6 series and Mercedes CL, have a market share of 97% in this segment). But this segment, which is called "upper class" (Oberklasse) in Germany, makes up only 1% of the new car registrations. The next segment below, "upper middle class" (obere Mittelklasse), which is mainly Audi A6, BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E class (together they have a market share of 88% in this segment), accounts for 5,5% of new registrations.

Numbers are taken from "May 2007 new registrations" from the official source Kraftfahrbundesamt ([1]), unfortunately in German only. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.7.177.129 (talk) 09:25, 24 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've updated that part, because it was _totally_ nonsense. Big (and even mid-size) cars are _loosing_ a lot of ground in Europe and never (!) had a share of more than 1%. Those cars, called "F segment" or "Oberklasse" (less than 20.000 sold per year in Germany) are mostly used for governmental or financial representation; with a pricing starting (!) at 70.000€. Only five relevant models in this class exist in Europe; four from Germany, one from UK. Cheaper cars in this size never existed (maybe except the Opel Kapitän decades ago). The E segment below is mostly a German specialty and has lost half of it's models (esp. all cheaper ones) over the last decade. The mainstream market outside Germany *starts* in the D segment (as in "the best selling D segment model in France is a Citroën C5 on 23rd place"). This is also the biggest car size, where you have some non-luxury cars. These three segments _together_ make about 25% of the German market (with 17, 6 and 0,5% each). --TheK (talk) 20:53, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Compact Executive Cars[edit]

American full-size cars are at least 5,000 meters long, while the foreign alternatives like the BMW 5 Series and Toyota Avalon are at least 110 inches in wheelbase. So, compact luxury cars like the BMW 3 Series, Infiniti Q50, and Cadillac CTS are full-sized, too! 174.141.208.102 (talk) 03:42, 8 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Just because the CTS, Q50, and 3-Series have wheelbases that long doesn't mean that they will compete with premium midsize or mainstream full-size cars, or simply E-segment/executive cars. The MKZ and TL are bigger than a 5-Series, but guess what? They actually rival the 3-Series. They are what it's called, the D-segment, or compact executive cars, large family cars, midsize (midsize mainstream, not midsize luxury) cars. 166.137.191.33 (talk) 01:55, 19 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Trucks & Utility Vehicles[edit]

Under the article, instead of just sedans, can we include full-size trucks, vans, minivans, SUVs, crossovers and wagons? 166.137.191.18 (talk) 02:16, 19 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Is news.google.com a good, reliable source?[edit]

On the article I've stated that full-size cars are usually at least 200 inches long, then cited this reference. But Bahooka keeps saying it doesn't state that. Is it part of the WP spam blacklist? German Camaro (talk) 15:50, 8 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I self-reverted, cleaned it up, and moved it to the definition section. However, I'm not sure how a 19-year-old reference about how one newspaper measures full-size is useful. Bahooka (talk) 15:53, 8 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]