What’s missing from this discussion is that car interiors count, too, and shrinking car interior space is driven by safety systems.

We drove a Toyota echo for years. That car had a surprising amount of interior space. But it was at the end of its life about the time we had our first kid, so we leased a new Honda CRV.

The old CRV was a compact but capable family hauler. The new one is massive compared to the original version, but the interior space is still pretty minimal. We have 2 kids in car seats and strollers, and a dog.

The CRV, as big as it is, couldn’t fit 3 car seats when we wanted to carpool with another family to day camp. It couldn’t hold all 4 of our family plus luggage and stroller and still have room for our medium sized dog on a trip to my in laws. It can barely hold a week’s worth of groceries and a stroller at the same time. And this is largely because of safety features. Huge pillars, crumple zones, oversized carseats, airbags, etc. A secondary consideration is body shape driven by wind tunnel testing that massively improves efficiency but cuts down on interior space. I’m all for safer, more efficient cars but they are not without tradeoffs.

So now our lease is up. We’re shopping for a car I consider ridiculously big, with three rows of seating. But it will have room for us to car pool with friends kids. It will allow us to take our dog on vacation with us. And that’s what’s driving our decision to get a larger car, not some “love affair “ with big cars or a misguided government policy. When the kids are grown I look forward to getting a small cat again. Until then, we’re buying based on interior space.