Here’s something that might be of interest – but you’ll need to grab a tape measure and have the vehicles at hand to measure. The good news is I went ahead and did it for you.
New cars are much taller than they used to be. Not just crossovers and SUVs – which are so tall it’s hard in many cases to even see the roof unless you stand on a step ladder. I was struck by how much taller the ’26 Kia K4 (which is a small sedan/hatchback) I’ve been test-driving this week is than my 1976 Pontiac Trans-Am. It struck me because the Kia is a sporty little car – and so was my Trans-Am, back in its day. Today, of course, it is comparatively huge – relative to a small modern car like the K4. But the interesting thing is how much taller it is than my Trans-Am and not just at the roofline.
But let’s start there.
I measure my old Pontiac to see how tall it is. The tape measure says it is 50 inches tall. I measured the Kia. It is 55 inches tall – five inches taller than my old Pontiac. I also measured how high the tops of the doors are. My old Pontiac’s doors are about 34 inches tall (relative to the ground) while the Kia’s doors are much taller, by about six inches. This explains why I can sit in my old Pontiac and lean my left elbow on the top of the driver’s side door. This used to be commonly done back in the day, in part because it felt good and also because many of the cars of that era did not have AC and so people kept the windows down and it was natural to rest your elbow on the top of the door as you drove.
This is impossible to do in the K4 and – based on my experience test driving pretty much everything – it is impossible to do in any new car except perhaps the Mazda Miata, which is a small sports car.
It is a good thing every new car comes with AC.
But why have cars gotten so much taller than they were? 
You probably know why.
Doors have gotten taller (generally) because it’s an inexpensive way to make a car more resistant to side-impact forces in a crash and this is very important to the car companies, because of insurance mafia crash test ratings – in a society that is obsessed with “safety,” even in the hypothetical sense. Meaning, if you get broadsided having taller doors (more steel) will probably help to absorb the impact forces.
If you get broadsided.
Probably (odds are) you will not. But we are no longer allowed to weigh the odds and decide whether the risk of “if” outweighs such things as the no longer being able to rest your elbow on the door tops. It’s Saaaaaaaaaaaaafety First! 
The roofs almost have to be taller on account of the doors being taller – because if they weren’t the side glass would be shorter. You can see how this works in some cars, such as the recently cancelled Chevy Camaro, which had extremely short side glass and for that reason terrible side-to-side visibility. In order to increase that visibility, it would be necessary to raise up the roof, to accommodate taller side glass – and that would look awful. So what GM ended up doing was to make a snarky-looking Camaro that was hard to see out of.
Interestingly, my ’76 Trans-Am is very easy to see out of – and not just because it has tall side glass, despite having a comparatively low roofline. It also has almost delicate A pillars – the structural members at the left and right side of the windshield that support the roof at the front of the car. New cars have massive A pillars that are typically twice or even three times as thick as the Trans-Am’s A pillars. These also make it harder to see what’s coming at you from the side. But why do new cars have such think A pillars? Because they have to. Because of “roof crush/rollover” requirements that must be complied with. The pillars must be able to support the weight of the car if it rolls upside down. 
Of course, odds are it never will roll upside down – rollover wrecks being exceedingly uncommon, though they do sometimes happen. Well, the busybodies who micromanage our lives have decided (on our behalf but without our consent) that if trumps everything else.
And now you know why new cars are tall, that’s all.
. . .
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In this neck of the woods, the vehicles are getting wider (to accommodate the wider American), but the parking lot spaces are not. It is fun to watch and see three, full-sized trucks (or SUV’s) try to mark right in a space meant for a pregnant rollerskate. On a side note Robert Wadlow was 8 Feet 11 and 1/4 inches tall (and 439 pounds) when he died at the age of 22. He had reached a height of six feet tall by the time he entered third grade, and wore a size 37AA shoe. His abnormal growth was due to a pituitary gland disorder. I dare say, no vehicle in the world would have accommodated him.
Whoops, make that “park”. I wish there was an “edit” feature here, Eric, when I see a typo after the fact (ha ha)
Dude!!
A pair of that guy’s shoes …happens to greet you as you enter “Fast Eddie’s Bonaire Roadhouse”..in Alton IL!
A “tourista” spot with good deals on shrimp, steak kabobs , excellent burgers etc…
Very close to the Ill..inoise “Lewis and Clark Bridge” over the Mississippi River….
The river road west to Grafton and Pere Marquette State Park is lined with limestone “cliffs”? along the shore….Nice scenic Ride.
Missoura had it’s good points….
That would be cool to see. You can search and find on-line a pair of Wadlow’s shoes next to a traditional, men’s size 12. LOL, the traditional size shoe looks like a pair of kid’s shoes in comparison. Someone also generated an AI picture of Wadlow standing in front of Andre the giant. Andre, being no short man himself, at seven feet tall, still looks like a kid in comparison.
insurance mafiaā¦ the gambling industryās āmore respectableā half sister.
Im noticing this comment section is being overspammed to death with Apprentice Ignorance summaries shat by bots or not? Worthless crap always catches the best of the best eh
Its getting stupid.
Agreed
What ever happened to: “But the climate! The Climate! The planet!”? Taller vehicles are far less aerodynamic. Bulbous monstrosities and 7000 lb. EVs are going to save the planet, ya know…. And let’s not forget the data centers (for out own good, ‘course!) that consume more energy and water than just about anything known to man. But hey, you can’t buy a gas leaf blower in Commiefornia because it’ll kill off the mastadons, or sumthin.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all if Donnie The Diddler wheels out those nukes, ’cause there’s no fixing this at this point.
THIS.
And why must even entry level vehicles come with 22-inch steamroller wheels? And why are small station wagons nowhere to be found?
ā Taller vehicles are far less aerodynamic ā
See also modern pickup trucks. The front ends, huge / tall and flat, like pushing a barn door down the road. My 91 Silverado I can easily clean the hood and windshield without a step stool, plus the slightly rounded front end and hood make at least an attempt at aerodynamics. A new truck pulls up to me at a stop in town, swear their door handle is eye level with me rolling in the 91.
I completely concur, Arthur. The tall vehicle paradigm is absolutely antithetical to the quest for efficiency. Looks like hell as well.
Higher roof line and less ground clearance make sense.
Oh, the new Camaro! I rented a convertible and still could not see outta the damn thing with the top down! Visibility absolutely horrible
My 79 Firebird has good visibility and good window height to be able to rest an arm on the door. My 71 Charger does not. It has huge blind spots due to the design and I sit so low in it, if I try to place my arm on the door, it puts my shoulder at an awkward angle.
They got some old cars right, and others not so much.
Hi Philo,
Yeah, but your “fuselage” body Mopar looks fanatstic!
Thanks Eric, I agree. Some items are best even if they are form over function. That’s why I would love to own one of the Art Deco inspired beauties of the late 30’s (if I could afford it).
Ditto my ā79 Grand Prix. Thin A pillars, low belt line, upright rear glass, two door no pillar next to my head blocking the view. At 6ā1ā Iām driving with the seat nearly all the way back & I loathe 4 door cars with that damn pillar right next to me.
‘The Kia K4 is 55 inches tall.’ — eric
And it’s just a little bugger. Spare a thought for hypertrophied pickups. They are the equivalent of mail-order shoe inserts that used to be sold in the back pages of pulp magazines, so shorter guys surreptitiously could add an inch or two to their stature with no one being the wiser.
Problem is, Detroit’s pickup-truck shoe insert replacements will set you back $70K. And then being a short guy — or even a tall guy like Eric — you won’t be able to reach over the damned bed walls to pick up a tool lying there. Talk about fashion victims!
There’s a certain species of swashbuckling females out West — some exist in the South too [Lawzy!] — who drive gigantic, manly 4×4 pickups. One I’m thinking of serves on the local search & rescue squad, a guy-dominated group. You should see her scrambling up into that two-story tall hulk, like a monkey scooting up a banana tree.
Fashion victim, as I said. Sad! Cuz she’s kinda cute. But that giant truck puts me off …
Hypertrophied pickups evidently work for some. Was @ Post Office a couple weeks ago. Ford F(humongous)50 pulls alongside. Wyoming plates in SoCal. Driver an older (70 something) gentleman, passenger a *much* younger woman, very pretty and very tall. Four inch heels and a ribbon in her hair. Inquired if she was his wife. Yep. He, 72 and looks 80; she, quite literally one half his age.
New cars are much taller than they used to be.
Versus you T/A, yeah sure
Versus the headline photo of the 30s vintage Ford Tudor Sedan. Not so much.
If only the automotive world was as simple as you portray it.
Hi Rob,
Yeah, but – per Jim – have you stood next to any current-year full-size half ton truck or SUV? I am six feet three and so taller than probably 90 percent of men and I can’t touch the floor of the bed without standing on a bucket or step ladder. The things are preposterously tall – and huge!
PS: This little Kia is only a little lighter than my TA, which has a huge cast iron V8 and stamped steel suspension components and a solid (cast iron) rear axle…
And notice how half-ton pickups are building steps into their designs to get into the bed. Some are built into the bumper, others into complex tailgate designs.
And, I nearly need a ladder to wash the roof of my ’07 Matrix. It’s been a long time building.
Codpieces all.
I’d love to have a Triumph TR3. Or, the Lotus Europa that I witnessed driving under a semi’s trailer to escape a traffic jam.
A friend’s dad owned a powder-blue TR3, when I was but a punk kid riding my bike.
I sat in the passenger seat, reached over the skinny little ‘door’ (about the size of a pizza box) and touched the driveway with my hand. Grounded! š
I could go on about the spoked wire wheels. But never mind — both the physical configuration and the control systems of vehicles have completely changed. And not necessarily for the better.
“Big boss man” playin in my head too.
“You aint so big, you just tall and thats about all”
Im noticing this comment section is being overspammed to death with Apprentice Ignorance summaries shat by bots or not? Worthless crap always catches the best of the best eh
Its getting stupid.