Cars that made it -or didn't make it for being correct size- or too small or large?

Size matters:

-The Smart made it for being small yet (somewhat) safe and nice handling.

- Mazda MX-5 Miata made it for being small yet comfortable and nice handling.

- BMW 1 Series didn't make it. While not that small they should have a small trunk like the 1M.

- Same for Mercedes A class. A small Mercedes it's an oxymoron unless its like the SLK.

- The Mini made it for being smaller than Golfs and the like.

- Golfs and Jettas may give the impression that they made it in America by offering a bigger car while not using too much more gas. Yet for Europe and elsewhere they aren't making it anymore as evidenced by strong sales of smaller cars like Polos.

- Hummer made it and didn't make it at the same time. The H1 exterior is impressive sized but its cramped interior didn't make it. Not even with military contractors bribes. H2 made it for its big side, although its not my taste. H3 didn't make it for being smaller. It just looks wannabe, looks so trailer park trash poseur to me.

- Unless they are the roomy Suburbans, large SUVs aren't making it anymore. They are replaced by smaller, more agile and economic sporty SUVs and Crossovers.

- American modern ponycars Camaro, Mustang and Muscle cars like the Challenger made it for retaining a nice size despite the crisis.

- American sport cars like the Corvette and Viper made it for the same reason, not being to small.

- BMW Z3 didn't make it for being too small yet pricey and expensive to repair/maintain so they couldn't compete with Mazda MX5 Miata. Z4 made it for being larger.

- Prius made it for being not too small despite being an eco-car. Yet not too large like Chevrolet Volt concepts or Fisker Karma.

- Most Supercars may not be making it for being just too large for daily driving. Made worse as they tend to be big in the wrong places like large overhangs thus unable to take even slight ramps.


You post some too!

Judging a car's sucess or failure for its size it's quite far fecthed in my opinion.

Anyway.

I think that today's the main constraint is not length, but width. Many cars (especially larger ones) are quite difficult to fit in lanes of some city streets, and things get even in country roads.

In terms of lenght anything bigger than a C-segment hatchback is cumbersome in an european city. Parking spaces are small and so are steerts in many towns. Then again if you from car park to park that doesn't matter much. And anyway in most larger european metropolitan areas there are good public transport systems which are used instead of cars in many cases.