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Mid-size car

A mid-size car, frequently referred to as an intermediate, is the North American term for an automobile with a size between that of a compact and a full-size or standard-size car. In Europe, cars of a similar size are often referred to as family cars or large family cars.

North America

1976 Buick Century. This generation represented the largest size the intermediate class would reach.

The mid-size class grew out of the compacts of the early 1960s. One of the first, the Ford Fairlane, was referred to at its introduction in 1962 as a compact intermediate. This was true, as it was barely bigger than its close relative the Falcon. General Motors' first entries in the class, such as the Oldsmobile F-85, Pontiac Tempest and Buick Special were not mechanically related to the compact Chevrolet Corvair, but were similar in size. The class began to grow almost immediately, however, and for the next 10 years each expansion in size in the full-size field was followed by a proportionate growth in the mid-sizers. By the mid-1960s, they were as big as full-size cars of the mid-1950s. By the mid-1970s, they were nearly as big as the full-sizers of the mid-1960s. By the 1970's, the intermediate class was generally defined as vehicles with wheelbases between 112" and 118".

A turning point occurred in the late 1970s, when rising fuel costs and government fuel economy regulations caused all car classes to shrink, and in many cases to blur. The situation was complicated by the fact that General Motors began to downsize about two years before everybody else. Consequently, by 1978, there was little difference between the new mid-size Chevrolet Malibu on a 108" wheelbase and the equally new compact Ford Fairmont at 105". From that point on, mid-sizers shrank steadily for the next ten years. Import models, which had often been growing as the domestics shrank, began to be more competitive, and the two essentially came together in the compact and intermediate classes.

Mid-size vehicles today usually have wheelbases between 2.68 meters (105") and 2.79 meters (110"). Another definition specifies between 110 ft³ (3000 L) and 119 ft³ (3300 L) of interior volume. This is the most popular size car sold in the United States. Well-known examples include the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. There is still a tendency for domestic entries to be larger than the imports, however, such as the soon-to-be discontinued Ford Taurus, which has competed well with these models despite (or perhaps because of) its larger size in every dimension.

Europe, Australia & New Zealand

2004 Holden/Opel/Vauxhall Vectra

Cars in Europe's equivalent category to North America's mid-size are generally known as large family cars (small family cars are North American compacts), whereas Australia and New Zealand also use the mid-size label. European and Australasian mid-size/family cars are usually a little smaller than the North American norm, even from the same manufacturer. For comparison, the 1998 Ford Taurus weighed around 1500 kg, had a 2757 mm wheelbase, and was powered by a 3.0 L V6 engine, whereas a 1998 Ford Mondeo weighed around 1300 kg, had a 2704 mm wheelbase, and was often powered by a 2.0 L I4. European & Australasian mid-size/family cars are also usually offered in sedan and hatchback form, as opposed to the sole sedan form found in the models populating the North American category.

As elsewhere, upsizing has blurred the distinction between types, with models that would be and are compacts in North America, such as the Ford Focus and Opel Astra, approaching the midsize category by growing larger and fitting more powerful engines with every iteration.

Sometimes the definitions of car categories are manipulated to serve marketing ends. In Australia, Toyota had categorized the V6 equipped Camry as a large car and the 4-cylinder Camry as a medium or mid-size car in order to dominate more segments, despite the physical size of the cars being identical. Similarly, the Opel Omega/Cadillac Catera, which had dimensions right on the border between the North American categorizations of full-size and mid-size, was marketed as a luxury full-size car in Europe and a mid-size car in North America.

Japan

The Mitsubishi Galant is a popular Japanese mid-size sedan

In Japan, the term mid-size car probably does not have the intermediate sense that it does in other markets. Due to space restrictions the range of cars available in this market starts from a much smaller size. As such, the models that Japan exports to other markets to compete in mid-size market segments such as the Mazda6 and Subaru Legacy occupy a more exclusive segment in the Japanese marketplace.

An interesting quirk of Japanese automotive tax codes is that width is one of factors determining which category a car is taxed under. Therefore even mid-sized cars destined for export markets from Japan had widths of less than 1700 mm, as manufacturers had to look to domestic consumption as well as export. However, as export markets have become progressively more significant for Japanese car manufacturers, more models have been produced that break this 1700 mm wide limit (around 67 inches).

See also

• Vehicle size class

External link

• Official US government car size class definitions

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