{"id":555,"date":"2013-02-19T00:07:31","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T04:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/?p=555"},"modified":"2013-02-16T18:11:01","modified_gmt":"2013-02-16T22:11:01","slug":"the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><!--\np, li { white-space: pre-wrap; }\n--><\/style>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Recently I took my Buick Rendezvous in to have it undercoated and rust proofed. Since I\u2019m obviously going to have to keep the ride at least another five years I decided to take care of it before rust started to happen. No, this isn\u2019t a rant about how rust proofing\/undercoating places are virtually non-existent, it is a rant brought on by my rental.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The difference in price between a full sized rental and a subcompact was roughly $5\/day. Since I was only renting for a day I took the full size. No, I didn\u2019t shop around. The car rental place was literally the next parking lot over from the detail place. I took it easy on my feet.<\/p>\n<p>What I drove out of there with was a Mazda 6. Granted it was quite a culture shock to once again sit with my ass below my knees as so many cars seem to make you do these days. The bigger culture shock was remembering the last car I had which made me sit that way. It was a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Buick_Skyhawk\">1976 Buick Skyhawk Hatchback<\/a>. This car was considered a downsized economy car back in the day. I had the distinct impression that I could have fit my entire Mazda 6 rental car in the cabin of that vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>Today we are being sold tiny little vehicles and told they are \u201cfull sized\u201d. Subconsciously we know better, but it still leaves us with a feeling of being screwed. Adding insult to injury we are being sold \u201cfull sized\u201d cars which are supposed to get nearly 40MPG and actually get around 20 once we own them. My 1976 Buick Skyhawk got 20MPG whenever I kept my foot out of it and it was a much bigger ride.<\/p>\n<p>We need to demand a full sized ride which is actually a full sized ride. Thankfully, we can still find many premium examples for sale on eBay and AutoTrader. The one I will focus on here is the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Buick_Roadmaster\">Buick Roadmaster-Estate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It is no wonder many of these cars are still around. They were worth taking care of. I know of many people who got 18-20MPG on a regular basis with these rides. They and their competitors were the ultimate family vehicle. When you flipped the seats down and opened the hatch you could slide a 4&#215;8 sheet of plywood\/drywall in. It would lay flat AND you could close the hatch without worry. In an era of HGTV and \u201cdo-it-yourself\u201d type home improvement I\u2019m not surprised to see many of these land yachts on the road and in great, if not mint, condition.<\/p>\n<p>This brings me to the following question. Are we <em>ever<\/em> going to stand up and call a full sized car the compact it really is? Are we ever going to have an automaker with the guts to stick a modern power train in a shiny new Buick Roadmaster-Estate <strong>that is the same size as the original<\/strong> and NOT try to re-brand it as a cross over so they can charge $50K for it?<\/p>\n<p>Come on people. Chrysler and a few other auto makers have V6 engines which crank out nearly 300hp without turbos. We now have 5, 6 and 8 speed transmissions, not to mention CVTs which can be hooked up to those engines and make a heavy car get nearly 30MPG as advertised. (Yes, none of us will actually get over 20 but we can\u2019t expect everything to change.) Today we have carbon fiber for structural integrity and frames. CF is both lighter and stronger than steel in many cases. People who need 7 plus passenger rides stand in line to buy Jeep vehicles which get about 12MPG. How is it today\u2019s automakers collectively believe nobody will flock to a station wagon that is the same size as the Buick Roadmaster-Estate? As long as it can still drive like a Buick and come fully loaded for under $30K it should feed a starving market.<\/p>\n<p>In the mean time, I turned in my Mazda 6 rental. I drove away in my Rendezvous. I fought off the temptation to flip the rear seats down and put the Mazda in the back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I took my Buick Rendezvous in to have it undercoated and rust proofed. Since I\u2019m obviously going to have to keep the ride at least another five years I decided to take care of it before rust started to happen. No, this isn\u2019t a rant about how rust proofing\/undercoating places are virtually non-existent, it is a rant brought on by my rental. The difference in price between a full sized rental and a subcompact &hellip; <a title=\"The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size\" class=\"bnm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[163,164,165,166],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another","tag-buick","tag-mazda","tag-roadmaster","tag-skyhawk","bnm-entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size &#8211; Logikal Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size &#8211; Logikal Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently I took my Buick Rendezvous in to have it undercoated and rust proofed. Since I\u2019m obviously going to have to keep the ride at least another five years I decided to take care of it before rust started to happen. No, this isn\u2019t a rant about how rust proofing\/undercoating places are virtually non-existent, it is a rant brought on by my rental. 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He quickly became a consultant and president of Logikal Solutions, a software consulting firm specializing in OpenVMS application and C++\\\/Qt touchscreen\\\/embedded Linux development. Early in his career he became involved in what is now called cross platform development. Given the dearth of useful books on the subject he ventured into the world of professional author in 1995 writing the first of the \\\"Zinc It!\\\" book series for John Gordon Burke Publisher, Inc. A decade later he released a massive (nearly 800 pages) tome \\\"The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer\\\" which tried to encapsulate the essential skills gained over what was nearly a 20 year career at that point. From there \\\"The Minimum You Need to Know\\\" book series was born. Three years later he wrote his first novel \\\"Infinite Exposure\\\" which got much notice from people involved in the banking and financial security worlds. Some of the attacks predicted in that book have since come to pass. While it was not originally intended to be a trilogy, it became the first book of \\\"The Earth That Was\\\" trilogy: Infinite Exposure Lesedi - The Greatest Lie Ever Told John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars When he is not consulting Roland Hughes posts about technology and sometimes politics on his blog. He also has regularly scheduled Sunday posts appearing on the Interesting Authors blog.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/theminimumyouneedtoknow.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.logikalsolutions.com\\\/wordpress\\\/author\\\/seasoned_geek\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size &#8211; Logikal Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size &#8211; Logikal Blog","og_description":"Recently I took my Buick Rendezvous in to have it undercoated and rust proofed. 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The difference in price between a full sized rental and a subcompact &hellip; The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full SizeRead more","og_url":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/","og_site_name":"Logikal Blog","article_published_time":"2013-02-19T04:07:31+00:00","author":"seasoned_geek","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"seasoned_geek","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/"},"author":{"name":"seasoned_geek","@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/c077f770ade13de7faaf616c3eac6842"},"headline":"The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size","datePublished":"2013-02-19T04:07:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/"},"wordCount":699,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/c077f770ade13de7faaf616c3eac6842"},"keywords":["Buick","Mazda","Roadmaster","Skyhawk"],"articleSection":["Thank You Sir May I Have Another"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/","url":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/","name":"The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size &#8211; Logikal Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-02-19T04:07:31+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-ever-shrinking-definition-of-full-size\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Ever Shrinking Definition of Full Size"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/","name":"Logikal Blog","description":"For people with attention spans longer than a Tweet","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/c077f770ade13de7faaf616c3eac6842"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/c077f770ade13de7faaf616c3eac6842","name":"seasoned_geek","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"seasoned_geek"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=r"},"description":"Roland Hughes started his IT career in the early 1980s. He quickly became a consultant and president of Logikal Solutions, a software consulting firm specializing in OpenVMS application and C++\/Qt touchscreen\/embedded Linux development. Early in his career he became involved in what is now called cross platform development. Given the dearth of useful books on the subject he ventured into the world of professional author in 1995 writing the first of the \"Zinc It!\" book series for John Gordon Burke Publisher, Inc. A decade later he released a massive (nearly 800 pages) tome \"The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer\" which tried to encapsulate the essential skills gained over what was nearly a 20 year career at that point. From there \"The Minimum You Need to Know\" book series was born. Three years later he wrote his first novel \"Infinite Exposure\" which got much notice from people involved in the banking and financial security worlds. Some of the attacks predicted in that book have since come to pass. While it was not originally intended to be a trilogy, it became the first book of \"The Earth That Was\" trilogy: Infinite Exposure Lesedi - The Greatest Lie Ever Told John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars When he is not consulting Roland Hughes posts about technology and sometimes politics on his blog. 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