Compact car

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1952 Nash Rambler 2-door station wagon

1963 Oldsmobile F-85 convertible

1966 Rambler American 4-door sedan, the most popular body type

1978 AMC Concord 4-door sedan, a new "luxury" compact

Compact car is a largely North American term denoting an automobile smaller than a mid-size car, but larger than a subcompact car, similarly recognized in much of the world as a "C-segment" (between B- and D-segment) vehicles. Compact cars usually have wheelbases between 2.54 meters (100 inches) and 2.67 metres (105 inches). The American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines a "Compact" car as measuring between 100 ft³ (2800 L) and 109 ft³ (3000 L) of combined passenger and cargo volume capacity.

Although compact cars had been made in the United States before, the post World War II era compact class began in 1950 when Nash introduced a convertible Rambler. It was built on a 100-inch wheelbase to which a station wagon, hardtop, and sedan versions were added. The modern compact class greatly expanded between 1958 and 1960 when the Studebaker Lark, Chevrolet Corvair, Ford Falcon, and Plymouth Valiant joined the market segment held by the Rambler American. These cars also gave birth to compact vans, which were sized similarly to the Volkswagen Transporter / Bus and used components from cars like the the Falcon or Chevy II.

Within a few years after that, the compacts had given rise to a new class called the pony car, named after the Ford Mustang, which was built on the Falcon chassis. At that time, there was a distinct difference in size between compact and full-size models, and an early definition of the compact was a vehicle with an overall length of less than 200".

During the 1960s, compacts were the smallest class of North American cars, but they had evolved into only slightly smaller versions of the 6 or V8 powered 2-bench 6 passenger sedan. They were much larger than imports by makers such as Volkswagen and Datsun which were typically 5 passenger 4-cylinder engine cars, even though ads for the Ford Maverick and Rambler American would make comparisons with the ubiquitous Volkswagen Beetle. In the early 1970s, the domestic automakers introduced even smaller subcompact cars, that included the AMC Gremlin, Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto.

The 1977 model year marked the beginning of a downsizing of all vehicles, so that cars such as the Ford Fairmont which replaced the compacts were re-classified as mid-size, and cars inheriting the size of the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega such as the Ford Escort and Chevrolet Cavalier are now classified as compact cars. Cars such as the Honda Fit and Chevrolet Aveo which are still smaller are now known as subcompact cars.

Legally, the American government has defined class size under environmental law under Code of Federal Regulations, Title 40--Protection of Environment, Section 600.315-82 Classes of comparable automobiles. Passenger car classes are defined based on interior volume index or seating capacity, except the ones classified as special vehicle. A two seater is classified as a car with no more than two designated seating positions. Others as follows:

Class	Minicompact car	Subcompact car	Compact car	Midsize car	Large car	Small station wagon	Midsize station wagon	Large station wagon
Interior volume index (cubic feet)	under 85	85-99.9	100-109.9	110-119.9	120 or over	under 130	130-160	over 160

In the 1985 model year, compact cars classified by the EPA included the Ford's Escort and Tempo, the Chevrolet Cavalier, Toyota Corolla and Camry, Acura Legend, Mercedes-Benz 300 and Nissan Maxima, and Volvo DL.

In North American, the compact segment is still discernible as a class smaller than the average car but larger than the smallest models on the market. The Chevrolet Cobalt would be an example. The term has also been adopted to describe relatively small SUVs, such as the Ford Escape. Compact SUVs are sometimes called "cute-utes" or "soft-roaders".

Sport compacts are also a significant class of performance cars, somewhat like muscle cars, such as the Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Evolution series.