SUV front ends

[Old Crank]

This past week or so I rented a car in CA. I had asked for a midsize and they didn't have what I ordered so they upgraded me to an SUV. A Volkswagen Atlas. 7 seats, fancy seats. Pain in the ass touch screen controls. Surprisingly it got over 26 mpg the way I drive. Power from a 2 liter turbo 4 rated at 267 HP mated to an 8 speed automatic. AWD.

What bothered me the most was the front end. I'm 6' 2" tall and the hood line is at my waist. There is at least an 8 inch gap from the top of thefenders tothe top of the engine. See pics. The front end could be redesigned to lower the front and make it safer if you hit a pedestrian or cyclist. It would be able to view more of the road infront of you and probably increase fuel economy. These things don't matter when you want that tough image though.

This isn't the worst. Larger SUV and pickups have walls in the front. One vehicle I walked by would hit me at the shoulders to the knees.

[marble falls]

1. The engine is quite impressive, though.

[AllaN01Bear]

2. my health care worker who takes me shopping, etc,

has a 1969 suburban with extra tall lift kit and extra tall winter tires . i need a step stool to get in and out of that thing.

[Diamond_Dog]

3. Hi Old Crank!

These monstrous SUVs and pickup trucks with the huge front ends are extremely dangerous! Children and shorter adults cannot be seen by the driver when crossing the street in front of them! Thank you so much for illustrating this and calling it out!

I guess the wanna-be tough guys think it makes them look cool and powerful, so of course they will continue to make them that way.

I parked next to a large pickup truck a while ago and I remember the hood of the darn thing was almost at my shoulder, and I’m not exactly short, I’m 5’5”.

[flvegan]

4. Yeah but if the hood were several inches lower, with that cabin, it'd look like a Fiat Multipla.

Not a good thing. At all.

It also may not have had the front end redesigned recently, and needed the space for the 6 cylinder it also had as an option. Not sure where else it's sold, but possibly engineered to fit a bigger, maybe diesel, engine? I don't know. I'm not defending the thing, I wouldn't buy one regardless.

Matter of fact, the only real reason I commented was to mention the vision I got of the Multipla when I pictured the suggested lower hood line. Mostly because I hoped a bunch of folks that have never seen a Fiat Multipla went and Google image searched it, and will now live with a picture of that hideous thing in their heads.

You can't unsee it. Ha.

[Old Crank]

5. I've seen those

No worse than the Pontiac Aztec.
You can design more of a slope to the front and also reduce the 20 inch wheels to help.

[KS Toronado]

6. It appears the air box to the right is taller.

[Old Crank]

7. The airbox is taller

but can be made easily with a lower profile. The engine profile is much harder to change.
My Jensen Healy had a slant 4 to reduce its height. Inspecting the engine bay this might also be a slant 4.