As a follow up to our Hard to Park: The Longest Cars of 1975 blog post, we looked back two years further, to 1973. As it turns out, the average car on our 1973 list is almost an inch and a half shorter than those on our ’75 list (231.4 inches versus 232.9), but the longest single car is a ’73 model.
At 19.3 feet long, the average of our longest cars would not fit inside the garage of the average new-construction house–most of those measure exactly 19 feet in length.
It’s worth noting that the Consumer Guide ’73 buying guide from which we pulled these figures makes no mention of the length of any of the vehicles listed here, nor any difficulty that might be encountered when attempting to parallel park. Instead, a surprising amount of text is dedicated to the updates all of these cars received in the name of reducing emissions output.
Again, if you’ve spent time with one of these hard-to-park classics, let us know. We’d love to hear about it.
Hard to Park: The Longest Cars of 1975
Hard to Park: The Longest Cars of 1977
Hard to Park: The Longest Cars of 1979
Hard to Park: The Longest Cars of 1988
Chrysler Imperial: 235.3 inches (19.6 feet)
Base price: $6897
Curb weight: 4856 pounds
Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special Brougham: 231.5 inches (19.3 feet)
Base price: $7638
Curb weight: 5105 pounds
Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight: 230.3 inches (19.2 feet)
Base price: $4807
Curb weight: 4646 pounds
Chrysler Newport/New Yorker: 230.1 inches (19.2 feet)
Base price: $4080 (Newport)
Curb weight: 4315 pounds
Buick Electra 225: 229.8 inches (19.1 feet)
Base price: $4890
Curb weight: 5074 pounds
The 10 Cheapest Wagons of 1973