But the American cars of the 50s and 60s were just enormous, many of them looked spectacular, but they were also quite ungainly. Whereas with European cars they used be quite flimsy and small but now they are getting bigger and chunkier. Look at how the BMW 3-Series has grown from the E30 in the 80s. Look inside an old Austin or Ford (British models) from the 40s and 50s and they are so small inside compared to the amount of space inside cars made today.