If you found this page, it’s likely that you are a bigger person, or love someone that is a bigger person. You probably know the struggles (and sometimes, oftentimes, humiliation) of finding a car that fits a bigger body.
Last year, I decided to create a resource to help make exactly this problem, a little easier. As an automotive educator, journalist, and plus-size influencer, I’m uniquely qualified to create this resource, that I am calling, for lack of a better word, a database. I know the pain, joy, and struggles of a fat person and a proven record of showing up for my community.
When I started doing research last year, I created a survey asking actually fat people over the size of 24 “women” (or 46 “men”) what their favorite car is, how they carry their weight, pant size, etc. While this information was incredibly helpful in understanding the scope of the problem, it asked open-ended questions that couldn’t be turned into the useable data I needed for the actual resource. It did, however, allow me the framework needed to build this survey. I believe in this too much have not given up.
With guidance from an expert in building surveys, and many many many hours dedicated to this project, I’ve created a new, data-driven survey to study this. This will be used to create a resource for larger bodied people, and provide data for media organizations looking to create such resource, and use data from actual larger-bodied people when discussing our needs.
If you are a larger bodied person, over the size of 24 “women” or 46 “men” please take the time to fill out the survey below. Please share this widely with your network, the more people who fill this out, the more comprehensive the data will be.
If the below-embedded survey doesn’t work, you can access it directly using this link.
I tried to fill out the survey but couldn’t because Pontiac isn’t on the list of available vehicles to select. So bummed. I love that you are doing this though!
Hi! To collect the most long-term valuable data, I am only studying cars folks love that were made in the last ten years. Pontiac has been discontinued since 2009. I really appreciate you taking the time, and I hope you still share the survey with others.
I am “only” a size 20 (giggling because I’ve never said that phrase before) so I will respectfully not take your survey, but I will say I did a ton of research on this before buying my last car and I could not be happier with my Volvo S60.
Thanks for sharing! By focusing the study on people over the size of 24, I’ll be creating a resource for all larger folks without diluting the data to make it less useful to folks larger than “average.” Please do share!
I tried to fill out your survey on cars but my car was not an option. I see from a previous comment that it’s probably because the Scion xB was discontinued (in 2016), but I thought I’d leave a comment so others who might be shopping for something used would have a recommendation.
I’m a size 28, carry most of my weight from my belly down. I’m 5’3″, my spouse is 6′ and we both fit comfortably…there’s even plenty of leg room in the back seat.
Thanks for this survey, though. I look forward to the resulting info when I have to shop for a car again!
Hi! I just checked, and the XB is listed. Would you try one more time?
Oh, what is it listed under? I didn’t see Scion as an option in the brand list, so I tried Toyota (since Scion was under the Toyota umbrella) and didn’t see xB there.
Ah! Scion was hidden by mistake. It’s fixed now! Thank you.
Thank you for doing this. Finding a safe vehicle for my daughter was a job.She wanted a cute little car, but found out real quick that that wasn’t a option. There was no info like this available back then!