Why don't most FWD cars have a totally flat floor? The exhaust could be routed under the car, as in basically all AWD and RWD vehicles. If the tunnel is for stiffness, why not just have slightly higher door sills, or a narrow (like 2"-3" wide) pressed girder in the middle of the floor?

My '66 Olds Toronado and '70 Toronado GT had flat floors. Slick.

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dude i had the exact same cars.toro's rock.my 66 was plum with plum interior the 70 gt was green with dark green vinyl top and green interior and a factory 8-track.

Because everything that has to run from the front to the back and the back to the front is located in there.

This makes it all last longer. I can remember when you had to buy a muffler every 10,000 miles and replace your entire exhaust system at 65,000. Today these systems are stainless and protected so they last almost the life of the car.

We have a Honda Fit in my home country. The exhaust system is routed weirdly (not my photo), but it has a flat floor to make it practical.



A tubular shape still presents a stronger design, otherwise if really needed, then structural rigidity is increased through another method. In the case of the Fit, I read in the manual that the whole frame is strengthened for this purpose.

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that ain't weird that is just like a toronado.they ran the pipes way out by the frame rails.

What's the black "L" shaped thing? Fuel pump/hoses?

Most likely fuel related components. The fuel tank lid is on the left side.

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My guess would be safety "cage" design - a stiff bump in the middle of the car will help to stop the passenger compartment from getting crushed in the event of a head on confrontation with a Redwood in Yosemite...

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I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

You might be surprised at how much stiffness that hump adds.
Years ago i restored a Falcon Sprint convertible. As that was a unibody car, and relied on the top for strength, making it into a convertible was a challenge. The engineers beefed up the rocker panels, making them into tube structures that carried the loads between the front and rear suspension mounting points. It worked well enough. The one O had was so rusty that the rocker panels were completely rusted away. the ONLY thing that kept the car from folding in half was that driveline tunnel.--at least until I replaced the rockers with some I had made up out of 12 ga. THEN it was stiff!

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that stupid Honda Fit, I hate it, flat floor might be cool and all that jazz, but remove the front carpet and peek under it, you the driver literally SIT on the fuel tank. its inside the car.

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1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
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Middle of the car is probably the safest place for it to be.

All Tractions, 2CVs and DS19 and 21s made for 25 years have flat floors. All old FWD Saabs also.

A little bit of ribbing for reinforcement, yes, but many many FWDs do have flat floors.

Which ones are you talking about?

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3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

Most cars have floor consoles anyway so the benefit of a flat floor would be lost up front, and nobody cares enough about rear seat passengers to design a whole car around them. Secondly with a floor tunnel they have a platform that can be converted to AWD if or when that time comes.

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If there's no transmission in the middle, what the blue fawk is the point of a console? Make the thing removable and have a bench seat in front. But that would actually make sense.