CAR makers are facing a “growing” problem - expanding motorists.

With the average weight of the consumer increasing, so is the demand for roomier cars.

So car makers are having to resort to more ingenious ways to improve interior space for heavier passengers, while keeping the weight of the car down.

In Japan, Nissan has come up with a “fat suit” so fit, young engineers and designers can experience how ageing baby boomers will cope with the cars being developed.

The special suit makes the wearer less flexible at the neck, knees, ankles and elbows.

Nissan says a 5cm-thick waist belt “does an excellent job” of duplicating the middle-age spread.

The belt makes it harder to get in or out of a car and can cramp movement behind the wheel.

Casts on the body simulate arthritis by making it more difficult to raise arms and legs.

The next “enlarged” Australian car will be the new-look Ford Falcon FG-series, reaching showrooms in May.

Ford Australia spokesman Ed Finn said: “We don’t have a fat suit, per se. The standard we work to is the 95th percentile.”

This unofficial industry standard is the size which 95 per cent of adult males fall below.

Ford has made the new Falcon with head room increased by up to 13mm, shoulder room by up to 24mm, hip room by up to 25mm and leg room by up to 10mm.

On the outside, the car is 4mm wider, 9mm taller and 25mm longer.

The weight is up 6kg, but the fuel economy improves.

Ford’s customer research — especially with taxi drivers who use Falcons - found many people wanted getting in and out to be made easier, so the new model has doors which are longer and open wider.

The new Mazda 6 sedan has grown in length by 65mm, width by 15mm and height by 5mm.

The current-generation Mini is almost 60mm longer than the 2002 model. Both are vastly bigger than the 1960s original.

Ford Model As and other classic cars will cross the new Jonata Park Road Bridge Thursday as part of an 11 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new span.

The reinforced concrete replacement bridge over Zaca Creek on Jonata Park Road just north of Buellton and just west of Highway 101 is about 96 feet long and almost 37 feet wide.

Demolition of the former span, built in the 1916, began in June 2007. Public works officials had found the bridge to be structurally deficient after it received a 2 on a scale of 1 to 100 in a rating system that judges the soundness of bridges.

The $1.7 million Santa Barbara County Public Works Department project was funded with $1.4 million in federal funding from the Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program and $200,000 in local Measure D funds.

The ceremony is also scheduled to include 3rd District Supervisor Brooks Firestone, Santa Barbara County Association of Governments Executive Director Jim Kemp and other county officials.

For safety, Jonata Park Road will be closed to through traffic near the bridge with traffic control from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the day of the ceremony. Motorists are being asked to use caution and obey traffic signs in the area.

The number of cars allowed into Dublin city centre will be strictly limited when work gets under way on the capital’s new underground Metro route, it emerged last night.

A major traffic management plan, involving more buses and a limit on the number of private vehicles, is being prepared before construction begins.

Commuters will face massive traffic disruption for several years as stations are built under two of the city’s main thoroughfares, O’Connell Street Bridge and Parnell Street.

The Government has now asked Dublin City Council to report on how best to redirect and manage traffic in a bid to minimise potential gridlock.

A spokeswoman for the Transport Minister Noel Dempsey said the number of cars permitted to enter the city centre during major construction would be reduced.

She declined to speculate on whether streets may be closed off completely or how long restrictions might last.

Last week, Mr Dempsey admitted that the Metro was among 13 major public transport projects which have been delayed.

The Metro, which will run from the city centre to Dublin Airport, is now due for completion by 2013 and not 2012 as originally envisaged.

Green cars were on display at the Geneva Auto Show last week, fueled by rising oil prices and environmental concerns.

Car makers presented an array of cars that run on a variety of sources, from electricity to diesel. The Saab 9-X BioHybrid, for instance, won recognition for Best Concept for its 1.4-liter BioPower turbo engine backed by GM’s next generation hybrid system. Daimler showed a Mercedes SUV, the BlueTEC Hybrid. Nissan said it would launch an electric car in the U.S. in 2010, and release it worldwide in 2012.

General Motors confirmed its $4 million investment in Think Global, a Norwegian electric car maker, which debuted its Think Ox at the show, a five-seat car with a range of 125 miles per charge.

Daimler said it has a hydrogen model that can reproduced affordably in large quantities, but the lack of infrastructure presents a barrier. For others, biofuels, such as ethanol, are the name of the game. For instance, Lotus displayed a version of its Exige 270E Tri-fuel that runs on gasoline, ethanol and methanol.

Toyota, maker of the wildly successful Prius, also debuted its iQ model, which it bills as the world’s smallest four-seater.

Alistair Darling will attempt to reassert the Government’s green credentials in his Budget on Wednesday by cracking down on high-emission “gas guzzlers” and encouraging the production of more fuel-efficient vehicles.

He is expected to make it clear that the battle against climate change is one of the Treasury’s key objectives and is thought to be considering a showroom tax of up to £2,000 on the most polluting cars. He may take his lead from a series of radical proposals for cutting emissions which will be outlined in a report by Professor Julia King, vice-chancellor of Aston University.

They are thought to include a recommendation to give councils the power to ban high-emission cars from town centres, or to restrict parking to vehicles producing the least pollution.

But yesterday George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, warned Mr Darling not to use environmental levies as new “stealth taxes”, urging him to offset green tax increases with cuts elsewhere.

Charlie Kronick, a senior climate change campaigner at Greenpeace, was sceptical about the Government’s so-called green credentials saying: “The reality has yet to match the rhetoric.”

The electoral significance of the debate about green taxes will also be the underlined in policies to be unveiled today by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. He is to launch his transport manifesto for the capital, which will include a commitment to introduce 500 hybrid-engined buses by 2010. He is already planning to increase to £25 the congestion charge for the most polluting cars if they drive into the centre of London.

The Chancellor is also expected to introduce higher taxes on wine and spirits, amid growing concern at binge drinking, but is not expected to include a windfall tax on power companies, despite their record profits.