Why no rearengine RWD cars anymore

The biggest reason is packaging.

You could build a rear-engined car with perfect handling (and no, Ferrari is not doing that; the cars you are think of are *mid*-engined) but when you put the engine behind the pbuttengers, you use the best area for storage.

Because of the aerodynamic and visual realities of automotive design, you can build a higher and bigger trunk behind the rear window than you could reasonable put in front of the front window. When you considerthe room necessary to let the front wheels steer, it leaves you having to make the front of the car even taller if you want to get the same storage volume as you'd get in the rear.

Most engines -- even horizontally opposed arrangements -- are small and low enough to fit in the space available between the front wheels and below fender height; leaving the entire space between-above the rear wheels-axle for storage. This can be maximized even more by making the vehicle FWD. Then you don't need the space for a drive shaft, differential, and driving axles.

Yes, you can make more space by making the vehicle bigger overall, but then it's going to weigh more, have more drag and cost more both to buy and to operate; all things that people have been avoiding more and more.

-- Alan Baker Vancouver, British Columbia "If you raise the ceiling 4 feet, move the fireplace from that wall to that wall, you'll still only get the full stereophonic effect if you sit in the bottom of that cupboard."