There are some of us interested in small, light cars, and that understand all the associated benefits. But not many, I’d guess. I have what I think is probably the lightest car available today and most everybody tells me I’m nuts. Doesn’t keep me from stripping out the sound deadening to save a few more pounds though. I’m about 900 pounds below the (fat pig) Mini. Maybe I am crazy?
“the latest Clinton Proposal” is one of many going nowhere.
Americans don’t drive tiny cars because our transportation infrastructure uses trucks. Large trucks. We will drive more fuel efficient cars when we decide we want to… and they won’t be tiny.
I am a little confused about what your focus is here. On the one hand, you seem to be talking about some small cars that are really small…such as 2-seaters. On the other hand, you seem to be talking about cars like the Prius that are “small” in the sense that they are not big gargantuan vehicles like SUVs or minivans. The Prius is a mid-sized car with room for 5 (and quite a bit of legroom in back) and pretty good luggage space (and even better if you aren’t using the backseat for passengers).
Color me skeptical on this issue. I agree that in the specific case of a collision between two vehicles, the big vehicle has an advantage. However, it doesn’t make much difference if you hit a tree or go over a cliff. And, bigger vehicles are more prone to rollovers, a particularly deadly form of accident. Overall, I am willing to admit that it is probably easier to make a bigger car safer but I am not convinced how big a difference it translates into in the real world. My guess would be that there are people who are buying bigger vehicles but, say, without side and curtain airbags (and prone to rollover, say) so that overall they might be less safe than if they had a smaller car that was built with safety in mind and with side and curtain airbags.
Europeans Manage somehow…
Sorry for the distraction. I’m talking about small cars. I think the Prius is SMALLER than most of the cars that seem to be the norm these days, but I really wanted to talk about the really small cars like those linked in the OP.
-XT
Sorry XT,
Well, I’ve spent some time in various places in Europe and to be honest, the Smart isn’t terribly common over there either. You aren’t surprised to see them, but they are far less ubiquitous than a golf or polo.
I’m not entirely sure that its size even warrants a whole lot of attention. In the beginning I thought the draw was that you’re supposed to be able to park normally in places where other cars parallel park, but I’ve never seen that done and I’m not even sure if it’s legal.
This car is squarely aimed at the urban environment, obviously. I can’t imagine it having any other reason outside of the city. But for me, living in Brooklyn, having a car isn’t that great. I’ve had a car for a while and I got tired of it. The only real advantage of having a car, around here, is for transporting things. A lot of people around here will drive though but they usually have jobs in other boroughs and such.
But what am I supposed to do with a Smart? Commute to manhattan? I’ve never done it during rush hour, but I imagine that i’d be lucky to get there as fast as the subway.
The parking thing might be cool, except you still have to move it twice a week for street sweeping.
The gas mileage thing could be good, I suppose, but a prius or a diesel golf or jetta will get the same gas mileage for the same price. So I guess the point is that not only is it poorly suited to the US market, it’s also poorly suited to the European market.
Yes, and what I am asking is how they do it. Are the car seats narrower? Are the laws less stringent? Do they just not have more than two children most of the time, so hardly anyone needs to buy a larger car?
Try getting 3 children 8 and under into a sedan, and you’ll see what I mean. You can’t put one in the front seat. The car seats are all pretty wide, so they can’t go next to each other. If you live in a state where the oldest kid doesn’t need a seat any more, he had better be a pretty skinny kid to go inbetween the other two. And no carpooling!
We should all have these. 
Yes, this is a good question. It is common to see minivans there where space is a premium. I suppose that’s what moms of big families do. But this would be somewhere like germany where the culture is much more car-oriented. But why would you need to have more than two in a car seat at once? If you have a third kid, can’t he ride in the front seat? Surely you could fit two in the back.
You also see a lot of station wagons too. A Passat or Jetta wagon is quite normal for a family car.
Their wagons may seem small by our standards, but they do ok.
As I’ve said above, this doesn’t explain why sharing the road with much larger vehicles isn’t perceived as such an immense problem in Europe. The Smart is a surprisingly strong vehicle, and being hit in the side by a truck at full speed you’re going to be in trouble no matter what you’re driving.
You did read the bit where I pointed out how much I drive, didn’t you? Unless I’m a complete freak for not needing a huge car just because I’m in it for long periods, this doesn’t at all explain your description of the American market not being served. ‘Only big cars are any good…people who need a decent car by a big one…people only want big cars’? Is that really all there is to it?
Is there really such a difference as to explain the different vehicles available? Yes, of course the EU safety standards are different, but they’re still pretty stringent.
Because it’s illegal.
They have to sit in the back in a baby seat until they’re like 25 (actually, I think it’s 8 or 9). And the airbag warns of dire consequences like death if you put anyone under age 12 in the front seat.
As for the itty bitty tiny cars, I don’t want one.
Anything smaller than the Cavalier I already drive is too small. Not only are smaller cars uncomfortable to sit in because my knees are all up in the dash board, I can’t fit people in to go anywhere and there’s no trunk space.
I drive at least 60 miles every day now, but I used to have a job where I spent 9 hours a day, every day, in a car. One week of that and I’d have been ready to torch a ‘Smart’ car.
You are one person. One person does not a market make.
:rolleyes: There is such a market among people who drive as much as me, so the ‘because we drive more’ explanation doesn’t suffice.
We already have smaller, more compact cars.
My dad had a '66 Ford Galaxie 500 7-Litre. It was huge. In 1970 he sold it and bought a new Toyota Corona Mk.II wagon. No worries about towing the motorcycles, and there was room to sleep in it. And it got 20+ mpg (vs 8 mpg in the Ford). A lot of people were buying Toyotas and Datsuns after the '73 oil embargo. Sure, the American automakers were still turning out land yachts that approached 20 feet in length; but they did eventually get smaller. Upon casual, non-interested observation, it seems to me that a new Lincoln or Cadillac is about the size of a mis-size sedan of the '60s or '70s. My Jeep Cherokee – an SUV – has about the same footprint of a Honda Accord, and gets as good mileage as dad’s first Toyota. The Jeep isn’t that much longer than my '66 MGB – 13.9 feet vs. 12.75 feet. Last year I saw a '69 (?) Chrysler Imperial that was over 19 feet long and I was amazed by its size. You just don’t see cars like that anymore. It seems to me that popular modern mid-size sedans are about the size of ‘compact’ cars of the '60s. So looking back over 30 years it looks to me as if cars are much smaller today than they used to be.
I had a Sprint and a Sprint Metro beween sports cars. I called it a ‘Cardis’ because it seemed to be bigger on the inside than on the outside. It’s true that it struggled up hills, but it was very maneuverable and could cruise (on the flat) at 90 all day. And I liked getting 50 mpg.
I’d love to buy a two-seater, but I can’t. 90% of the time, I’m driving to or from work, and I am the only one in the car.
I’d dearly love to get 50mpg and spend $10K. I can’t believe I am the only American who cares less than nothing about what my car looks like, regards driving as a boring chore, would ride the bus if it were even remotely practical, and wouldn’t get any ‘fun’ out of driving if Scarlett Johansen gave me a blow job every time I got stuck in traffic.
I always hear about how much Americans love big cars. I don’t. I want to get where I am going as fast and as cheap as I can. Can’t they make a fast, cheap car to do that?
Regards,
Shodan
Just to follow up on my last: I did not mean to imply that since we already have smaller cars than we used to have, that we shouldn’t drive cars smaller than the ones we have now. What I was getting at is that there has been sort of an evolution toward smaller, more efficient vehicles (with giant SUVs being, in my opinion, an abberation ) over the past two or three decades. So I expect Americans to be driving smaller cars in the future. My Cherokee has been necessary for me; but now I don’t need its capability. When it comes time to replace it, I’ll definitely get a smaller car.
Are you serious? It’s Illegal? Riding in a carseat until you’re 8?!?! My nephew is 7 and he’d never go for that.
That can’t be the case for every state then. No way. Shit, what kind of car COULD fit three baby seats and a kid in the back. As far as the airbag killing kids between 8 and 12, I have my doubts. Sounds like a liability thing to me.
I swear, this pisses me off more than the idiotic no-choice Daytime Running lights. I hate those. They are completely useless and can only serve as a bigger distraction, not to mention a reason for people to forget to turn on their headlights at night. The DRLs are on and their tail-lights aren’t.
In the UK they’re required (or booster seats where appropriate) up to the age of 12, for any child under 1.35m. With an exception for a third child in the back, if a third seat can’t be fitted.
In my Renault Clio, you can turn off the airbag in the front seat if you have a carseat in there. I know it’s not illegal to have the seat in the front here.