That happened at my junior high. I forgot what car it was but it looked like the Honda in question. I thought it had a name though and not a number. This would have been early 70’s.
I just realized my Honda motorcycle has a bigger engine and more hp than the N600.
Might it have ben an early Civic?
Bet it was a Citicar. Those were like street-legal golf carts. Kind of fashionable for a brief year or two in the 70s.
it doesn’t have the back window I remember. Of course, back then the N600 was the first Honda so maybe we just called it a Honda. It was light enough that high school kids could pick it up and walk away with it.
It was the 1970s. Disco bars had blenders with more HP than most cars of the era.
(But probably less paint, tape, logograms and pasted-on plastic aerodynamic stuff.)
In high school, 1974, a pal had a Trabant P 50.
In about the same time, a classmate had a Honda 600. He was a basketball letterman and about 6’3"…
(It was usually parked next to the Toyota 2000GT or the Z28/427, if not the current-year Vette with 500 miles on it driven by Bob Chevydealer Jr. I went to school with some lucky guys…)
I actually saw a Subaru 360 recently. A dealer near me has one on the floor, in (horrid) original condition. What was Mal Bricklin thinking…
The Citicars cost way more than a normal gas car did back then, though, so that doesn’t really fit the OP.
Ah, good point. For that matter, I imagine that a lot of these microcars were probably a lot more expensive than a slightly used Ford whatever.
Fiero? Worst car in the history of mankind. Cute as a button, but probably much later than the 70s
The Chevette made it look like a RR.
They caught on in Europe and Japan in part because those places didn’t have thriving used car cultures like in the US and Canada. Not a lot of cars prewar, thems they had turned into military products during the war, then devastated economies postwar. Fun site for a look at postwar microcars, though the collection has been broken up. 
I’m glad I’m not the only big guy tempted by cars too small for him. And when I look at those micros and a 6.5hp engine from Harbor Freight and old bicycles and how I waste my weekends I get ideas. Or maybe an electric tadpole trike for my daughter.
The Fiero and Chevette were both improved by installing V6 engines. The Fiero because the straight four caught fire and the Chevette because it became faster than the contemporary Corvette. GM liked cars that didn’t catch fire, so they greenlighted the Fiero. They supposedly didn’t like a shitbox that was faster than their sports car, but I think what killed it was somebody driving it through a turn at speed. :eek:
I had a four door Chevette for a few years after I got tired of having to extinguish my Pinto’s motor fires. The Chevette was a surprisingly durable little car. Never had any problems with it, despite my not being exactly nice to it (logging roads, rugby team, -40 weather, tying my canoe to its roof without a rack or padding . . . ). A terrific car for a lad with no cash.
Try tripling the horsepower. Still fun, but in a self-destructive way.
Loved how the steering column was not perpendicular to me or the front of the car.
YES!
I had “Messerschmitt” in my mind but didn’t think that was right. Apparently it was. I’m pretty sure that’s what he was talking about.
Thank you Ethilrist!
Funny how what would have been embarassing to drive back in the day is a collector’s item today. I see that all the time at car shows - cars that were hunks of crap when I was a kid, now on display as nostaligia.
[QUOTE=Loved how the steering column was not perpendicular to me or the front of the car.[/QUOTE]
Yep. Chevettes had the worst driving position of any car I’ve ever driven, no doubt about it. Not only was the steering wheel tilted away at the top and to the left, the driver’s feet were all scrunched left as well because of the transmission hump.
Huh. Are you sure? The Isetta sold surprisingly well in 1950’s America (about 8,000 total), but I don’t think the Messerschmitts were ever imported in any great number until collectors started bringing used ones over from Europe in recent decades.
Here’s a Messerschmitt in Kansas in '61, though the owner may have brought it with him.