Small cars staging a big comeback

Good.
_____________________________________

There's a big battle shaping up as manufacturers roll out cheap cars for the masses.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - While America's long love affair with enormous SUVs may be waning, a new market is being discovered at the other end of the scale.

Very small cars are making a comeback.

Last week, Toyota unveiled the Yaris, which has been sold in other countries, including Japan, for some time. The Yaris is smaller and less expensive than the popular Toyota Corolla.

In addition, Honda will soon be introducing the Fit and Nissan plans to roll out the Versa. Like the Toyota Yaris, these are also versions of cars those companies currently sell in other countries.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/11/07/small_cars/index.html

I don't like the SUV's in fact I hate them on the roads.
BUT: I do like my mid sized sedan where the kids can sit on either side of the car and not have to worry about "touching" each other.

They can make an 8 cylinder car get 75 - 80 mpg but they would rather punish us for wanting efficiency by squeezing us into rolling coffins.
Remember the pinto?

When we travel we rent a full size sedan or minivan if we are taking our bikes.

Both get close to or over 40 mpg. One is pretty banged up ('88 Mazda) but it is the one we drive the most because it gets great gas mileage. The other is a '92 Honda Civic. I'm pretty good about tuning up the motor at least once a year on both cars so the engines are in good shape.

My stepdaughters say they hate the cars because they are so small but when they do I tell them they can 1) do without whatever they want me to drive them to the store to get or 2) get out the bicycles it is amazing how quickly they change their tunes. Actually, their real reason for hating the cars isn't because of the "lack of roominess" it is because they are both "old" cars and both could use paint jobs. They've been after us for years to upgrade our cars. We work primarily out of the house so we don't feel the need to spend their college tuition monies so they won't be embarrassed at our old autos. If we had to commute at all we'd go out and get a hybrid otherwise I will stick with the high mpg and the low insurance rates of our current autos.

and a huge trunk, i get about 31 hwy and 27 city.

It is without a doubt the best car I've ever owned. I get the same mileage as you do. Mine is a 2002 Accord SE (automatic, 4 cylinders). I love it!!

I traded my Honda Civic in for it. It is a MUCH safer car you are right. Mine is made in Canada (80%) and Japan (20%) and not a single problem with it since I bought it. :D


:kick:

...it's tall enough to seat me, at 6'2", comfortably, even in the back seat.

Don't you think there will still be choices? I hope that hybrid technology becomes the standard in all vehicles.

I got the impression they are really discussing the youth market, where these cars will be welcomed, especially in terms of what they can do with them aftermarket.

I work in the auto industry, and I have been saying for years that most cars have been priced out of the entry-level young person's budget. These cars are the answer to that, and I think they will be successful, IMHO.

If I were a young aftermarket tinkerer, I'd think that Nissan Versa is pretty awesome. :-)

I drive a two-seat Smart Car and it's one of the safest cars on the road in Canada.



But, if you can afford 5 bucks a gallon for gas, go ahead and drive whatever you want.

Also, be prepared to give up your children's lives in The War For Oil.

DaimlerChrysler to cut Smart car models, 700 jobs
Ultra-small vehicles never met sales goals
By JEREMY VAN LOON
Bloomberg News
Posted: April 1, 2005

DaimlerChrysler AG, whose two-seat Smart cars have dragged down earnings for seven years, plans to eliminate models and cut 700 jobs, or about one-third of the division's work force.

The overhaul, which will cost 1.2 billion euros, or $1.6 billion, and lead to a profit decline at the world's fifth-biggest carmaker in 2005, will help Smart reduce costs by 30% in two years, Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler said in a stock exchange filing.

Smart, a unit of DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes Car Group, will stop making a roadster sports car in 2005 and is dropping plans to build a sport-utility vehicle to focus on the original model, which is 8 feet (2.5 meters) long, and a four-seat version. Smart has delayed its break-even goal three times and has never met a sales target of 200,000 vehicles a year, set when the car first went on the market in 1998.

Remember the Pinto?

I remember seeing a photo of the BACK HALF of a Pinto that had been in a collision which killed an entire family. I was in junior high school at the time--nowhere near the age where cars would be on my mind--but I vowed right then and there to stay out of subcompacts. I don't even rent them. If I'm going to get hit, I want SOME kind of cushioning!

:headbang:
rocknation

luckily no one was injured. I knew the guy driving the pinto and he bought a larger car for his next automobile

Not a real car. It's weight, aerodynamic drag, and friction that makes cars eat gas. The more you have of any of those three, the more gas you need to move the damn thing. Engines produce more horsepower on less gas and smaller cylinder displacement than ever before, but they've been selling us these bricks on wheels for the past decade so you'd never notice.

Quite roomy. People are always amazed at how much head and leg room that car has. Additionally I can fold down the back seats and voila! A station wagon. Best damn car I've ever had. Will definitely buy another.

Maybe now the roads won't be so crowded with smaller cars taking up less room!:woohoo:

The SUVs are bigger, so they take up more room, plus car drivers tend to give them more space so they have an even bigger impact. More SUVs == lower carrying capacity for roads.

Read the book "High and Mighty" for more details.

and whenever we use my car my husband says he feels like he's a sausage. i get 25mpg. he drives a toyota tundra -- loves it-- the seats are like chairs, but his mileage is about 15mgg. he's thinking prius, but he really loves that truck.

Maybe he would like the Ford Escape Hybrid.
It is an SUV, a bit smaller than an Explorer.
That would double his mileage or better.

It is still the only hybrid car made in the USA.
Help keep a few American autoworkers employed.

I have had one for almost a year. Ford got it right this time.


The Miyata is such a tiny car. Why is the mileage so low?

Someday...

I love it so much! Here in TX every other vehicle is an SUV, so having something that I could see the road in would be AWESOME.

has an automatic transmission. i also need to use high test according to the manufacturer. before the miata i had a 97 toyota corolla. i got about 28 on that and my 87 corolla i got about 34. makes you wonder why the older ones got better mileage. i guess it's the emission controls.

i love my little miata. it is so much fun to drive. i'm only 5'3" and on the slim side. i feel like mazda had my body in mind when they designed the miata. it just feels so right to me.

my '91 Geo Metro with a 5 speed, I loved that lil' thing. Because the engine didn't take up much room I had more interior room in the front seat than any other vehicle I've ever had -- I'm 6'3" so I really need lots of room. It got 55mpg on the freeway, which saved me a lot of money when I had a 75 mile (one way) commute for a few months.

Can't fit a whole family in it, though, and my stupid wife refuses to learn how to drive a 5 speed... :shrug:

I bought it brand new, best freaking auto I've ever owned. 35 mpg average, I fill it up once a month. I just replaced the 10year old factory battery last week.

I have seen 3 or 4 companies using them as fleet vehicles (one real estate firm has theirs painted up with the company logo, and parks it on their office lawn as a billboard when they aren't driving it).

There are also more and more of them appearing on the streets. If I look in a mall parking lot, or stand by a major road (2 lanes each way) for 15 minutes during peak periods, I can almost always see at least one little car drive by. Drivers have successfully lobbied to have cheaper parking spaces (since 2 of these cars can fit into a normal space) and there are now some "very small car only" spots. They are now petitioning the ferry service to have cheaper fares, for the same reason.

Speaking of driving choices, I don't own a car, but last month I bought some furniture and needed to transport it. I called a cab (all 3 of the major taxi firms in my town have phased in Priuses). The driver and I were able to fit a bookcase (disassembled into a half-dozen 5' slabs), 2 folding chairs, and a full backpack into the trunk, with room to spare. The back seat was still entirely empty. There seemed to be more room than in my parents' Toyota Camry. The driver noted that he has put more than 100,000 miles on his, and there have been NO mechanical/electronic problems. His company is seriously considering switching entirely to hybrids by the end of the decade.

There is also an active car-sharing co-op in town.

Photo of the mayor of Vancouver (not the Island, but the big city on the mainland) in his Smartcar.





http://www.vancourier.com/issues05/035205/news/035205nn4.html

http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/sustainability/initiatives.htm

in a little car like that!

Damn I wish we could get a hold of a Smartcar here in the US!!

on a limited basis. But they won't be cheap, since each one must be modified for use in the USA.
http://www.zapworld.com/cars/smartcar.asp

Went from 17mpg to 34mpg combined city/highway. Drove to Santa Fe a few weeks ago and got 41 mpg while averaging 75 miles per hour. Sweet little car.

Once again the brainless asswhipes we let run business in this country have failed their shareholders, failed their customers, failed. But... rather than pay any price, they'll probably be handed another bailout.

Make more Hummers! Tools.

my rear-seat passengers hate it, but they can take the bus. :P

SUVs suck. The people that drive them think they don't have to pay attention or obey traffic laws.

The people that drive (SUVs) think they don't have to pay attention or obey traffic laws.

Especially when the weather's bad. Some of them seem to think, "So what if it's pouring or snowing or foggy? I don't have to slow down--I've got FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE!"

:headbang:
rocknation

In the 70's, everyone wanted a 4 wheel drive. Then came the energy crisis and Japanese auto manufacturers cleaned Detroit's clock when they started marketing their little cars here. All the big muscle cars and 4 wheel drive vehicles went to the junkyard as drivers in the US switched over to Suburus, Hondas and Toyotas. Detroit kept pumping them out though, I read later because all the executives were close to retirement and didn't give a damn what happened after they got out. I'm not sure how close to retirement the auto execs are now, but the profit margin on SUV's is simply tremendous and I imagine they won't change their direction until its too late to save energy, jobs and the economy. Why does history keep repeating itself?