European parking 'spaces'

If I'm going to have an accident I would rather be driving a stupid little car than my precious wagon...

 

I see THIS one.

 

i really can't comment on car lenght anymore. i am considering a tiny car for a DD. you all know TiKi isnt a daily car and the truck isnt the greatest on gas..not to mention its rusting faster than i can keep up, so im looking for a small car to replace the truck as a DD. if i can afford it ill keep the truck as a "wheelbarrow" of sorts. i am himhawn' on new vs. used. used..im going bigger and traditional like a buick lesabre or a park ave. we will see what i can afford in 6 months. if i go new. id really like a Buick Verano but i think it will be too expensive. (maybe a chevy cruze diesel if they bring it here as they say). the car that caught my eye.... i hate to admit it....is this little bugger.

its priced right (considering a new ford focus is in the low 20's!!!!) and its stylish. it gets 40 mpg and seems a lot nicer inside than the domestics. oddly enough a 5'10" person is "short trip comfortable" in the backseat.

 

Stupid Smart Car

---They call that stupid little car a SMART car. There are several even here in the boonies. But I don't see anything smart about them. You can haul more groceries on a motorcycle. When you are sitting under a semi trailer lookin up at the air tanks, you'd probably wished you were in your big wagon just stuck on the rear bumper:confused: Our lives are more important than cool lookin phone booth toy cars.

 

you're absolutely right Ian.... The Buicks I can't effort for daily drivers (gas up to $9.00/gln...). The, bought as a 'winter beater', '98 Peugeot (propane) is now a 'week days beater' and bought my GF a 2009 Ford Fiesta today. So I only drive the Buicks for fun in weekends.

 

Those stupid little cars actually do very well in crash tests.
I'd post youtube links, but I really couldn't be bothered.

 

Little Cars

----------When gas goes up more, and our great politicians outlaw all vehicles that don't get over 32.7 MPG, we'll all be driving little SMART A$$ED cars. Kinda glad the world is ending today.

 

I bought a Ford Festiva for $500. Put about another $500 into it and drive it 99% of the time. It gets right at 40 mpg and is actually fun to drive. I've had it about 3 months or so and t's already paid for itself. I've driven it almost 10k miles and compared to the 16-17 MPG my Eagle gets, it has saved me quite a bit of money. Not to mention I get to keep the miles off the Eagle. I'm 6'2" 245 and quite comfortable in it.

 

Good Buy

You did gooood! Not a bad lookin little car either. I have owned some small cars over the years. VW's, Renault, Austin Healey Sprite, MG, and more. The very best was a 1987 ford Escort 2dr. That sucker got 50MPG even with one of those turtle pod units on roof. That was in mountains of PA, midwest, and loaded for a Florida trip. Only car I kept a record of because I couldn't believe it myself.......Took into Ford for scheduled maintenence and mechanic looked at my records. Checked and found it had an experimental carb. This was early throttle body. They actually demanded that I let them replace it with factory stock unit. I never went back. Can't figure why they never used those carbs, the Fish carb, or others that actually got decent fuel mileages. Oh yea, because oil companies bought the patents. Ya notice all my answers become a book? -That sorta looks like the old Escort.

 

For the same reason I had a '92 Fiesta 1.1liter, bought for $250 and drove it for 5 years without any problem. Didn't cared much for maintenance at all... planned to serve me for just one year, but lasted 5 years (80.000+ miles). After 'her' last yearly inspection I was so happy I gave her a new oil filter for the first time.
One time she was in an accident and the insurance company of the other party told me she was total-loss and paid me $700 (another bumper and minor stuff to get her back on the road costed $60
Due to the fact her pressure plates needed to be changed I had to put het 'asleep' last year. And the yard paid me $50 for her.
It was even more than a car... it was my shack for a while as well....a lack of space in my garage forced me to drive around with a TH400 tranny in the back for 2 years .


The decal on the rear window said it all.... (it's a Buick thing.... you wouldn't understand..):
exactly the reason why I had to drive such a car,,,, to save money to be able to drive the Buicks

 

Tranny

Funny, I looked before I read. I thought that looked like a turbo 350! Well close. With that hatch you could get a lot of heavy stuff in there. Glad to hear the good car stories.

 

I believe you, years ago a coworker had one and he was a freeken giant at 6' 5"....we allways called it 'the clown car" because how funny he looked when he got out of it and just kept rising. I rode shot gun it it once and was amazed at the room inside.

 

Gremlin

Had a friend who had a new Gremlin hatchback. He was tall also. Only thing wrong with that little car was the gas caps kept falling off. Actually they got stolen. Don't know why but kids loved those caps and Caddy hood ornaments. Don't have those worries with new cars.

 

I actually saw one of these(black) the other day. I didn't know what it was until I pulled up next to it at the light. I was really surprised to see it was a Fait...cutie car

Do you think that maybe the gas prices going up is the goves way to edge us all into a smaller, more eco friendly auto? maybe

 

Gee....ya THINK??