Small cars - love em or hate em?

obi_waynne

obi_waynne

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There is a growing trend toward small cars. The Smart, Aygo, IQ etc. As manufacturers are required to reduce their overall production cars emissions average we are seeing these petrol sippers appearing all over the place!

What are your thoughts on these allegedly super green and super trendy forms of daily transport?

Should Bonsai cars grow in popularity? Would you ever drive one/buy one?
 
there ok for city driving, but most dont seem to be very good when it comes to the motorway driving.
dont think ill buy one until my pipe and slippers arrive
 
i love the toyota aygo and think it is the greatest small car. i dnt kno if its jus that episode of top gear tho where they played football with them that sways my opinion but i think they are brilliant. they are nippy and U CAN PLAY FOOTBALL WITH THEM!!

i wanna get all my m8s to buy them then create car football leagues hahahaha :lol:
 
i hate small cars only one i have had was a mk2 fiesta my first car and i only had that 3 months before i got a cavalier sri
so no i would never buy one or drive it if it was given to me

big cars are better they last longer and dont look silly
 
i currently own a 1.1i cit saxo!

poor! to be quite honest with you hasn't put me off small cars because the car before i had a 1.2 vauxahal corsa SXi,

that was a beuat untill i ran out of road!

so my point is if you find a car you like (small they are good) otherwise they are crap!

i am so dissapointed with the car, i am having to spend most of my money making it half decent! not even worth doing anything with but its something for now!

not only is it a saxo its a mark 1, however 1 lady owner 32k miles 1.5k steal! well thats what i thought!

its getting better currently just managed to fit a VTR back box and springs on it, but with the #!#!#!#! selection of alloys (3 sets as it is 3 stud) it's poor!

i have recently driven a passat and i really enjoyed it actually handled nicer than the #!#!#!#! i have atm, and it also was a smoother ride, even though it had been lowered by 50mill, sounds like an old farts car but i enjoyed it and cant wait untill i can afford one and the insurance to follow!
 
At 6' 2" I have yet to find a small car that isn't claustrophobic and there are several where I have to navigate a leg round the steering wheel or tilt my head from the roof. In my youh, I used to hoon around in an old mini which was great fun but these days, I wouldn't ever want to be in an accident in anything small.
Having said that, there's an engineering firm in Silverstone that built a show car called the Aygo Crazy which has an MR2 lump mounted in the back and makes 200bhp. I'm sure it would be worth a go round Brands' ;)
 
Now that would be a fun drive RapidWagon. The MR2 lump is massive - I take my hat off to them for getting it into an Aygo.
 
We have had both large and small over the years Jags's, Audi's, Rover V8's, Volvo T5, Mini's, Fiat's, Peugeot's and even a Reliant Kitten.

But we have had more fun in the 3 Smart City Coupe's that we have had over the last 4 years than anything else. Jim is 6ft 5" and there is plenty of head room. I agree that they were never designed for long distance travel, but they are serious fun to drive and its great that the owners all flash and wave to each other which is more than you can say for most main stream marc's.

We still have one, which is now used for sprints and hillclimbs and although it now has a 2ltr MR2 engine its still the same on the outside!

Cheers Pam
 
A small car with a big cars engine might just be cheating a little!;)

VW beetle drivers - at least the classic ones wave and flash and even have their own hand gesture (Little finger and index finger extended to make a V shape!)
 
waynne said:
A small car with a big cars engine might just be cheating a little!;)

VW beetle drivers - at least the classic ones wave and flash and even have their own hand gesture (Little finger and index finger extended to make a V shape!)
Click to expand...

Only a little cheat!

Must explain that the first car was a standard 698cc city coupe which we had re-mapped, it was fun in its standard form but the re-map made all the difference. That then gave us the idea for the hillclimb car so whe bought an old 598cc car and started the development work!

When the first car was due for change I bought a Brabus Edition Red which was even more fun!!!!!!.

I have a Fiat 500 now, its no where near as quick on exceleration but just as stylish and although we havent seen many on the roads they do wave.

Pam
 
I think soon, there will be even more small cars as larger (& larger capacity) cars are made unpopular even now car dealers are starting to be picky as to what cars they take for part exchange. It's just not financially viable to own some cars now. High tax bands, low MPG figures & high CO2 emissions have seen some cars depreciate at a frightening rate (I know of someone who's brand new BMW has lost £6000 in three months).
I believe if you want a performance car in the future, your going to have think small, lightweight with a low capacity turbo'd engine (like a smart hey! Hey!) if you want to see any return on the money you paid for it.

I personally have always like small light weight cars & I will have my Lotus one day!

Like Colin said: "Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." :D
 
The smallest car I have ever owned was a 2.0 Nissan Primera so I can`t really say from experience but doing the ammount of motorway miles I do and the things I see it puts me off smaller cars somewhat, not that a larger car will always save you but I think you stand a greater chance.

If I only did city driving I`m sure I would get something smaller and more economical, to me it`s a matter of circumstances.

Purely from an interest point of view I have always been more into larger and more powerful cars, something I haven`t grown out of yet. (always fancied a big American truck since I was small)
 
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Well I'm, quite a big fella, as in 6'3" tall, very broad & strong build and all coated in fat, so I generally don't do small cars as they make me look silly
 
fingers said:
Well I'm, quite a big fella, as in 6'3" tall, very broad & strong build and all coated in fat, so I generally don't do small cars as they make me look silly
Click to expand...

tell it like it is fingers, dont beat around the bush :bigsmile:
 
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